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SAP Crystal

SAP Crystal

Overview

What is SAP Crystal?

SAP Crystal is an analytics and reporting software solution for SMBs. SAP Crystal comprises Crystal Reports for pixel-perfect reporting, and SAP Crystal Server for automated distribution and self-service access to reports, dashboards and data exploration.

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Recent Reviews

Decent reporting tool

8 out of 10
February 15, 2020
Incentivized
I used SAP Crystal for report visualization. The graphs in the tool are outstanding with strong information telling ability combining with …
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SAP Crystal Review

7 out of 10
January 08, 2020
Incentivized
Crystal is used enterprise-wide for pixel-perfect reporting. We have both on-demand reporting use cases, and scheduled reporting via email …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 29 features
  • Publish to PDF (131)
    10.0
    100%
  • Report sharing and collaboration (118)
    10.0
    100%
  • Report Formatting Templates (115)
    10.0
    100%
  • Formatting capabilities (133)
    10.0
    100%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
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Pricing

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Upgrade Version to SAP Crystal Reports 2020

$295

On Premise
per single user license

SAP Crystal Reports 2020 64-Bit

$495

On Premise
per single user license

SAP Crystal Reports 2016 32-Bit

$495

On Premise
per single user license

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.sapstore.com/solutions/99013…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Software TRAIL DEMO SAP Crystal Reports 2013

YouTube

SAP Crystal Dashboard Design - Demo video

YouTube
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Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

9.3
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

9.6
Avg 8.1

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

9.4
Avg 8.4

Data Discovery and Visualization

Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.

8
Avg 8.1

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

8.6
Avg 8.6

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

8.4
Avg 8.0

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another

7
Avg 7.9
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Product Details

What is 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. SAP Crystal Reports is a production reporting tool designed to turn 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.

SAP Crystal Features

BI Platform Features

  • Supported: Administration via Web Interface
  • Supported: Live Connection to External Data
  • Supported: Snapshot of External Data
  • Supported: OLAP (Pre-processed cube representation)
  • Supported: ROLAP (SQL-layer querying)
  • Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
  • Supported: Data warehouse / dictionary layer

Supported Data Sources Features

  • Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
  • Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
  • Supported: Oracle
  • Supported: MS SQL Server
  • Supported: IBM DB2
  • Supported: Postgres
  • Supported: MySQL
  • Supported: ODBC
  • Supported: EMC Greenplum
  • Supported: HP Vertica
  • Supported: SAP Hana
  • Supported: Teradata
  • Supported: Salesforce
  • Supported: SAP

BI Standard Reporting Features

  • Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
  • Supported: Customizable dashboards
  • Supported: Report Formatting Templates

Ad-hoc Reporting Features

  • Supported: Drill-down analysis
  • Supported: Formatting capabilities
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
  • Supported: Report sharing and collaboration

Report Output and Scheduling Features

  • Supported: Publish to Web
  • Supported: Publish to PDF
  • Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
  • Supported: Report Versioning
  • Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
  • Supported: Delivery to Remote Servers

Data Discovery and Visualization Features

  • Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization

Access Control and Security Features

  • Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
  • Supported: Role-Based Security Model
  • Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
  • Supported: Report-Level Access Control
  • Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)

Mobile Capabilities Features

  • Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
  • Supported: Mobile Application
  • Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features

  • Supported: Javascript API
  • Supported: Java API
  • Supported: Themeable User Interface (UI)
  • Supported: Customizable Platform (Open Source)

SAP Crystal Screenshots

Screenshot of Pixel-perfect reporting solutionScreenshot of Refresh with a clickScreenshot of Build pixel-perfect documentsScreenshot of Connect to all data sourcesScreenshot of Use drag and dropScreenshot of Build interactive reportsScreenshot of Export to popular formats

SAP Crystal Videos

SAP Crystal Solutions: The Mobile Worker Use Case
SAP Crystal Solutions: Identify and Eliminate Clutter in Your Visualizations
SAP Crystal Solutions: How to Buy SAP Crystal Reports Digitally

SAP Crystal Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android
Supported CountriesGlobal
Supported LanguagesEnglish, 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

Frequently Asked Questions

SAP Crystal is an analytics and reporting software solution for SMBs. SAP Crystal comprises Crystal Reports for pixel-perfect reporting, and SAP Crystal Server for automated distribution and self-service access to reports, dashboards and data exploration.

Windward Core, TIBCO Jaspersoft, and Jet Reports are common alternatives for SAP Crystal.

Reviewers rate Customizable dashboards and Report Formatting Templates and Drill-down analysis highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of SAP Crystal are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(558)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 31)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
All the divisions where the need of formatted reports was there, i.e. in HR departments to get the complete detail of an employee for all past performances indicators, hikes, travel opportunities, PII data or be it on the floor of manufacturing company. In real time replication of data , details of Sales Order/Purchase Orders or internal material movement order were printed in the highly formatted way using Crystal reports detailing each entity/price or other nuance of the type of report it was. Dynamic text of logged in the system was printed in some cases when movement for item was restricted by only some authorized persons so that Security guards can easily check and catch the unwanted movement of product.
  • Highly formatted reporting capabilities.
  • Pixel oriented perfect reporting for printing.
  • Embedding of dynamic images/logo or barcodes for customized reports.
  • Easy to share with other users.
  • Dragging and dropping the elements into the canvas to fit in pixels is sometime difficult.
  • Exporting the report in Excel looses formatting.
  • Learning curve of Crystal is difficult for consultants as it's a bit tricky for data connections.
If your organization is needing such a data intelligence solutions where in data reported is important but the way it is presented is also highly important, without even thinking one should go for SAP Crystal Reports. This tool is capable of providing pixel perfect formatted reports giving a very crystal (justifying its name) clear insight of the information represented in form of data. The reports can easily contain company logos/dynamic images or text as per reporting requirements.
Only in case where you need row columns based reporting where you can see data in excel like formats you should not go for SAP Crystal Reports.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as our main reporting tool as part of our software application for all internal and external reports.
  • Fairly easy to learn the report designer. Even for people without strong database knowledge.
  • Ability to reuse existing report components.
  • Can design reports targeted for printing (can cleanly handle pagination).
  • Can report from multiple data sources without the need for a data warehouse.
  • Better handling of imported images from a database. Need to maintain aspect ratio.
  • Add option to disable grid lines.
  • Changing data source on same server needs a little TLC. Still have to change each table instead of just updating the connection.
  • Pivot Table formatting.
  • Chart formatting.
  • Importing formatted text from MS Word.
  • Support for HTML text formatting.
Very well suited for customer facing reports like invoices, statements and contracts. Great for listings / rosters.
Fun backdoor functionality to be able to execute stored procedures to updated data within the database and provide results without the need to build custom application solutions.

Not very useful for exporting to MS Word for contracts that need further editing. Pivot tables and charting capabilities are very simple when compared to MS Excel and are only used when basic functionality is needed.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAP Crystal Reports is used throughout our company. It allows us to present consistent and branded reports to all of our internal and external clients. It also allows us to have standardized cost reporting. Prior to implementing SAP Crystal Reports, we had different sites presenting clients with their own custom cost reports. Many of these were done in Excel and there was no consistency across our organization. SAP Crystal Reports has replaced those and now we provide one consistent and branded report.
  • Crystal Reports allows us to create a consistent template for all of our reports.
  • Crystal Reports and Server allows us to house a repository for all of our reports to make them easy to find and update when necessary.
  • Crystal Reports can connect to a wide variety of data sources.
  • Crystal Reports can be a little daunting when first implementing. There are a lot of nuances in learning how to truly master this software and it can be frustrating at times.
  • There are a lot of features in Crystal Reports that do not always work as expected. You may find yourself searching the Web for how to get the results that you want.
  • Crystal Reports does not provide updates on a regular basis. New concepts and ideas may be a while in implementing.
  • The initial setup can be frustrating. There are times when you need to go outside of the install package to make it work with particular data sources, etc. It is not always a 100% install.
If you want easily controlled and formatted reports to provide a consistent platform across your organization, Crystal Reports is an excellent program. You will need to be willing to put in some effort up front for install and learning the program, but once you are up and running, it does provide a great way to provide standard reporting. It gives you the ability to allow all of your employees access the same data, in the same format at any time.
Frank Hunt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Crystal reports help us to pull automatic reports out of various databases directly (without importing into Excel first and running pivot tables) and display relations in the data. As long as there is a common data field (a campaign ID, for example), the reports are done in seconds across all the connected data sources. This exact process used to take at least an hour when done manually.
  • Seamless parsing of data across different data sources.
  • Ability to create sub-records and drill-down feature for granular data analysis.
  • Complex queries or SQl statements are done in seconds.
  • The export of reports to Excel is very cumbersome and the results are difficult to format.
  • The design of reports and the graphical features (e.g. charts) feel quite rigid.
  • The learning curve for a non-programmer is incredibly steep, making Crystal a specialty tool.
Crystal reports is a great Business Intelligence tool for any midsize business that prefers to keep its data in-house instead of in the cloud. The learning curve for parsing data source and creating first reports could be a bit steep at the beginning, but then the cost savings are invaluable. The reports generated by Crystal are easily manipulated according to different requirements and further analyzed by the recipients.
Rohit Narang | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
December 06, 2018

SAP Crystal Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The 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.
Erue Dfut | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Janet Fawcett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used to provide many staff members access to run shared Crystal reports that were created by 1-2 report developers, but Crystal no longer connects directly to our Oracle/PeopleSoft database. Thus, our 1-2 report developers still use Crystal for established reporting projects and new one-off projects, but the "public" reports are no longer possible for our staff to run.
  • Crystal is very flexible. If you have a unique formatting need for a report, it will be easier to implement with Crystal than most other tools.
  • Creating run prompts in Crystal is a more straightforward process than in most other tools I've used.
  • You don't need to build queries within Crystal while creating a report. That process has confused me when other tools require it.
  • Creating a loop with Crystal is more difficult than I would like.
  • In the design template pane in Crystal, you sometimes need to cram objects tightly together to get the report appearance you want. It's hard to see/work with these objects later.
  • Crystal no longer connects directly to Oracle/PeopleSoft databases, which is our enterprise system.
Generally, Crystal is a very flexible reporting tool that can handle any report format you need to create. There's a very mild learning curve for creating things like calculated fields and run prompts. Reports can easily be run to Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF and other options. Crystal can be directly connected to some (but not all) enterprise system databases so report builders can use an existing query or the database tables and fields themselves to drive a report.
Victor Arana | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Greg Goss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Fabio da Silva | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Alicia Barevich, bCRE, bCEE | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Most departments use Crystal Reports in one way or another. Crystal Reports enables custom reports to be able to be pulled from the database, making formatting and custom calculations fairly easy. Our demands on complex reports are hefty, and Crystal Reports allows us to meet pretty much all of these complicated demands from departments across the organization.
  • Custom calculations and filtering - it can be complicated to program, depending on how your input tables are linked, etc., but pretty much anything is possible.
  • Design - Most of our reports are fairly simple, but you can get pretty complex with the display of reports, with spacing, page breaks, color, etc.
  • Coding - The formulas use a SQL-based language, which is fairly easy to navigate. There is also a UI that enables users to create formulas without direct language of code, but familiarity definitely helps.
  • The newer version (XI) stalls when it processes multiple "gift summary" fields from Raiser's Edge. I'm not sure if this problem exists when connecting to any other software, but we had to re-code a number of our reports so that these "gift summary" fields were used in sub-reports, then fed back to the main report. Once we did that, the report ran instantly and didn't stall.
  • The UI is not very user-friendly for non-coders. I think it's fine, but there is a pretty steep learning curve for new users.
  • There are very few opportunities for training on Crystal Reports at an advanced level. If you want to learn more about the program, and you already have an intermediate level of experience with it, you'll basically just have to teach yourself.
Our databases have certain "canned reports" that are useful, but we use Crystal Reports for MANY things that our databases don't automatically produce. Our reports can have custom calculations and fields, a nice layout, and quick processing time. The main drawback is the steep learning curve required, even to just refresh a pre-existing report with new data.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAP Crystal Reports is used to create custom reports for our inventory tracking system. All of the reports must be edited and maintained using SAP Crystal Reports.

Each custom report is used by one or more users at the company. SAP makes it very simple to create and maintain our customized reports for our inventory system.
  • The program is pretty intuitive to use
  • There is a really good tutorial section on the website
  • Integrates well with our inventory system
  • Adding a new table from a database could be a little easier
  • Moving data around reports tends to take a little more effort than what seems necessary. I do like that I can move by using arrow keys, just don't like the way things sometimes snap into position
SAP Crystal Reports is well suited to be used when there is a database that has already been well defined. If the database is not defined, the program does not work quite as well.

Combining reports can have some issues. I like using SAP Crystal Reports, but when I need information from a different table, it can be hard.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Crystal Training Source teaches, consults, and develops Crystal Server and Crystal Reports for various companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. We help potential/current users learn all of the functions and /or features within SAP Crystal Server to greatly improve data traffic and sharing within their organisation.

It addresses the issues experienced by inferior products not being able to share, distribute, and run needed reports (high volume) on a daily basis.
  • You can easily navigate within the Central Management Console to access a plethora of very powerful functions i.e. (Security, Users, Groups, Scheduling, Distribution, Delivery Formats, Business Views, Triggers, etc.)
  • In my previous experience outside of SAP a lot of products are very difficult to learn and apply. SAP Crystal Server is laid out in a very intuitive way and it makes learning and application fluid.
  • End users can easily access the end user portal and view, schedule, run, and distribute reports with the click of a mouse. This allows data to flow much more efficiently throughout the organization.
  • SAP Crystal Server allows a seamless connection to your organizations production data which allows for a smooth transition from basic reporting to publication in a few short steps.
  • I would like to see graph features to be improved. SAP has made leaps and bounds over the years and I know they will get there.
  • I would like to see SAP products bundled for a more turn key solution.
Data Management
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We build Crystal Reports that are used in a third party software to extract data via the GUI from our SQL database. The reports themselves are being managed by one department (me) but are accessed by the whole business. We use Crystal Reports to generate client forms.
  • Easy formatting, drag and drop.
  • Relatively similar GUI to Word, very developed GUI.
  • Well-documented, easy to Google.
  • Not intuitive - steep learning curve.
  • Need to be able to have a sub-report within a sub-report. This is a major missing piece.
  • Need to be able to copy sub-reports and paste.
  • Less appropriate for serious programmers who don't need the GUI.
  • Great for highly formatted reports
  • Bad for analyzing lots of data
January 08, 2018

Deploy and be amazed

Jeff Hieber | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Crystal Server is used company wide to distribute data to internal and external users. It allows the organization to automate its reporting and distribution processes, elevating the stress these process put on internal staff and allowing the company to be much more efficient in delivering on both external and internal demands for information.
  • Allows scheduled distribution of reports. This allows our team to capture data and deliver it when it is desired by the team without forcing an internal staff member to have to manually gather the data and distribute it on time.
  • Flexibility in destinations. Crystal server allows us several convenient options for delivering our reports and data. This means we have no wasted time by internal staff emailing or sending data to clients or other internal staff, allowing them to focus on more demanding tasks.
  • Our biggest complaint is that if a report has to be modified, our experience is that the entire schedule has to be redone for these changes to effectively be delivered to our end users.
If you're looking for a tool to take your reporting to the next level, this is it! [It's well suited for] eliminating all of your work once development of the report is done. This tool works 24/7/365 to deliver the details you need to both internal and external staff.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Crystal Reports is used as a foundation for our external financial reporting, including balance sheets, income statements, and other special reports. We have used it to create inventory reports out of SAP ERP, operational reporting, and master data governance. For our EAM group, it has reduced backlogs, provided real-time visibility into our ERP system, and ensure good data governance
  • Good integration with SAP ERP
  • Provides great embedded analytics with SAP ERP
  • It's the "Swiss Army" knife of reporting
  • Much easier to use than coding an ABAP report
  • Crystal for Enterprise could provide better integration with SAP ERP
  • Provide more ease of use/learning and reporting
If you are on enhancement pack 5 or higher, I highly recommend using Crystal Reports with SAP ERP, if your data volume is small. It is excellent for highly formatted reporting such as external financial statements and inventory forms.
Vasco Mendes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAP Crystal Server is the perfect solution to share advanced BI reports across the organization, and all that from a single point of deploy. We can design simple yet powerful reports. As a senior consultant, I was responsible for making many proposals for customers to acquire SAP Crystal Server. It was successfully deployed in a company where Excel was the main source of reports, and where files needed to be shared across multiple users in order to make a final report.
  • It is great to generate reports that can be shared with many users, who can also collaborate on them.
  • The reports are easy to develop and deploy. There are lots of customizable options that can enrich your reports. The ability to generate scheduled reports is also a very good feature as it allows you to have complex and high demanding reports generated at a specific time.
  • As an SAP product, it is very affordable, making it a good value for the money product. Other products with same features can be more expensive.
  • Graph generation has some limitations that can be a bit frustrating sometimes.
  • The customer expects to create business presentations from their reports, which could be a simpler process if they could export reports and graphs directly to PowerPoint.
  • Customers always ask for a way to geta a feature like freeze panes in Excel. In large reports where scroll down is needed this feature is very important for the users.
  • As a selling point of view, the UI of SAP Crystal Server could be improved with more modern layouts and themes. SAP have been improving this important part on products like SAP Fiori, but need to widen the range of products where layout is important.
It is the perfect product for those who need to produce collaborative reports in a regularly scheduled way. Different reports can share common data sources, therefore it is easier to maintain consistent reports, reducing duplication of data entry. Although SAP is giving more importance to user experience, SAP Crystal Server still has a long way to go. It can have a long learning curve for users with minimal experience with similar programs, so you should guarantee that proper formation is planned.
Thomas Harty | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I currently use Crystal Reports to develop many ad-hoc reports for executive management analytical and reporting purposes with the administration and finance department. I also use it to develop customized transactional data and trial balance reports that are specifically tailored for the data I want to see and the manner in which I want to see it (customized grouping) which isn't as easily provided for from the accounting system we use.
  • Provides the flexibility to choose the data you want to include from any table in your database and better enables you to understand the structure of it.
  • Allows for the customization of grouping of data records through development of formulas through a built-in programming interface.
  • Through the creation of sub-reports with parameter links you can combine separate customized data reports into one report file.
  • Through the programming interface, you can create formulas to summarize data from a subreport and include that value in the main report body, thus, developing a summary report from data of a variety of different subreports.
  • It would be nice to have sometime of functionality that would better detect an improper linking of two or more tables. Sometimes I don't know that I have an improper link until after I run a report and realize data records are repeating.
  • Sometimes the pass through of formula values from multiple sub reports to a main report can be in error based on the placement of the sub reports in relation to each other. It would be great to have functionality that warns you about those issues.
  • There should be more intellisense provided in the formula interface when creating conditional statements.
Crystal Reports is great in providing an individual with the capability of creating customized reports that serve his or her particular informational needs. So, if the reporting capabilities of your database system limit what fields of data you can report on and how the report can be designed and formatted, then Crystal Reports is the perfect tool to deploy. It is also a great tool for anyone interested in gaining greater familiarity with the structure of your entity's database system and learning the different querying and grouping statements that can be created to get subsets of your organizations transactional data. Crystal Reports only drawback is that it takes time to familiarize yourself with your organizations database structure and a lot of time may need to be spent verifying the content of your developed report is accurate by running comparison reports built into the database system or through database views made available in your system.
Sam Shannon, CAPM | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Crystal Reports is used across our organization to interpret data into customized reports. In conjunction with a timer and an odbc I am able to pull data from our ERP softwares and automate their delivery. This allows control down to the smallest detail and data point. Our main ERP software actually comes with a report writing software, but it is insufficient and unwieldy and Crystal allows me to supplement that writer with reports that function and look even better.
  • Very flexible with different inputs. Can work with any ODBC connection.
  • Extremely customizable and powerful. With sub-reports I can create any report I desire even they are somewhat time intensive.
  • Beautiful. The reports I am able to produce from Crystal Reports are clean and professional. I receive complements on them all the time.
  • The learning curve can be steep. A background in Excel formulas is helpful. Crystal's possibilities are limited really only by the user.
  • More complex reports are time intensive. This is, however, to be expected.
  • The programming language is unique to Crystal and though similar to Excel still requires learning and is easily confused with Excel when you shift from one back to another or take a break from Crystal.
Crystal's main use is database interpretation. It is not meant to be used to create reports from scratch, but from data from a database. I have not, however, encountered a software better for creating reports out of a database. It's ability to bend and mold data is unparalleled. Working in Crystal does, however, require a specific type of thinking and some simple tasks will require elaborate workarounds or customer SQl Queries because data extraction from a database simply works like that.
Jaap Maartens | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAP Crystal Reports is used within our company to design and generate interactive reports from many data sources in a short time and generally knowledge of coding isn't required. The application produces smart reporting that supports making financial decisions within our department.
  • The product has been around for a while and there is enough literature out there for learning and mastering its capabilities
  • Intuitive graphical user interface
  • Fast customization options and powerful formula tool
  • Great web integration features
  • Might take awhile to master and programming knowledge may allow bringing the product to the next level
  • Some graphic elements could be improved
  • Prone to bugs
The product might be considered on the expensive side for smaller businesses, but it does the job just right and should be a departure point for businesses when making decisions about answering their reporting needs. The product offers something for less experienced and more advanced, but best reports are created with learning to master SAP Crystal Reports.
Joal Kieboam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAP Crystal Server is used by me personally as I am currently the only person working at my company. This product allows me to easily find and organize my files and information. Reports are easy to generate and understand. I no longer have to generate multiple reports as with software I've used in the past. SAP Crystal Server does it all in one.
  • Generates reports
  • Organizes files and information.
  • Easy to use and intuitive.
  • Affordable.
  • Feature rich.
  • Easy to use but slight learning curve which could be improved.
  • Updates create delays sometimes.
  • Some features have limitations such as graphs.
  • Incorporating into websites could be made smoother.
SAP Crystal Server is highly recommended by me for anyone looking to improve their business by easily organizing their information, generating quality reports, charts, graphs, presentations and much more. If you wish to remain on the cutting edge of technology, save time, money, and stress, this may also be for you. On the other hand I would not recommend it to those with very little computer or technical experience or those brand new to business.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Crystal Reports allows us to customize our invoicing and statements which means we do not have to get special forms printed, resulting in a great cost savings to our company. We are able to have reports built to suit our reporting requirements specifically, as well as use the ones within our accounting software easily. We are able to make financial statements easily in house, and make changes without having to go to an outside source. It is relatively easy to use with a little bit of learning.
  • Report building
  • Getting specific information from databases
  • The help feature for on the go help could be better
  • Well suited to financial statements
  • Less suited to pulling net vs. gross numbers
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Crystal Reports is being used for consolidation of reports across multiple companies from different data sources.
  • Easy access to information across various tables.
  • One time set up that can be refreshed as needed.
  • It required additional programming to pull the same information from various sources because it would not recognize different data with the same column headings.
  • Learning curve for the first time was challenging.
Having all the info in one or two reports to review rather than 15+ makes for faster decision making.
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