SAP Crystal Reports Reviews

• Rapid report development, since the design interface makes coding easier.
• We can extend it to complicated reports with interactive charts and enhance the understanding of business models.
• Exposes a report object model that can interact with other controls on the ASP.NET Web form.
• It can be programmed to export the reports into widely used formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, HTML, and RTF.

We are using it for pixel perfect reporting, and that is why it is better than other reporting tools.

It needs better integration with Hadoop as well as enhancements for more analytical usage.

Also, a secured end user cannot modify data if the report is generated via Crystal Reports. It can only be done if the data is in HTML format.

We have had no issues with the deployment.

We have had no issues with its stability.

There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.

Analyze it first as to whether it is a good fit for your needs. There are other good products available for analytical needs, which Crystal Reports doesn't yet provide.

The ability to set parameters, especially the cascading parameters, is the most valuable features for us.

We provide solutions to other organizations, so invariably the end reports save our clients time and, of course, money.

The example that comes to mind was where a medical client had a monthly utilization report that took 14 days to complete manually as it involved using MS Access and Excel. After the report was created in Crystal Reports, it took less than 30 seconds to run and it also highlighted data entry errors that could be fixed more efficiently, so a suite of error/exception reports had to be created also.

The linking feature between tables has always been a bit buggy, which is not good because it is really the core of ensuring that the returned data is correct. If one tries to enforce the links created as per the underlying data source, invariably it falls over and results in an error message.

The cascade parameters limit of 1000 records, which although can be increased via the registry, if you have admin rights, can result in report performance issues. Isn't there a better way of doing this?

Being able to have formulas that make up the description for value parameters, potentially on the fly, and then being able to display the parameter value and/or description selected by the user on the report, would be great also

I actually wrote a blog post of the things I wished Crystal Reports could do here: http://maximumimpactsolutions.co.uk/blog/comments.asp?bd=110. Some of the things may have ready been implemented.

I've been using it for four years.

We have had no issues with deployment.

There have been no issues with the stability.

We have had no issues scaling it.

I've never needed to use customer service/technical support.

I've been using this since v7.

It's straightforward.

Implemented it in-house, and there was nothing complex about it.

Our ROI on Crystal Reports is well over 1000%, as we offer both training and consultancy solutions to our clients.

Crystal Reports is a great little reporting tool for a myriad of data sources that provides the user a nice user-friendly GUI, which means that your report creation can be achieved quickly.

The ability to create reports via the GUI with click and drag at the table level as well as from SQL via Command objects.

I have used CR with a number of different db types (Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) for a number of different data types (health care, accounting, manufacturing, etc.). 

I have been using the app since version 5 in 1996. I was a certified instructor and implementation specialist on CR and BOE (and its predecessors Seagate Info) via the developers from 1997 through 2002.

What little I have seen of other products I would select CR and BOE but I am not the decision maker of the organization..

There are many suggestions but the first would be to develop a template of how you would like your reports to look. Consistent layout helps users focus on the data rather than figuring out how to view a report, e.g., this report shows drill down links blue and underlined like the Web, but the other shows them in boxes with a note at the top that you can click on boxed items for more info.

Pixel perfect static reporting.

Bought and sold many times and newer product releases do not seem to offer much improvement. Maps and gauges are pretty much worthless and you need to buy a third party add-on.

17 years

None encountered.

Early versions use to be very prone to crashing. Much better in the 2013 version

None encountered.

You try not to contact SAP, just Google search for answers to your problems.

You try not to contact SAP, just Google search for answers to your problems.

Back in the days (90s), Quick Reports that came with Delphi. Crystal Reports had more functionality hence the switch.

Straightforward set-up.

In-house implementation.

What I like about it is that it's easy to use and it provides good connectivity to various databases.

We use it for all of our operational and tabular reports.

The visualization needs work as the look is not very appealing. The UI definitely needs some updating.

Also, SAP charges an annual maintenance fee. Be careful, too, with the license model. I'd suggest that because Crystal Reports is for tabular reports, use another product for true BI.

I've used it for 10 years.

There have been no issues with the deployment.

Some reports take a while to be generated.

We've had no issues scaling it.

In my experience, the level of technical support is not good. They are, however, able to resolve issues in a timely fashion.

The initial setup was easy and straightforward.

Some reports come out-of-the-box within our applications and we built some others. So you could say that implementation was a combination of SAP's product as well as our in-house team's efforts.

Be careful with the annual maintenance fee, and get CPU based report access. Be careful with the license model. This product is for tabular reports, but for true BI reporting, use another product.

We are retiring Crystal Reports soon, and it will be replaced by IBI WebFOCUS and SQL Server Reporting Services.

Eliminate the reserved space in Page Footer section.

Find an easier way to utilize the Database > Links feature, or allow the ability to alter the selection SQL. Crystal Reports makes too many assumptions, causing odd results, which can sometimes be corrected by altering the SQL or changing the links (providing you understand the link options).

Since 2011.

I did not encounter any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

I was not part of the search/decision making process. I don’t know why the organization’s developers/decision makers chose this product to present their reports. They continue to use it, so it must be satisfying their needs.

I have not yet used other products, so I have nothing to compare against.

The product is easy to learn for the basics. However, some features are difficult to learn and use (e.g., cross-tab tables). Documentation is minimal.

The product makes assumptions with table/view/stored procedure links, which can create unpredictable results.

The option settings (especially font settings) are global. I work with many customers who use different fonts and sizes. It is annoying to have to reset the option settings based on which client report I’m working.

The page footer reserves space; if you use a page footer on only the first page, it wastes real estate on subsequent pages.

One of the most valuable features is the ability to precisely place data fields and labels on the report canvas either in Design Mode or Preview Mode. This is a great feature because when a report page requires many data fields, each item needs to be as close as possible.

Another valuable feature is the ability to select and format or align multiple data fields and labels because there are times when a group of fields needs a smaller font or to be moved together across the page.

There are two items that would improve the product. One is a simple text search across all formulas, and the other is a debug mode that would allow the developer to step line-by-line through long or complicated formulas.

I've been using it for 17 years.

We have had no issues with the deployment.

There have been no issues with the stability.

There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.

For the most part, technical support is responsive and helpful. However, the majority of technical support is in another country which can cause problems scheduling a contact time and can hamper verbal communication.

The initial setup is straightforward. However, on a couple of occasions the licensing was corrupted and required uninstalling and reinstalling the software.

Implementation was done by our in-house team.