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SAP CR: A narrow but positive opinion
Updated January 16, 2018

SAP CR: A narrow but positive opinion

Stephen Swanick | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Crystal

We use Crystal Reports internally to aggregate large amounts of data into a few important outputs. The analysis we get from CR is hugely important to the service we provide to our clients. Without CR, we would be spending 10x or 20x the time getting crude data from Excel. CR helps make us efficient.
  • Customizable form appearance
  • Allows you to write complex functions
  • Reads multiple data sources
  • Can't use a "lookup table" - have to join/link data sources
  • Sometimes will misread the data type from a source table
  • Not compatible with .xlsx format
Unfortunately, I have no experience with other reporting packages.

Overall, CR helps us do things that we can't do in Excel. It adds a visual/design element to data analysis, and allows us to sort/screen/drill down/analyze data with great efficiency.

If the cons I mention are critical, CR will not be able to overcome them. You have to find a workaround or use something else.

SAP Crystal Feature Ratings

BI Platform ()
Not Rated
Supported Data Sources ()
Not Rated
8.0
Pixel Perfect reports
8
Customizable dashboards
Not Rated
Report Formatting Templates
Not Rated
8.0
Drill-down analysis
8
Formatting capabilities
8
Integration with R or other statistical packages
Not Rated
Report sharing and collaboration
Not Rated
10.0
Publish to Web
Not Rated
Publish to PDF
10
Report Versioning
Not Rated
Report Delivery Scheduling
Not Rated
Delivery to Remote Servers
Not Rated
Not Rated
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
Not Rated
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
Not Rated
Predictive Analytics
Not Rated
Not Rated
Multi-User Support (named login)
Not Rated
Role-Based Security Model
Not Rated
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
Not Rated
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Not Rated
Not Rated
Responsive Design for Web Access
Not Rated
Mobile Application
Not Rated
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Not Rated
Not Rated
REST API
Not Rated
Javascript API
Not Rated
iFrames
Not Rated
Java API
Not Rated
Themeable User Interface (UI)
Not Rated
Customizable Platform (Open Source)
Not Rated

Using SAP Crystal

3 - We use CR to support operations and perform services for client. It is not used for internal analysis.
We don't have any IT staff; just a small business.
  • Analysis of client data
  • No secondary use
  • No tertiary use

Using SAP Crystal

I've mostly harped on 3 complaints, but we use CR extensively and the ability to design complex formulas (that won't work in excel) is extremely helpful.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Well integrated
Consistent
Convenient
Feel confident using
Slow to learn
Lots to learn
  • Form customization
  • Formula construction
  • Data testing - just hit "refresh"
  • Combining multiple data sources
  • Data type assignment
  • XLSX integration