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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.
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