SAP Lumira comparison with other similar tools

[Former Member]

Hi All,

We have various tools for Discovery and Analysis like SAP Lumira, SAP Explorer, Analysis Office, Analysis OLAP, Predictive Analysis. Apart from these SAP tools, we also have non SAP Tableau tool.

All of them are almost same and offers same features of exploring data by creating visualizations and sharing them with little difference.

My question why should I use SAP Lumira? What extra it offers? I am also confused by all these available tools.

Please guide and suggest.

Thanks,

SD

[raphael_branger · Accepted solution]

Although I don't go into the details of Lumira, have a look at my last two blog posts about BOBJ front end tool selection:

Best regards

Raphael

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

WOW Raphael,

You have made a concise and easy to follow flow-chart on deciding which tool to use from SAP.

Do you have an interactive version of this. With perhaps a quick overview of each of the solutions? Perhaps for someone who may not know what each of those tools offer?

If not, perhaps a collaboration?

Bijan

[IngoH · Accepted solution]

Hello Bijan,

selecting the right tool based on business requirements is not something that a simple flow chart of a handful of questions will ever be able to do.

Selecting the correct BI tool is something that requires far more conversation with your business audience than just asking a handful of questions.

regards

Ingo Hilgefort

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Ingo,

I appreciate your input and value it deeply. Would it not be a great starting point though?

Maybe even going so far as to gamifying the process.

Seems like an interesting project to introduce current tools, at the very least.

While it will NEVER compare to the expertise that is showcased by our mentors or our strong community, SAP is looking towards Self-Service BI. Is this not a process that is linked to that?

Bijan

[IngoH · Accepted solution]

Hello Bijan,

"self service" is a term and not a product and the idea of "self service" can be fulfilled by several products. The key here is that selecting the right BI tool is not something you can decide simply based on a set of questions - like 3 - 5 - in a decision diagramm. Selecting the right tool requires (a) having a good understanding of the actual business requirements (not IT) and (b) having a good understanding of the products.

if you wanna follow those 3 - 5 questions and make you choice - go for it - and I am sure your project will fail.

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP

[raphael_branger · Accepted solution]

Hi Bijan

It is the old discussion between Ingo and me - you can read this in its full length here The Rule of Thumb for BOBJ Tool Selection | My life as a BI consultant

I can only repeat what I've repeated all the times: At least my latest blog post is about the process to find the right tool, not which tool is the right one. That's why the suggestion "With perhaps a quick overview of each of the solutions?" is very valid. But: you must have not only an overview of tools but also deep insight into technical details to finally choose a concrete one. From that point of view Ingo is right - only the flow chart itself doesn't help you anything. You need to know the tools very well in order to be able to build your tool decision hierarchy. That's why people usually pay me money to come onsite and discuss with them which tools they should choose 😉 One element of how we at IT-Logix teach our customers about the different front end solutions are BI Picture Books. You can find my presentation about it here. The major thing here is that we don't give an overview product by product but more in "feature classes", e.g. comparing the Drill-Down capabilities side by side of the different products. Just have a look at the mentioned presentation.

Another very important aspect to consider is whether you want to minimze tools or not. I usually follow the approach that we start from scratch and want to choose only as many tools as we minimally require. Of course you can follow another approach and say: Hey, we have licensed all SAP tools anyway. Let's find the best usage for every tool. In such a case of course my suggested process doesn't make much sense.

Best regards

Raphael

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey Raphael,

Thanks!! I will look into the resources mentioned.

Bijan

[Former Member]

Much agreed with Tammy.

It comes down to choosing the right tools for the job.
While there are many great options out there, knowing more about the project would be the best start for en exploration of choosing the right tool.

Check out the resources that Tammy suggests, and let us know if you still need help in choosing the most appropriate solution.

Sincerely,

Bijan

[TammyPowlas]

Please see as Figure 1 shows Lumira and Analysis for Self Service (Explorer is too)

Predictive is considered advanced analytics

There are different use cases for each and the creator / consumer of the content is different too.

Have you searched for the Selecting the Right BI tool presentations?