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https://dudodiprj2sv7.cloudfront.net/product-logos/LC/Hr/XX05IFGMJZOJ.PNGSAPCrystal enables presentable canned reports and offers scheduling2019-04-04T11:48:06.697ZWe use Crystal reports in our credit risk reporting function within the IFRS9 accounting standard to pick up specific delinquency reports at a customer level which needs to feed into disclosures on a quarterly basis. The idea is to receive canned reports by monitoring the amortization profile of customers and which goes as a feed to risk managers in creating early warning list by using specific credit utilization behavior.,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.,It is not very user-friendly for learning as during designs and debugging the error decryption is tedious and hard to figure out.
When using sub-reports embedded in the main reports for different views of the same data sourced from multiple tables, this makes the process crazy slow. This is annoying and needs severe improvements.
The visual capabilities need to seriously catch up with respect to market competitors. Security is also a concern at times while accessing data.,7,It is a decent buy for specific departments in terms of reporting capabilities but updates and cost (frequent) demands are higher with the benefits offered.
So long as the requirements are not ever changing, with scheduling functionality, it's a handsome tool.,9,8,8,Tableau DesktopRohit NarangRobust and customizable reporting system2019-04-03T19:35:17.273ZWe are mainly using Crystal to generate customizable reports in our daily use for our small business. It is mainly used by our IT department. This tool allows us to run reports that show our current orders and inventory. It has been helpful for providing users with statistics and accurate data for all of the technical problems that we are facing at the company. It allows us to generate a customizable report based on the characteristics of the end user.,Allows us to check our inventory refresh ordering.
Capable of generating any report that we need for our clients.
Provides meaningful data analysis for our small business.,New versions do not work with older engines.
Needs training.
Incorporating reports to webpages crashes sometimes.,9,So far it has been a great reporting tool and allowed us to bring many great ideas for our business.,8,8,9David AndersonProcess your business information and data easily by using SAP Crystal2019-02-27T15:17:19.286ZSAP Crystal reports is an integrated business intelligence platform that allows users to write reports, display KPIs and other metrics from data preserved in your database. SAP Crystal is used by various departments in our organization such as research and development, operations and human resource departments. The software has streamlined our decision making process and it has helped us make meaning out of our preserved data.,Customer support is available 24/7 helping new users embrace and learn how to use the software efficiently.
The reports generated are usually in many formats from formulas, cross-tabs and sub-reports thereby helping us understand our data.
Can generate reports from data obtained from any virtual source,The one-time fee paid per user is a bit high and may discourage small and mid-sized companies with many users not to acquire the software.
A stable internet connection is required for the software to function well.
There is no free trial plan of the software and it ought to be available to help in piloting purposes.,9,Has enabled us to prepare all kind of reports and KPI insights
We are able to forecast on future growth and plans and hence facilitate our sustainable growth
Has enabled and facilitated smooth and empirical decision making process,10Jane KabochiOld Reliable, as in 'Works great but showing its age'2018-11-20T00:00:49.061ZWe currently use SAP Crystal reports to create reports. Our ERP did not come with built in reports so we had to create all our reports, for the company from scratch. This is used company wide from production to finance. It addresses the main concern of getting information from our ERP into a manageable, readable format that users can use to disseminate information,Reliable software
Constant support
Def not going anywhere,Its interface, while it's a workhorse, is not going to win any beauty pageants
Adding graphics and charts to a report feels cumbersome and VERY antiquated
It shows its age sometimes,6,Power BI For Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Microsoft Dynamics CRM),9,10,TweetDeck, LastPass, EvernoteDamien DolanA tool that cannot be renounced2019-01-28T01:41:21.763ZSAP Crystal is one of the best tools for doing business intelligence. Thanks to it we can build clear, efficient reports in a short time with a considerable saving of time and energy. What does this mean? A huge cost savings of course and more time to devote to our customers!,Build clear efficient reports in a short time.
Broad connectivity with diverse data sources.
Support scalable content delivery.,The selling price should be lower.
The performances could be better.
Assistance could be more available.,6,It has improved our turnover by 35%.
Decreased losses by 23%.
Has allowed us to increase our ROI by about 450000 Euros.,7,8,8Pasquale LunghettiWindows, Linux
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SAP Crystal
429 Ratings
Score 7.9 out of 101
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SAP Crystal
429 Ratings
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Reviews (1-25 of 138)
April 04, 2019
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal enables presentable canned reports and offers scheduling"
Assistant Vice President
HSBC Commercial BankingFinancial Services, 10,001+ employees
We use Crystal reports in our credit risk reporting function within the IFRS9 accounting standard to pick up specific delinquency reports at a customer level which needs to feed into disclosures on a quarterly basis. The idea is to receive canned reports by monitoring the amortization profile of customers and which goes as a feed to risk managers in creating early warning list by using specific credit utilization behavior.
- 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.
- It is not very user-friendly for learning as during designs and debugging the error decryption is tedious and hard to figure out.
- When using sub-reports embedded in the main reports for different views of the same data sourced from multiple tables, this makes the process crazy slow. This is annoying and needs severe improvements.
- The visual capabilities need to seriously catch up with respect to market competitors. Security is also a concern at times while accessing data.
With department's organizations having precise and periodic (fixed data/views) requirements, it turns out to be a great tool for doing BAU (business as usual) reporting. During agile environments, where bespoke cuts of data are required or frequent changes are the need of the hour, the effort and skills going into designing reports is a serious trade-off since the availability of skilled resources are limited to other market BI tools.
April 03, 2019
SAP Crystal Review: "Robust and customizable reporting system"
Project Manager
CloudMindsComputer Software, 1-10 employees
We are mainly using Crystal to generate customizable reports in our daily use for our small business. It is mainly used by our IT department. This tool allows us to run reports that show our current orders and inventory. It has been helpful for providing users with statistics and accurate data for all of the technical problems that we are facing at the company. It allows us to generate a customizable report based on the characteristics of the end user.
- Allows us to check our inventory refresh ordering.
- Capable of generating any report that we need for our clients.
- Provides meaningful data analysis for our small business.
- New versions do not work with older engines.
- Needs training.
- Incorporating reports to webpages crashes sometimes.
Crystal reports are well suited for pulling information for an SQL database.
February 27, 2019
Review: "Process your business information and data easily by using SAP Crystal"
Human Resource Officer
TSCEducation Management, 10,001+ employees
SAP Crystal reports is an integrated business intelligence platform that allows users to write reports, display KPIs and other metrics from data preserved in your database. SAP Crystal is used by various departments in our organization such as research and development, operations and human resource departments. The software has streamlined our decision making process and it has helped us make meaning out of our preserved data.
- Customer support is available 24/7 helping new users embrace and learn how to use the software efficiently.
- The reports generated are usually in many formats from formulas, cross-tabs and sub-reports thereby helping us understand our data.
- Can generate reports from data obtained from any virtual source
- The one-time fee paid per user is a bit high and may discourage small and mid-sized companies with many users not to acquire the software.
- A stable internet connection is required for the software to function well.
- There is no free trial plan of the software and it ought to be available to help in piloting purposes.
SAP Crystal is a platform that helps in the scenario of decision making, forecasting and strategizing in a company where it will help provide and generate reports, metrics and KPI Insights that will inform and help in basing your decision. It will help ensure that your decision and forecasting solutions are empirical and informed by data and insights.
November 19, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Old Reliable, as in 'Works great but showing its age'"
Business Analyst Developer
SilberlineChemicals, 501-1000 employees
We currently use SAP Crystal reports to create reports. Our ERP did not come with built in reports so we had to create all our reports, for the company from scratch. This is used company wide from production to finance. It addresses the main concern of getting information from our ERP into a manageable, readable format that users can use to disseminate information
- Reliable software
- Constant support
- Def not going anywhere
- Its interface, while it's a workhorse, is not going to win any beauty pageants
- Adding graphics and charts to a report feels cumbersome and VERY antiquated
- It shows its age sometimes
If you want reliable software this is your move. It's a workhorse that can handle heavy workloads and is very stable. The only bugs it ever has is because it's on a Citrix server. Very dependable and has pretty good support. Where SAP Crystal may not be suited is if you want chart/graphic heavy reports. SAP Crystal is better suited for text/number reporting.
January 27, 2019
SAP Crystal Review: "A tool that cannot be renounced"
Responsabile IT
KinectInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
SAP Crystal is one of the best tools for doing business intelligence. Thanks to it we can build clear, efficient reports in a short time with a considerable saving of time and energy. What does this mean? A huge cost savings of course and more time to devote to our customers!
- Build clear efficient reports in a short time.
- Broad connectivity with diverse data sources.
- Support scalable content delivery.
- The selling price should be lower.
- The performances could be better.
- Assistance could be more available.
For me, the best utilization of SAP Crystal is in generating clear and efficient reports, scalability, the ability to generate reports in multiple languages, and the pixel precision with which they are generated. I do not find that it performs well when I have to generate reports with data from multiple sources.
February 27, 2019
SAP Crystal: "Review Of Crystal Reports"
Verified User
Director in Information Technology
Law Practice Company, 11-50 employeesWe use Crystal Reports to track and report on many types of data, but primarily to track expenses related to open cases of our law firm. Accounting uses it to report on case expenses like copy costs, long distance charges, travel expenses etc ...) These reports then accompany the final cost leger for each client.
- SAP Crystal Reports has great 3rd party support that extends its out of the box capabilities
- SAP Crystal Reports can connect and use almost any data type
- Crystal Reports connects to all ODBC or OLEDB data sources. You can also connect to older mdb files and even allows you to get data from windows file folders
- Crystal Reports charting engine is ok but compared to some other visualization products available it is behind the times.
- Crystal Reports uses a proprietary format for its data storage, using an open format (like XML) would be much better
- You cannot add add a structured table object to the page layout, you can only use lines and boxes
In my opinion Crystal Reports does well with almost any type of report including simple listings, sic summary reports, pro forma financial statements, multi-section reports and reports that export to an Excel spreadsheet. I think it has room to improve by integrating some collaboration features in upcoming releases.
February 08, 2019
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reports for your business"
Verified User
Employee in Corporate
Telecommunications Company, 10,001+ employeesCrystal Reports is used for creating reports and graphs working synchronously as a team. I and my team analyse and fetch data from various clients for which we have setup and installed networks for as a part of projects. After that we send all the data to technical team and data analyst to log it into crystal reports. We then analyse and create reports in Crystal reports. It is really helpful if we want to manage a lot of data. It makes easy for us to give presentation on projects.
- Merge and log data very easily.
- User interface is good.
- Different types of fonts and graphs and charts to analyse data easily.
- Hard to learn. It took a lot of time to learn this software.
- Database used as a source is quite difficult. We always have to contact technical team for that.
Well these are quite useful for technical people who also know how to import data directly from database, and as their mind is technical so it will be also easy to understand it.
January 19, 2019
User Review: "SAP Crystal Reports for Your Business"
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Internet Company, 51-200 employeesSAP Crystal is used by the different departments of our organization. We have different teams in our organization and they use SAP Crystal reports for their own purposes to meet different needs. As we deal with many websites, data increases day by day and we have to create reports for the some. To do that we have to use different products for reports and data management. SAP Crystal's reports helps to reduce our efforts.
- First of all, its design is very good and easy to use, so it does every task very well like box formatting.
- Its GUI is great and can create graphs in reports of any kind very well. We can also share them with anyone.
- Mobile device compatibility
- Text formatting can be done in all languages by the SAP Crystal reports tool, mainly right to left text formatting. It is very useful as a few of our clients are from other countries and use languages which are written right to left.
- We can use our database and queries with SAP Crystal reports too and save our reports in different formats
- As far as I know, it takes a little more time to learn this tool in the beginning. I personally faced a hard time using for the first time and when I teach other junior staff members they took a lot of time to learn it.
It's well suited if we want to create reports and include every feature of excel. We can take data from the data source and format text and create graphs on the system as well as mobile. It is compatible with mobile devices so anyone can use it on the go. It is less appropriate for beginners as it takes time to learn.
November 21, 2018
Review: "SAP Crystal, another competent vendor in the BI space, has deep integration."
Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 5001-10,000 employeesSAP Crystal is in use by different departments in our enterprise. The primary users are the financial dept and other folks who need custom reports created and ran no matter which department they are in. It is bundled with our ERP solution and helps to provide additional reporting capabilities that SSRS may not be able to.
- Deep integration with our ERP solution which provides the ability for the customers to create their own individualized reports.
- The central management console provides a single place to create, import, modify, etc reports.
- Integration with SQL server that allows for comparison to SSRS reports.
- Complex and involved installation provides a lot of custom features but is not the easiest software to implement.
- Enterprise product which includes enterprise sized licensing costs.
- Integration with the ERP can be simple or as complex as you make it, all depends on the requirements.
Given the choice between SSRS and Crystal reports, we see SSRS used more often. I believe this has to do with how it ties in with our ERP solution and how SSRS has a bigger user base. More people are familiar with SSRS but those who are skilled in Crystal Reports are valuable. Out-of-the-box solutions provided by Crystal tend to adequate for most our users needs.
December 06, 2018
"SAP Crystal Review"
Verified User
Project Manager in Research & Development
Biotechnology Company, 501-1000 employeesThe software is currently being used by our outsourcing department. The software allows the department to create multiple graphical reports for the department to understand how different vendors are managed. The data is exported from different data sources like Microsoft excel and Oracle SQL. The reports generated allows the upper management to understand how different vendors are managed in terms of cost and performance.
- It is a great application to see data from different perspective
- It is easy to connect with multiple database simultaneously
- It is easy to format and users can use wide variety of formulas
- It is challenging to use the system at first but once you pass that learning curve then it is easy to maneuver the application based on your needs
- Converting Crystal Reports to Excel can be challenging as the formatting gets distorted
- Overall, there are no major issues and it is a great tool
SAP Crystal's reports ensures for multi-level, in-depth reports to be developed efficiently and effectively using large scale databases. The software is good for creating customization reports where data points are changing constantly. The reports generated are useful for providing a snapshot to upper management so that they can understand how the company/department is performing.
October 16, 2018
User Review: "Long-time User of SAP Crystal Reports"
Senior Manager, Data & Analytics Practice
ProtivitiManagement Consulting, 1001-5000 employees
I use Crystal in a number of ways:
1. I answer a lot of questions about Crystal in online forums - the SAP Community forums as well as a few others.
2. I train our clients in how to use Crystal, not only the standard SAP classes, but also one I've created that walks through the most-asked questions from the forums and what their solutions are.
3. I personally use Crystal for a number of different tasks, including analyzing data when I do security reviews of clients' SAP BI Platform and SAP Crystal Reports Server systems.
1. I answer a lot of questions about Crystal in online forums - the SAP Community forums as well as a few others.
2. I train our clients in how to use Crystal, not only the standard SAP classes, but also one I've created that walks through the most-asked questions from the forums and what their solutions are.
3. I personally use Crystal for a number of different tasks, including analyzing data when I do security reviews of clients' SAP BI Platform and SAP Crystal Reports Server systems.
- In addition to linking together tables and views from the database in order to get data into your report, Crystal allows you to write your own SQL queries using an "Command". This feature allows for the use of very complex queries to get data for your reports.
- Crystal can connect to MANY different types of databases. It has native connections available for a number of them, including Oracle, and will connect to almost anything else using either ODBC or (less common) JDBC.
- Subreports, when used correctly, are a powerful feature for bringing additional data into a report.
- There are SDK's available to integrate reporting into either .NET or Java applications and websites.
- 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.
I'm biased because I've used Crystal for so long and there's very little that I've needed to do that I haven't been able to do with it.
I particularly like being able to write my own queries instead of having Crystal write them for me. With this feature, I've been able to do some very complex reports this way. I could have done most of these reports by linking tables together in Crystal and using Crystal's filter and suppression features, but putting the logic in the query means that Crystal is processing less data so the report is faster.
Crystal is less suited for showing graphs, unless you just need very simple line or bar graphs. It's also not really suited to doing ad-hoc reporting for most users because it is more technical than some other reporting tools.
I particularly like being able to write my own queries instead of having Crystal write them for me. With this feature, I've been able to do some very complex reports this way. I could have done most of these reports by linking tables together in Crystal and using Crystal's filter and suppression features, but putting the logic in the query means that Crystal is processing less data so the report is faster.
Crystal is less suited for showing graphs, unless you just need very simple line or bar graphs. It's also not really suited to doing ad-hoc reporting for most users because it is more technical than some other reporting tools.
July 31, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reports is a great reporting tool"
Business Systems Analyst
Weldon, Williams & LickPrinting, 201-500 employees
We use Crystal Reports across our whole organization. We first were introduced to Crystal when we implemented our ERP system, EFI Monarch, because they had designed a report library of reports they had written for their ERP system using Crystal Reports. Their report library allowed us to create our own Crystal Reports and add them to the library. I love Crystal Reports. It saves us so much time when specific information is requested across our many databases (DB2, SQL, Progress, Excel spreadsheets, XML data, Lotus Notes databases, etc). I haven't found any database that wasn't compatible with Crystal Reports.
- It allows you to connect to virtually any data source. I have used it to write reports using data from DB2, SQL, Progress, Excel spreadsheets, XML data, Access, and Lotus Notes databases. You can also join different database types together in one report.
- The drag and drop layout makes it easy to design your report and easy to select data fields to add to your report.
- When creating a report the Standard Report Creation Wizard walks you through each step needed to create the report and will layout the report for you.
- There is a wealth of online answers if you have a question about how to do something specific in Crystal Reports.
- It would be nice if there was a way to search your .rpt files for a specific field or table using a normal search engine. There are secondary tools available for purchase but it would be nice if there were a way to do this without additional purchase.
- When I first started using Crystal Reports the learning curve was steep. That being said I had never used a reporting tool before. I think if you are familiar with reporting tools the learning curve would not be as steep.
- If you do happen to get an error message they are sometimes very cryptic and require internet searches to figure out what exactly is wrong.
I have recommended Crystal Reports many times to colleagues. It works well with any database structure I've written reports against. I have done a few charts with Crystal and they look amazing. I think the only problem many have with it is the learning curve but that can be overcome with a few online tutorials. There is a wealth of information on the internet. Most colleagues have grown to love Crystal Reports.
July 19, 2018
Review: "SAP Crystal, one deep and complex reporting tool for your business!"
IT Manager
Stoneleaf Construction LLCConstruction, 51-200 employees
We currently use Sap Crystal Report for Sage 300 CRE to set and develop a custom report for the accounting team, headboard members and for the estimating team to achieve the insights of our business progress from the financial basis to the operating level. We have been working with this software for almost 5 years and from my personal perspective, it has a wide toolset to manage, deliver, be more collaborative with your team and set complex reports and feed BI dashboards.
- The integration using the connection as ODBC, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, etc.
- Price is relatively inexpensive compared to other tools on the market.
- Create complicated reports with the ability to adjust display and format to the level of detail that only financial experts can easily manage and get the most of those reports.
- Not intuitive – takes a skilled developer to write a complex report, so be aware to manage several consults or even the basic structure of financial report development.
- Microsoft Updates, .NET updates my cause crashes in the reporting services so many times and it takes days to correct the issues, that you have to read carefully before you apply updates this can turn things against you.
- The learning curve is considerable small, but if you don't know SQL and understand the basics of relational databases you'll have to dig into a proper training that is fair to manage a large range reporting tool.
SAP Crystal Report is well suited for those companies that posses ERP systems based on SAP, if you're willing to learn how to use the tool and set goals to master the reporting features this is the right tool for you and your company. You can develop and deliver amazing results with the reports. However, if you're looking for an intuitive tool that allows you to set up fast track to achieving decent reports with integration capability try to use BI tools that allow you to use a cross-reference from diverse sources.
July 17, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "It does a lot, but it can take a long time to do it"
Senior Designer
Eview 360Design, 11-50 employees
We use Crystal Reports to generate reports in the form of PDFs and also online reports of usage of our products, along with generating invoices, quotes, packing lists, and other terms and conditions agreements with our sales and support of our order fulfillment processing. We use this product across a range of multiple sites and products.
- Detailed invoices calculating shipping, installation and delivery
- A central point for developers to generate templates for end users
- Flexible range of output
- The way you design templates is kind of hodge podge
- Unpredictable output from time to time
- A bit confusing for non-technical people, requires a lot of trial and error
SAP Crystal Reports is well suited for a long term ROI when you can afford to implement a lot of time on the back end setting up criteria for reporting to benefit over the long term, meaning the next 12-36 months. It can take considerable time to implement on the back end so I wouldn't suggest this for small agile teams or products.
July 17, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reports is not for casual users, but provides an excellent tool for professional report design."
SQL Database and Business Intelligence Manager
Ten CateTextiles, 1001-5000 employees
We use Crystal throughout our organization. Our ERP system serves up Crystal Reports for both analytical and operational reporting. We store our Crystal Reports in an SAP Business Objects repository which is called via Open Document. Users generally aren't savvy enough to generate their own Crystal Reports content, but consume it on a daily basis.
- Crystal is very good at presenting the data exactly how you want it. There is a robust set of options for formatting and presentation.
- It can connect to a wide variety of data sources. We primarily use SQL sources. As a DBA, I generally prefer to have Crystal access views rather than people writing direct queries, but the option is there to do both.
- There are lots of options for data manipulation once the data set is in Crystal. For example, if you pull some raw data out of a sales table, there are a great many ways to calculate, manipulate, and transform the data into whatever you need.
- The learning curve in creating content in Crystal Reports can be steep. This is not a tool that I feel should be wielded by casual users.
- Crystal isn't great anymore for ad-hoc reporting. At one point in my career, I used Crystal for ad-hoc reporting, but with the advent of web-based and visual reporting tools that can be wielded by the general user population, I wouldn't even think of going to Crystal for one-off type reports.
- Crystal Reports doesn't have its own scheduling component. So you'll need to either code up or buy a separate solution for report distribution.
Crystal is great for generating reports intended to be routinely delivered for operational or analytical purposes. I prefer to avoid Crystal for ad-hoc and one-off report scenarios. Also, if I need a simple report, I'd generally steer users towards a visualization type reporting system...but for well formatted, professional reports, Crystal is still one of the best options.
June 22, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reports, still best at what it does"
Owner / Consultant
Ken Hamady, LLCInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
I am a one man shop and I use Crystal Reports to manage many areas of my business.
I have reports that:
- Track activity for new prospective customers
- Analyze sales quantities and revenue over time
- Highlight errors in data entry
- Generate invoices
- Track receivables
- Provide historical analysis of products used for blog articles
- Automate follow-up for newsletter subscribers
- Crystal allows you to connect to virtually any type of data that is available.
- Crystal Reports has a rich ecosystem of third party products that extend its capabilities. My site lists dozens of tools that provide viewing, scheduling and managing reports, along with formula UFLs that can let your report interact with your operating system and other applications and services.
- Crystal, especially the more recent versions, let you create virtually any desired layout with the ability to locate objects anywhere and move them based on conditions in the data.
- Crystal uses the classic "recurring bands" structure for page layout. I find this efficient and very flexible for generating different types of reports.
- Crystal doesn't require that you set up a meta data layer before creating reports. It gives you direct access to your tables and fields.
- The interface in Crystal Reports, while sophisticated, is still primarily designed for end users rather than a programmers.
- Many of us would like to see the RPT Format stored in something open (like XML) rather than in a closed and proprietary format. It would be great for users, but probably not a realistic business decision.
- The charting engine is functional but has been left behind by some of the visualization tools out there. Of course, these visualization tools often can't create classic reports
- Page layout doesn't include the ability to add a structured table object. Tables have to be created with lines and boxes.
Having done little else for the past 20 years I may not be the most impartial judge. But I have found that Crystal is well suited to almost any type of report including simple listings, classic summary reports, pro forma financial statements, multi-section narrative reports and reports designed to simply dump the results of a query into a spreadsheet.
October 15, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Power hidden"
SAP Business Objects and BI Consultant
Independiente / FreelanceInformation Technology and Services, 201-500 employees
I'm a Business Consultant. I give training of "Crystal Reports." I think this is a very robust application. It has a particular form of work that you need to understand in order to obtain good results. I would like them to improve the different types of graphs. Easy access to help, with samples of functionality. For a programmer of reports in "Crystal Reports," you need good training and to know something of database terms.
- Easy to create reports
- Combined with SAP BO security you can access different users with different roles
- Can add easily any comments about your data. Even I think I can use CR for generating infographics
- I recently only use CR for training
CR is good for reporting, but I think is not appropriate for creating Dashboards for example.
October 05, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Getting great results from your data with Crystal Reports"
Sr. Consultant and Sr. Corporate Trainer
The PC Guy Consulting, INCInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees
I like Crystal Reports because it has the ability to pull data from many sources into 1 report. For example, I pull data in from Excel, text files, Access databases, and SQL databases, and Crystal can use all of those and many other data sources, and pull them all into 1 report. It follows the relational database model, so the tables can be linked together on common fields, even when they are from different data sources. It allows you to make totals, running totals, charts, grand totals, and your own calculations. It has many built-in functions. I like the ease of use, and how you can get results pretty quickly, and yet it can handle large amounts of data.
- Gathering data from many sources
- Linking tables together on common fields
- Subtotals, running totals, calculations, grand totals
- Charts
- Filters, sorts
- It needs to bring in more data types, and newer data types. For example, it can use XLS Excel files, but not XLSX Excel files.
- More chart types.
- Ease of use
- Flexibility
- Power
August 16, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Really professional and compatible reports everywhere."
IT Consultant
San Francisco City CollegeEducation Management, 51-200 employees
This is the traditional reporting tool that is used in many financial organizations. I have used SAP Crystal Reports 12 in my organization. We can design highly formatted reports using this tool. It can connect to multiple data sources such as ODBC, OLE DB etc. We can create reports with different formats such as pdf, csv, txt, xls, etc. We can also create html, xml reports. The price of this tool is also cheap. We can create detailed graphics, instrument panels.
- There are some written exercises based on SAP Crystal Report that facilitate learning.
- The integration with the different IDE of development are optimized
- It is compatible with the most popular database administrators, MYSQL, SQLSERVER, POSTGRESQL. and more...
- The designer of Crystal is fantastic, drag and drop add-ons to create your report.
- I had a lot of problems and spent a lot of time trying to adjust the space between the rows. I hope that in the future, SAP Crystal Report will make it easier.
- Should block the sizes of pre-established and blocked sheets to avoid leaving the margins.
Crystal Report is ideal for designing professional and complex reports for operational or analytical purposes, but when it comes to simple applications Crystal seems to be too much. Also, if I need a simple report, I usually direct users to a visualization type reporting system ... but for well formatted professional reports, Crystal is still one of the best options.
July 31, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reporting in a Manufacturing/Production Environment"
Print Estimator
Southern Colour PrintPrinting, 11-50 employees
I'm the only user of Crystal Reports in our organization. We use it primarily for production-related reporting from our MIS (via SQL), but it also has heavy use as a business analysis tool. We are able to quickly identify business trends and sales goals.
- The interface is easy to learn and understand, with clear iconography and unambiguous tool names.
- It's easy to connect data from many different sources at once.
- The help section is actually helpful (!) and easy to navigate to find the answers quickly.
- A more powerful search function for where formulas and fields are used in the report, such as being able to see at a glance every instance of {@formula}, be it selection criteria, other formulas or location in the report body.
- Keyboard shortcuts, such as T or Ctrl+T for inserting a text box, S or Ctrl+Shift+S for select expert, etc.
Well suited to any integration with MIS in a production or sales environment, especially where quick analysis of bulk data is required.
July 21, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "SAP report benefits over other software"
UI Designer
ANS CommerceInternet, 11-50 employees
Reports can be made easily by Crystal Reports according to your purpose and imagination. With the help of WYSIWYG you can design your own template of reports. Crystal Reports delivers design dynamic reports that can be linked to almost any data source. It can be connected to any databases for operation reporting. SAP Crystal Reports easily offers flexibility and adaptability.
- Reports can be very specific and highly formatted. It has an intense amount of format options and other ways to present your view and data.
- Very powerful. Very competent.
- It allows us to create exactly what is needed to support our operations. Crystal Reports allows us to do anything where more user-friendly software fails.
- Crystal Reports takes a great degree of skill, experience to use it. New users should learn first how to use it. An expert's tool.
- There are a lot of updates, versions and a number of features and it is hard to keep track of new updates.
- You need to purchase new feature as you want and you'll realize that you're spending more than you thought.
Organizing reports and sharing with colleague are very easy with Crystal reports. Rich with features as a user wants. The best part is WYSIWYG with which you can design your own template for reports. Reports can be very specific and highly formatted. It offers multi-language support in English, French, German, Japanese etc. Support system of Crystal Reports is also good and provided through any medium like online forum, email and phone.
July 19, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Not the Cadillac, but still Very Nice."
IS Department Manager
Eau Claire Press CompanyPublishing, 201-500 employees
We are currently using SAP Crystal Reports as our main report building engine for our CRM system. I have not integrated it into other systems yet as we have not needed the metrics available through Crystal Reports. The main business needs that this software serves is it allows users that are not well versed with SQL to understand the data and build a report to show what information they have a vested interest in.
- The UI is done very well and easy to grasp for not tech people.
- The available charting functions are easy to configure.
- Some aspects of building a report are not very intuitive. I don't have a specific example off-hand, but I know when I first started with the software I was using Google and user forums a lot to figure things out.
- When the platform changed the infrastructure of the reports making backward compatibility a problem it put stress on us to upgrade to meet supported versions with a vendor.
The platform really excels at delivering information in a summary format. The part I feel that is lacking is where you really want detailed information, but aren't en expert at data manipulation or sequel statements. I feel that this causes issues for some of my users when they want to modify or change a report, but aren't well versed in these other technologies.
July 19, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reports presents data in a crystal-clear way!"
System Administrator
North South Supply IncWholesale, 11-50 employees
Crystal Reports is used by the IT Director and System Administrator to create and present customized reports to Managers, End users, and customers. We utilize Prophet 21 software for managing our wholesale distribution (and counter sales) business, and Crystal Reports allows us to modify customer forms and internal reports as needed to present information concisely and correctly!
- Allows us to generate custom formulas to present complex data in an accurate format.
- Provides a comprehensive means to modify font types, sizes, and formats to present to internal and external customers.
- Allows us to present data from multiple SQL database tables and views, and allows us to customize formulas if data is not stored in the SQL database.
- Formatting of fields and text boxes allows consistency among sections.
- Would like even more flexibility in exporting reports to Excel, although I understand Microsoft has some control over this.
- Still difficult sometimes to line up boxes/fields vertically across multiple report sections.
- Drawing lines sometimes present issues when spanning multiple sections.
Perfect when using SQL Server databases, or when integrating SQL databases and MS Access databases in the same report. I also recommend Crystal Reports for generating forms for clients and end users, as the use of parameters and data-specific conditional formatting (show/hide fields, etcetera) allows us to design one 'report' for multiple uses!
July 17, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Crystal Reports is the future"
Data Analyst
SouthWest DirectPrinting, 51-200 employees
Crystal Reports is being used by our organization primarily for medical billing statements. It is being used by the whole organization. Crystal Reports generates print files faster than any other program we have tried. It also has a great deal of functionality with regards to formatting and conditional output.
- Crystal Reports is very easy for any user to use.
- It compiles data very quickly.
- It would be helpful if Crystal Reports could output text flowing up instead of down.
Crystal Reports is well suited because it can output iteration lines. It can output any number of lines, and can even flow to other pages. We also use it to change the font size on longer lines of data. This is important when you have a limited space to work with.
June 26, 2018
SAP Crystal Review: "Simple and practical in its general use"
Consultor de serviços
UNIMESTRE Sistema de Gestão EducacionalInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
I work with educational institutions across the country and Crystal Reports is a tool that enables me to deliver relevant information to my partners as well as important financial data through simple visualization charts and reports, facilitating the decision-making process of managers and directors. For me, Crystal Reports is important because it is an easy tool to create reports to monitor indicators of each department in companies.
- It enables the creation of reports through a simplified and useful visual interface. During the creation of the reports you can already have a view of what is being set up.
- Ease of reporting, with the possibility of using data of various types of connections to the most varied types of databases.
- It supports large amount of data, processing them efficiently and quickly.
- Its formulas can be easily created, with a language based on SQL its use is very simple.
- It has a good help menu with many examples to use its formulas, which is very useful in several moments of its use and also facilitates its learning.
- The use for graphing sometimes is not simple, since the data type often needs to be very standardized to be accepted in the use of graphics.
- Information on solving more complex problems is more difficult to find among the community of users who use the program.
- The lack of local training can make it difficult to learn advanced items, even though their use is simplified in general.
Their use may be best suited for financial data presentation as well as data listings. Its more advanced usage is dependent on SQL understanding, so people without this affinity may have their experience impaired.
SAP Crystal Scorecard Summary
Feature Scorecard Summary
Pixel Perfect reports (93)
8.2
Customizable dashboards (81)
7.8
Report Formatting Templates (98)
8.3
Drill-down analysis (100)
7.7
Formatting capabilities (115)
8.6
Integration with R or other statistical packages (52)
7.2
Report sharing and collaboration (100)
8.0
Publish to Web (73)
8.0
Publish to PDF (113)
8.7
Report Versioning (76)
7.8
Report Delivery Scheduling (79)
8.3
Delivery to Remote Servers (34)
8.1
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.) (51)
7.5
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization (64)
7.4
Predictive Analytics (42)
7.7
Multi-User Support (named login) (66)
7.9
Role-Based Security Model (66)
7.7
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete) (66)
7.7
Single Sign-On (SSO) (25)
7.7
Responsive Design for Web Access (47)
7.6
Dedicated iOS Application (31)
7.0
Dedicated Android Application (28)
7.1
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile (43)
7.5
REST API (8)
7.6
Javascript API (22)
7.9
iFrames (8)
7.1
Java API (22)
8.0
Themeable User Interface (UI) (25)
7.4
Customizable Platform (Open Source) (21)
7.2
About SAP Crystal
SAP Crystal Reports and SAP Crystal Server are designed to help users create pixel-perfect, richly formatted, and dynamic reports from virtually any data source – delivered in dozens of export formats, in up to 24 languages. According to the vendor SAP Crystal Reports is a robust production reporting tool, that turns almost any data source into interactive, actionable information that can be accessed offline or online, from applications, portals and mobile devices. SAP Crystal Server enables self-service access to
reports, dashboards, and data exploration within a secure infrastructure.
Categories: Business Intelligence (BI)
SAP Crystal Features
BI Platform Features
Does not have featureAdministration via Windows App
Does not have featureAdministration via MacOS App
Has featureAdministration via Web Interface
Has featureLive Connection to External Data
Has featureSnapshot of External Data
Does not have featureIn-memory data model
Has featureOLAP (Pre-processed cube representation)
Has featureROLAP (SQL-layer querying)
Has featureMulti-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
Has featureData warehouse / dictionary layer
Does not have featureETL Capability
Does not have featureETL Scheduler
Supported Data Sources Features
Has featureMS Excel Workbooks
Has featureText Files (CSV, etc)
Has featureOracle
Has featureMS SQL Server
Has featureIBM DB2
Has featurePostgres
Has featureMySQL
Has featureODBC
Does not have featureCloudera Hadoop
Does not have featureHortonworks Hadoop
Has featureEMC Greenplum
Does not have featureIBM Netezza
Has featureHP Vertica
Does not have featureParAccel
Has featureSAP Hana
Has featureTeradata
Does not have featureSage 500
Has featureSalesforce
Has featureSAP
Does not have featureGoogle Analytics
BI Standard Reporting Features
Has featurePixel Perfect reports
Has featureCustomizable dashboards
Has featureReport Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
Has featureDrill-down analysis
Has featureFormatting capabilities
Does not have featurePredictive modeling
Has featureIntegration with R or other statistical packages
Has featureReport sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
Has featurePublish to Web
Has featurePublish to PDF
Has featureOutput Raw Supporting Data
Has featureReport Versioning
Has featureReport Delivery Scheduling
Has featureDelivery to Remote Servers
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
Does not have featurePre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
Has featureLocation Analytics / Geographic Visualization
Does not have featurePredictive Analytics
Does not have featureSupport for Machine Learning models
Does not have featurePattern Recognition and Data Mining
Does not have featureIntegration with R or other statistical packages
Access Control and Security Features
Has featureMulti-User Support (named login)
Has featureRole-Based Security Model
Has featureMultiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
Has featureReport-Level Access Control
Has featureTable-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
Has featureField-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
Has featureSingle Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Capabilities Features
Has featureResponsive Design for Web Access
Has featureDedicated iOS Application
Has featureDedicated Android Application
Has featureDashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features
Does not have featureREST API
Has featureJavascript API
Does not have featureiFrames
Has featureJava API
Has featureThemeable User Interface (UI)
Has featureCustomizable Platform (Open Source)
Additional Features
Has featurePowerful options to deliver key insights and a clearer picture of the business to decision makers
Has featureBroader connectivity to diverse data sources to provide real-time operational reports that empower employees to make day-to-day business decisions
Has featureFlexible, customizable report design to give customers and partners the information they need in the reporting format of their choice
Show unsupported features
SAP Crystal Screenshots
SAP Crystal Integrations
SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio, SAP Crystal Reports for Eclipse
SAP Crystal Competitors
Pricing
Has featureFree Trial Available?Yes
Has featureFree or Freemium Version Available?Yes
Has featurePremium Consulting/Integration Services Available?Yes
Entry-level set up fee?Optional
| Edition | Pricing Details | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| SAP Crystal Reports 2016 - Full version | $495 | per user |
| SAP Crystal Server 2016 1 NUL | $869 | per named user |
| SAP Crystal Server 2016 5 CAL | $8,744 | per 5 concurrent users |
| SAP Crystal Reports Viewer 2016 | $0 | per user |
| SAP Crystal Reports 2016 - Upgrade | $295 | per user |
* SAP Crystal Reports 2016 Viewer allows you to view static data within a SAP Crystal Reports file. * SAP Crystal Reports 2016 - Full version allows you to create powerful, richly formatted, and dynamic reports from virtually any data source, delivered in dozens of formats, in up to 28 languages. If you already have an older version of Crystal Reports, buy a license for SAP Crystal Reports 2016 - Upgrade at a discounted, upgrade price. * SAP Crystal Server 2016, 1 NUL includes 1 license of: SAP Crystal Reports 2016 - SAP Crystal Server 2016 - SAP Crystal Dashboard Design 2016. * As an add-on to SAP Crystal Server 2016 1 NUL, SAP Crystal Server 2016 5 CAL allows you to support a wider, intermittent audience of end users, up to five logged on at the same time.
SAP Crystal Support Options
| Free Version | Paid Version | |
|---|---|---|
| Live Chat | ||
| Forum/Community | ||
| FAQ/Knowledgebase | ||
| Social Media | ||
| Video Tutorials / Webinar | ||
| Phone |
SAP Crystal Technical Details
| Deployment Types: | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems: | Windows, Linux |
| Mobile Application: | Apple iOS, Android |
| Supported Languages: | English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Thai, Czech, Hungarian, Slovakian, Turkish, Romanian, Slovenian |