Item: SAP Crystal
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Crystal

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SAP Crystal Server software enables self-service access to reports, dashboards and data exploration within a secure BI infrastructure that’s quick to deploy. It was used by my department.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It requires a developer skilled in Crystal Reports’ proprietary language, but one of CR most touted benefits is its flexible, customizable report design.
Using CR, a developer can create highly formatted, pixel-perfect reports in nearly any layout desired and in up to 24 different languages.

Cons

Like other major business intelligence vendors, SAP typically buys technology instead of innovating it. As a result, a number of interfaces must be used to leverage CR, including a report designer and a dashboard designer.
Security is built into the report itself, so when you need a report for two different audiences, the developer must modify the security settings for each report- in effect duplicating the report for each person.

It's licensing model is confusing. There are a lot of product SKUs, many versions and a number of features. For example, you license the server, but then you need to get user licenses on the server, then there are add-ons. You need mobile user licenses for the server, plus you must license a designer tool to build reports and license a designer tool to build dashboards. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but as you can tell, you’re spending much more than the initial cost.

SAP Crystal Feature Ratings

Comments

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Edwin Tucker
(Vendor Representative) commented 6 years ago
Thank you for sharing your review. The report distribution platform, Crystal Server 2016, has simplified licensing compared to previous versions. With Crystal Server 2016 1 Named User License, also included are single named user licenses for each of the content creation tools: Crystal Reports 2016 and Dashboard Design 2016. Viewing through mobile devices utilize the same license for access: Crystal Server 2016 Named User License or Concurrent Access License. There is no separate license for the server itself; supplied with the software is an unlock code for the license type and size needed. Concurrent Access License, includes Publishing, which simplifies report design and administration, but allows for the distribution of individualized reports' content to unique recipients, retaining security.

SAP Crystal Reports and Crystal Reports Server

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