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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

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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 7.9

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, 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 156)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Accessible data within our company network
  • Easy to personalize data and report parameters
  • Works seamless with our database servers
  • Sorting edit grid data
  • designing seems limited at times
  • imaging doesn't always load up to size
Emeka Opara | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • It can connect to various data sources
  • Quick logins and authorization syncing with SSO
  • It may be a bit hard to setup for a new user.
  • While it may be hard to setup it has a lot of great functionality that will come in handy once you are comfortable with it.
Akhilesh Arya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • It can connect to different data sources
  • Generates report with attractive charts and tables
  • Very flexible and easily customize-able
  • A little programming related to SQL and .NET is required for the efficient use of the tool
  • Adjusting spaces between multiple rows is a bit difficult task
  • Documentation part should be improved
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Gene Baker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Complex queries are supported through the use of stored procedures. Because of this, we are able to create very complex reports to satisfy consumer needs.
  • User-friendly formats are supported and we can display these reports online.
  • Running multiple queries without using stored procedures.
  • We need to have developers write SQL code. Drag and drop type report creation can be difficult to accurately create without writing SQL. SQL relationships must be clearly defined for the drag and drop to work. This makes sense, otherwise, how would the tool know what the relationships are?
January 08, 2020

SAP Crystal Review

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Pixel perfect reporting.
  • Enterprise grade stability.
  • Dated technology.
  • There's a lack of web-based development for Crystal reports (though it exists for WEBI and the like).
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easy to use UI. Basically, even a non-technical user can learn to do everything in a week.
  • The speed of compiling the data.
  • Useful templates.
  • Easy interface for integrating the data in the system from external sources.
  • Scheduled reports.
  • There are some specific points in the system which might become buggy or not easy to use, thus, require support.
  • A lot of functionalities to learn for new users.
Jesus Chacon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It has many interesting tools and functions when used with Visual Studio IDE. This allows us to integrate many features of the IDE to design each visual element using drag and drop controls to customize reports
  • We have been able to make successful connections to diverse data sources including SQL Server, MySQL, local and in the cloud
  • You can perform complex queries by incorporating SQL statements
  • There are no limits as to the type of data or objects that I can use. I can format the changes, add mathematical and logical functions, also add images configure the color fonts, all in design mode
  • There is no backward compatibility with versions of previous reports. Some updates could cause data loss
  • New versions take a long time to arrive
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Miguel De La Garza Rodriguez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Excelent integration on SAP B1 client install
  • Very easy for the user to access / export reports data
  • User permissions/controls to enable/disable unwanted users to access the reports
  • If IT department has no previous knowledge of crystal reports they will need training in order to start using it
  • It would be great to have objects integrated on the reports
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Page formatting.
  • Query generation.
  • Capturing requests at runtime.
  • Connecting to the database is complex and error-prone.
  • Scripting is done in Visual Basic for Applications, and can be hard to debug.
  • Changing the database underneath it can lead to problems getting back in sync.
September 03, 2019

SAP Crystal is a life saver

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • SAP Crystal is easy to use and easy to learn it makes pulling data out of Viewpoint easy and quick.
  • SAP Crystal has a ton of strengths when comparing weaknesses. One of its strengths is the speed of it. It pulls data super quickly.
  • SAP Crystal has a little room for improvement in combining data tables and making it a little less confusing.
Frank Hunt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Rohit Narang | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
February 27, 2019

Review Of Crystal Reports

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
Jane Kabochi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
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