Through our blogs, we discussed several types of data analytics (predictive analytics, augmented analytics, and behavioral analytics to name a few) and their importance in enterprise decision making. Building up your tech stack is an important phase in your data journey, playing a critical role in transforming your strategy into a success story. There are a variety of data and analytics platforms available in the market. Picking one among the many can be tricky. To help you make a better decision, we have done the hard work for you and compared Microsoft Power BI vs SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) in this blog. Previously, we compared Power BI against Tableau for small businesses. You can read the blog here: Power BI vs Tableau – The Best Option for Small Businesses
Power BI vs SAP Analytics Cloud – Things to consider in decision making
As an enterprise, you need to consider several factors while choosing a data analytics platform. While core capabilities is a key consideration, as a business executive, you should also think from different perspectives wearing different lenses.
Intuitiveness
Despite all the core capabilities of a solution, it wouldn’t serve you the intended purpose if your team doesn’t adopt the solution. Poor user adoption yields poor ROI. You must evaluate the ease-of-use of the solution.
Connectivity
In your enterprise ecosystem, data comes from many sources. You need to gather all this information together, process it and extract insights. Only then can you make informed decisions. You should use a data analytics platform that connects to all your data sources seamlessly. Complexities in connecting data sources can lead to incomplete insights and ineffective decisions.
Advanced analytical capabilities
The purpose is not only to learn what happened, but also to learn why and where it happened and what can happen. You need advanced analytics such as predictive analytics and augmented analytics, which require AI capabilities. Make sure the data analytics platform offers the AI capabilities.
Collaboration
Within your business environment, you have many teams who need to collaborate on the same reports. Real-time collaboration ensures every stakeholder stands on the same page. If the platform doesn’t support real-time collaboration between teams and stakeholders, you cannot use the platform to support better decision making.
Deployment options
There has been a lot of hype around cloud computing. All the hymns are true. However, the rise of cloud computing doesn’t mean the end of on-premises systems. Based on your needs, you should choose the deployment model. So, the data analytics platform should support cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployment models.
Pricing
Needless to say the importance of pricing while choosing a solution. Most software solutions available in the market come with similar features and capabilities. Software publishers bundle these features into different plans and offer at different price points. You should carefully evaluate what you need for your business and consider the plans.
In our comparison between Microsoft Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud, we will consider the same factors to help you make a better decision. Before that, let’s briefly discover what Power BI and SAC are.
What is Microsoft Power BI
Primarily, Microsoft Power BI is a data visualization tool that helps you interpret your raw, unstructured data in clean visuals, enabling you to read the data and extract insights.
People with different roles within your company can use Power BI for different purposes. Your CFO, who is more excited about business performance, can use the Power BI service to see the reports. Your sales team can use the Power BI Desktop to create sales reports quickly. A sales manager in your company can use the Power BI mobile app to monitor the performance of sales campaigns.
You can connect your data sources to Power BI, process the data, and create visuals that you can share with your team and other stakeholders.
What is SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)
SAP Analytics Cloud is a comprehensive solution for data analytics, business insights, and enterprise planning. SAC tightly integrates with SAP systems such as SAP BW/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA, SAP BusinessObjects solutions, etc. Besides SAP systems, SAC connects with other data sources such as SQL. SAC leverages machine learning to deliver predictive and augmented analytics for businesses.
Microsoft Power BI vs SAP Analytics Cloud
Let us explore the six key factors that help you as a business executive make better decision while choosing the right data analytics platform for your business.
Intuitiveness
Microsoft Power BI offers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality. The intuitive interface enables users to create visualizations without technical knowledge. The latest introduction of Copilot in Power BI allows users to create visualizations with commands in natural language.
SAP Analytics Cloud on the other hand also offers a user-friendly interface. However, it comes with a steeper learning curve to use the advanced features available on the platform. Although the platform offers drag-and-drop functionality, using SAC could be a challenge for a non-technical user compared to Microsoft Power BI.
Connectivity
Microsoft Power BI seamlessly integrates with Azure, Power Platform, and other Microsoft products. Besides, the platform is highly integrable with a huge variety of data sources including SQL Server, SAP, Oracle, Google BigQuery, etc.
SAC comes with pre-built connectors for SAP systems. You can also connect SAC to non-SAP sources. However, the integration might require more configuration.
Advanced analytics capabilities
Microsoft Power BI comes up with native integration with Azure Machine Learning. This integration offers AI-powered analytics capabilities on Power BI. Recently, Microsoft introduced Copilot in Power BI. Copilot allows users to create visualizations using natural language commands.
SAP Analytics Cloud offers predictive analytics and planning capabilities out-of-the-box. SAC leverages in-memory technology for real-time data processing and analysis. You can use ML models for data preparation and insight generation.
Collaboration
With Power BI service, you can experience powerful sharing and collaboration among internal and external users with access control and versioning. The platform is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams, making sharing easier and secure.
On the other hand, SAC offers secure collaboration tools within the platform. However, integrating with external collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams might be less intuitive.
Deployment options
Microsoft Power BI offers both cloud-based and on-premises deployment options. Individual users can use the free version of Power BI Desktop. Enterprises with teams can subscribe to Power BI cloud-based plans.
Unlike Microsoft Power BI, SAP Analytics Cloud offers cloud-based deployment only. However, if on-premises data integration is necessary, you can use hybrid deployment options.
Cost and licensing
Microsoft Power BI provides various pricing tiers, including a free version with limitations and paid plans with more advanced features. On the other hand, SAP Analytics Cloud is an expensive option for enterprises. Although some features of SAC are advanced, the entry-level plans are more expensive than Power BI.
As per data on G2.com, most users of Power BI are small and medium businesses. SAP Analytics Cloud has more number of large enterprises. However, overall, most businesses use Power BI because of its intuitiveness, connectivity, and pricing. Microsoft is now leading the AI race and empowering their products, including Power BI, with advanced AI capabilities.
Whether you are an SAP user or Azure user or using some other systems, you must choose the data analytics platform that caters to all your business needs as you grow. Besides these six factors, you should also consider the technical aspects of the platform while comparing Power BI vs SAP Analytics Cloud. For businesses with little or no technical expertise, this is a major challenge. At Saxon AI, we help businesses make a careful evaluation of data analytics platforms and make the right decision through our consulting services.