Microsoft Power BI vs SAP Crystal

• Engaging dashboard displays with drag and drop modules to convey data in a meaningful ways.
• Familiar Microsoft "Ribbon" type interface that creates an integral feel with the rest of the Microsoft suite of products.
• Built-in mobile optimization window and associated Mobile applications that allow viewing from any location connected to the server.

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• Great visualization for static format & precise tasks: For presentation to senior management /ex-co/vendors where concise decisions need to be made, Crystal is a nice choice to slide data into presentable views.
• Diverse data source connect: We have used it to write reports using data from DB2, SQL, Progress, Excel spreadsheets, XML data, Access, and Lotus Notes databases. It can also be used to join different database types together in one report.
• It uses the "recurring bands" structure for page layout which is efficient and fungible for generating different types of reports. Crystal doesn't require that we set up a metadata layer before creating reports and provides direct access to tables and dimensions.

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• It is such a powerful system that it can come across as intimidating for some without some Excel knowledge
• I'm not a database analyst or administrator, so calling the data in can be difficult (not necessary the fault of the software, but something that could be difficult for teams without someone with database knowledge)
• It can come across as confusing, when there is both a local Power BI and online Power BI components. They don't necessarily do the same functions. You'll definitely want to know how to use the online version as this is how you'll publish and share the results of your findings, but the local one has a lot of capabilities that don't appear to be directly available in the online version (and if so, it's not immediately apparent).

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• The option to export to Excel is very picky about report format to get a clean export. Once you know the tricks for setting up a report for this export, it's not hard to do, but it can be very tedious if the report has a lot of elements. This is the way it's been for years and SAP has indicated that it's not something that's going to be changed.
• Crystal requires that a user knows how the data they're reporting on is configured in the database - it's not really suited for a "casual" user, but for someone with at least some technical skills in relation to databases. This is not something that can or should necessarily be changed, but it is something that potential users need to be aware of.
• Other than new types of database connections, SAP has indicated that they will not be upgrading any functionality in "classic" Crystal. They instead have chosen to focus on upgrades to Crystal for Enterprise. The problem with that is that it requires the SAP BI Platform - either SAP BusinessObjects or SAP Crystal Reports Server.
• One of the major things that's not being upgraded is the Charting libraries, which were last updated in the early 2000's, before SAP purchased Crystal. So, Crystal doesn't have newer chart types available.

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• I'm using the free version, so the only investment was the time spent to learn how to use the product (which as an Excel user, was very short).
• I use Excel to store every single bit of information about all the projects I do, and being able to see them visualized helped me see some redundant steps I was taking.
• No negative impact at all for me.

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• Employee Empowerment - Now that our Crystal Reports are written and published, all of our team members have access to run the same reports across the company. Previously, there was only 1 point person in charge of running reports, which took a lot of time away from other job duties.
• Increased Employee Efficiency - One of the Crystal Reports my company uses has allowed me to take a task that took 3 days to complete and cut the time down to 4 hours. There was a lot of manual data collection and calculations that were done, which has also led to less errors.
• Accurate real-time data - Since Crystal Reports are very quick to run, we are able to give real time data to our customers rather than maintaining oudated databases in other systems such as Excel.

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