Flexible and Easy to Learn
July 31, 2018
Flexible and Easy to Learn
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
SAP Crystal Reports
Overall Satisfaction with SAP Crystal
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.
I found Crystal much more flexible and easier to use for report building than Cognos. Crystal's menu system is similar to Microsoft Word and Excel, so it instantly seemed familiar. I had to do much more hunting in Cognos to modify the properties and formatting of a report. However, Cognos has more widespread capabilities outside of report building, like serving as a data warehouse.