Crystal Reports is a great reporting tool
July 31, 2018
Crystal Reports is a great reporting tool
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
SAP Crystal Reports
Overall Satisfaction with SAP Crystal
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.
Pros
- 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.
Cons
- 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.
As I said before I never used a reporting tool before Crystal Reports but I have since used SSRS. Crystal Reports blows SSRS out of the water. The reports look nicer and it was easier, faster, and better to create a report in Crystal Reports. Prior to using Crystal Reports I wrote reports by coding them using RPG on the iSeries. I could never go back to doing that.
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