Crystal -- Good software if it is still 2005
September 15, 2019
Crystal -- Good software if it is still 2005
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
SAP Crystal Reports
Overall Satisfaction with SAP Crystal
Many custom reports are developed by our IT department to serve our various departments. At this time, it is largely used for legacy reporting and for personalized, highly formatted emails. Many of our older reports are written using Crystal Reports. We are gradually phasing out those reports and moving to SSRS.
- 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.
- It was a state of the art product in 2000, with minimal investment ever since.
- We are moving to more agile, cost-effective solutions.
As I stated in the previous question, the SQL Server reporting engine provides necessary scheduling services to allow for employee self-service. It also supports granular security, based upon active directory, to control who can see which report. SAP Crystal is still superior when it comes time to produce a highly formatted report. If it is any time after 2005, I would skip Crystal.