SAP Analytics Cloud and Power BI - A comparison

[former_member528851]

There is a strong demand for data visualization tools now these days and a wide number of tools available in market to solve this purpose. I got a chance to compare Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).

Here is the detailed analysis:

Feature	SAC	Power BI
Tool Type	Available on web. All operations (create, modify, share stories) are done on web	Development is primarily done using Power BI Desktop which is a free tool. Post development users can share stories by publishing stories on app.powerbi.com. For sharing stories, users will need license.
Connection to data sources	Live and acquire data options are available	Direct query as well as import data options are available
Live Connection/Direct query (no data storage)	Out of the box connections available for SAP specific source systems only.	Out of the box connections available for wide range of data sources
Live Connection/Direct query – Authorization	It will maintain authorization/roles of source systems.	It will maintain authorization/roles of source systems (Checked specifically for SAP BW)
SSO Connection	Available	SSO can be configured using Power BI Gateway so that you can connect your on-premise data sources. For Power BI Desktop Windows authentication option is available instead of SSO. However you need to modify your firewall settings if you use SAPRouter String to while connecting to SAP systems. This parameter is not supported by Power BI BW connection and even its implementation is not in Microsoft Roadmap.
Live Connection/Direct Query (out of the box integrations with SAP Sources)	Available SAP Sources: - SAP BW - SAP HANA - SAP S/4 HANA - SAP Universe - SAP BPC	Available SAP Sources: - SAP BW - SAP HANA (only  HANA views will be exposed not CDS views, for CDS views you have to use generic OData connection).
Acquire Data/Import (out of the box integrations with SAP Sources)	Available for wide range of SAP applications	Available SAP Sources: - SAP BW - SAP HANA
Acquire Data/Import from excel/csv files	Bit difficult - No option to exclude Top N rows. - Does not record transformations like data type changes while modeling in SAC - Bit complex to reload data	You may exclude Top N rows - Records all modifications done in Power BI
Performance of dashboards using live connection	Good	Acceptable. A good level of stress testing is highly recommended.
Tool popularity	Not popular	Very popular

 

Following table describes comparison of Power BI and SAP analytics cloud considering SAP BW as source (mainly Bex Queries):

Feature	SAC	Power BI
Bex Query Access	Available	Available
Bex Query Access	Search is available using Bex description	Bit difficult. At first Power BI navigator shows composite providers by technical names. Search is available using Bex description. User must know in which composite provider target query is residing before using it.
Bex Query Authorization	It will maintain authorization/roles	It will maintain authorization/roles
Prompt Screen/Selection Screen	Difficulty in using select all or Not equal to option	Select all option is available. But BW data interpretation is not much smooth. Lots of places technical names lowers the user experience.
Hierarchies	Supported	Not supported. All hierarchy needs to be built again in Power BI
Navigational Attributes	Supported as per SAP documentations.	Not supported. Dimension attributes can not be displayed in charts.
Local and Global Query Elements	Supported	Not sure
Variables and Variants	Supported	KPI names with dynamic prompts are not supported. If you have such KPIs then these will display some technical names. You have to modify manually.
Smart Insights and Smart discovery	Not available with Live connections to SAP BW. Works well with offline excels	Not sure
Forecast in line Charts	Not available with Live connections to SAP BW. Works well with offline excels	Not sure
New calculations	With live connection new calculations can be created while creating charts. It is not available at modeling level	Not available in modeling with direct query. You may create calculations while creating charts.
Drill Down	Supported	Supported
Linked Analysis	Supported	Supported
Geo Maps	Supported	Supported. But not sure if it will support Geo maps with SAP BW data since dimension navigational attributes display is not possible.
R Visuals/Python Scripts	Supported	Supported
Dimension - Key field display	Supported	Only text can be used in Charts.
Dashboard Caching	Supported (refreshes can be scheduled even for dashboards with live data sources)	Supported (refreshes can be scheduled even for dashboards with live data sources)

 

Conclusion in my opinion:

SAP Analytics cloud can be a good choice if primary data sources are SAP applications. Since it is an SAP product, it has better interpretation of SAP data structures, hence better suited for end user reporting. It provides out of the box integrations with most of the SAP applications and then it inherits many attributes from source applications so you may get a benefit from existing investments done in applications like SAP BW, SAP HANA etc.