Data Catalogs for SAP BI: Which Solution is the Best Fit?
In today’s data-driven world, effective data cataloging is essential to efficiently manage, understand and make the best use of data. And especially in companies with complex SAP landscapes, Data Cataloging is becoming increasingly important to ensure data quality, meet regulatory requirements and facilitate data-driven decisions. This article compares the three main options available to SAP-centric BI landscapes: SAP’s Datasphere Catalog, the Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud and bluetelligence’s Enterprise Glossary.
Why Data Cataloging is important in the SAP Environment:
SAP systems are the backbone of many companies and contain an enormous amount of business-critical data. Without structured Data Cataloging, the following challenges often arise:
Data retrieval: Where is the required data located?
Understanding data: What do the data fields mean and how are they related?
Data quality: Is the data reliable and up-to-date?
Compliance: Are regulatory requirements being met?
A Data Cataloging tool helps to solve these problems by offering a central overview of all relevant data resources and providing contextual information. This makes collaboration between business users, IT teams and data experts much easier.
There are three prominent cataloging tools for SAP-dominated BIs: The Enterprise Glossary, the Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud and the SAP Datasphere Catalog. In this article, we compare the solutions – in categories such as price, setup, maintenance, provision and range of functions. Even though we ourselves are providers of the Enterprise Glossary, we have endeavored to provide a neutral observation – if you would like to find out more on the topic, you can find another comparison from the consulting firm infomotion here.
The Candidates at a Glance: DSP, Collibra and Enterprise Glossary
Enterprise Glossary (bluetelligence)
The Enterprise Glossary is a specialized solution for SAP environments that provides a comprehensive semantic glossary. It combines business terms with technical metadata from SAP systems and is characterized by its easy usage and direct integration into the SAP world.
Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud
Collibra is a leading enterprise data intelligence platform with comprehensive functions for Data Governance, Data Quality and Data Cataloging. The solution is aimed at companies with complex, heterogeneous data landscapes and offers broad scalability.
Datasphere Catalog (SAP)
The Datasphere Catalog is integrated into SAP Datasphere (formerly Data Warehouse Cloud) and is primarily used to manage and structure data in the SAP cloud environment. This approach is particularly interesting for companies that already rely heavily on SAP cloud solutions.
Detailed Comparison of the Data Catalogs
1. Price
The Enterprise Glossary offers an attractive price-performance ratio from €5,000 per year, including an unlimited number of reading users. Collibra, on the other hand, is in the premium price segment with costs starting at $170,000 per year, which makes it more attractive for corporations. The Datasphere Catalog is part of SAP Datasphere licensing, which means that companies that already use SAP Cloud also have access to the tool – however, the price of the license increases depending on the required storage and integration of the metadata.
2. Installation / Set-Up
The Enterprise Glossary can be implemented within two days and synchronizes automatically with SAP systems. The use of Collibra requires a comprehensive setup, which takes more time and requires training. The Datasphere Catalog is integrated into SAP Datasphere and is therefore easily accessible for existing SAP cloud customers.
3. Maintenance
The Enterprise Glossary scores with an automated glossary and predefined templates that minimize the maintenance effort. Collibra also offers automation, however the complexity of the platform means that users usually require more time to familiarize themselves with it. The Datasphere Catalog is cloud-based and largely automated, but functionally limited to the SAP Cloud.
4. Hosting
The Enterprise Glossary is flexible and can be hosted both on-premise and in the cloud. Furthermore, bluetelligence also offers a SaaS version. Collibra also offers on-premise and cloud options, but is not SAP-centric. The Datasphere Catalog is only available as a cloud solution in SAP BTP.
5. Usability
The Enterprise Glossary is particularly intuitive for business users and SAP users and offers a fast learning curve. Collibra offers a more comprehensive platform, but requires considerably more training. The Datasphere Catalog is easy to use for companies with existing SAP cloud structures.
6. & 7. Supported SAP Solutions and Available SAP Insights
The Enterprise Glossary focuses on SAP-specific Data Cataloging and the management of metadata – this focus is therefore also reflected in the higher degree of information of the metadata. Despite the strategic partnership with SAP, Collibra is a broad-based data governance platform that goes far beyond SAP and therefore offers comparatively less in terms of the depth of detail of SAP information. The Datasphere Catalog primarily supports SAP cloud users with basic cataloging functions and therefore offers fewer options for companies whose hybrid structure also relies on SAP BW.
While the Datasphere Catalog is limited to cloud objects (SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Datasphere), Collibra and the Enterprise Glossary cover all common SAP Data & Analytics connectors and objects (SAP BW, SAP HANA, SAP Business Objects, SAP Analytics Cloud, Datasphere & S/4).
Furthermore, the three catalogs differ in the information content of the SAP insights they provide: While the DSP can display the detailed structure as well as relationships and field mapping of cloud objects, Collibra provides less detailed insights (available: structure at object level (measures, dimensions), not at field level, no cross-system relationships, only simple where-used list), for common data & analytics objects – this is achieved primarily through the partnership with the British company Silwood Technology. The Enterprise Glossary provides detailed insights into cross-system dependencies of all common SAP Data & Analytics objects at object level (and soon also at field level).
Conclusion: Which Tool is the Right Fit For Me?
The choice of the right Data Cataloging tool depends on the individual requirements regarding the BI landscape and objectives:
Enterprise Glossary: Ideal for companies with SAP-centric data that are looking for a cross-system, fast and cost-effective solution and want to document & analyze holistically (lineage down to field level, system integration). The solution can also add value as a co-existing metadata glossary alongside existing Data Catalogs. In addition to SAP, the Enterprise Glossary also offers Microsoft Power BI connectivity.
Collibra: Perfect for companies with heterogeneous data landscapes and high data governance requirements. The focus is less on in-depth SAP insights and more on broad connectivity and governance/compliance.
Datasphere Catalog: Particularly suitable for companies that already use SAP cloud solutions and require seamless integration. The catch: Those whose data is still predominantly rooted in SAP BW will not receive any information about data sources, lineage etc. here.
If you focus on SAP cloud technology, DSP Catalog and Collibra are useful tools – as long as you can live with limited transparency when it comes to the system landscape.
Anyone who’s looking to document and analyze holistically – incl. BW, BO, HANA, SAC & Co. will require field lineage and system integration.
💡 By the way: We have extracted the technology that the Enterprise Glossary uses to automatically extract deep metadata insights and offer it for other Data Catalogs as well: With our Metadata API. The API has already been successfully integrated into the Data Catalogs of our partners dataspot., synabi, zeenea and Alex Solutions, where it provides the necessary SAP insights that our partners prepare in a comprehensible, visualized form.
Got Curious?
Find out if our candidate, the Enterprise Glossary, suits your requirements: You can get an impression of our tool and its use cases on our website. There, you will also find the opportunity to test the Enterprise Glossary as part of a 6-month PoC or to contact us for more information.
Best Practice Example: Our customer, an international retail company, uses the Enterprise Glossary to optimize Data Cataloging in its SAP landscape. The direct integration enabled the company to merge specialist terms and technical metadata, resulting in more efficient collaboration between IT and specialist departments (BI Self-Service). Within a few weeks, data discovery time was reduced by 40% and compliance with regulatory requirements was significantly improved.