Should Crystal Reports be my high-end reporting tool for the long term ?
We are implementing BI Suite in the next several months or so. I was asked to look into Crystal Reports, of which I have passing but credible knowledge of. I've also been using Web Intelligence for ~6 months, so have a pretty good idea of its features and capabilities.
Dave Rathbun has a nice write-up of .UNX vs .UNV (from 2013), which touches on Crystal for Enterprise and Crystal Reports (2013 ?). In particular, his article says Crystal for Enterprise ONLY works with the (new) .UNX universes (which uses the new Info Design Tool), and Crystal Reports does NOT work with the (new) .UNX universes and only has LIMITED support with the (older) .UNV universes.
On other blogs, I just didn't get the warm and fuzzy on Cyrstal, for various reasons, but primarily these:
- Crystal for Enterprise is fairly new and not nearly as stable as Crystal Reports (2013?)
- Crystal Reports is stable but doesn't work with the (newer) .UNX universes
The other blog articles were also written in 2013, so I didn't see anything newer.
So - - -
- can I NOT use Crystal for Enterprise with the (older) .UNV universes ?
- Is Crystal Reports (2013?) going to work with both .UNV and .UNX universes ? and for the long term ?
With our BI Suite implementation, we are planning on just going with what we have - .UNV universes and the (older) Universe Design Tool. But we have some critical needs that cannot be addressed by Web Intelligence. And we of course want to make a good (i.e., long-term) investment in bringing in Crystal as our high-end reporting tool.
Also, I looked at this SAP post which didn't give me the warm and fuzzies regarding Crystal, specifically "But whereas Crystal Reports 2011 runs stable the same way as it did for the last decade, the new Crystal Reports for Enterprise is just crap compared to both, the legacy CR and Webi."
I'm not actually looking for alternatives to Crystal but need to better understand what we're getting into with Crystal.
Dave Rathbun has a nice write-up of .UNX vs .UNV (from 2013), which touches on Crystal for Enterprise and Crystal Reports (2013 ?). In particular, his article says Crystal for Enterprise ONLY works with the (new) .UNX universes (which uses the new Info Design Tool), and Crystal Reports does NOT work with the (new) .UNX universes and only has LIMITED support with the (older) .UNV universes.
On other blogs, I just didn't get the warm and fuzzy on Cyrstal, for various reasons, but primarily these:
- Crystal for Enterprise is fairly new and not nearly as stable as Crystal Reports (2013?)
- Crystal Reports is stable but doesn't work with the (newer) .UNX universes
The other blog articles were also written in 2013, so I didn't see anything newer.
So - - -
- can I NOT use Crystal for Enterprise with the (older) .UNV universes ?
- Is Crystal Reports (2013?) going to work with both .UNV and .UNX universes ? and for the long term ?
With our BI Suite implementation, we are planning on just going with what we have - .UNV universes and the (older) Universe Design Tool. But we have some critical needs that cannot be addressed by Web Intelligence. And we of course want to make a good (i.e., long-term) investment in bringing in Crystal as our high-end reporting tool.
Also, I looked at this SAP post which didn't give me the warm and fuzzies regarding Crystal, specifically "But whereas Crystal Reports 2011 runs stable the same way as it did for the last decade, the new Crystal Reports for Enterprise is just crap compared to both, the legacy CR and Webi."
I'm not actually looking for alternatives to Crystal but need to better understand what we're getting into with Crystal.
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Thank you !
ASKER
- thank you for the reply. We'll use both Crystal and Web Intelligence
mlmcc,
thanks for the detailed and helpful reply. I forgot to consider the direct connection from Crystal as its main strength.
We have several reports that have just been painful to format, such as a two column college transcript with exact formatting requirements. The person doing it is very skilled. As I read elsewhere, "When report requirements become too complex, the inherent simplicity of Web Intelligence becomes too restrictive and the reports turn into a terrible mix of miscellaneous tricks", and that's the case with the transcripts.
but good on helping me understand CR 2013 / CR Enterprise. So it sounds like Crystal is here to stay, which, if so, is fine and good for our situation.
Dr. Fred,
thanks for the reply . . . hope you worked out the db connections !