Jaspersoft -- Flexibility and Power at the Core of your Business
Updated March 02, 2018
Jaspersoft -- Flexibility and Power at the Core of your Business
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with TIBCO Jaspersoft
Pros
- Flexibility. TIBCO Jaspersoft is extremely flexible. We use the embedded report engine to crank out thousands of static reports in PDF and Excel format. We use JasperServer to serve up HTML and javascript based dynamic reports and dashboards through visualize.js. We also use JasperServer directly for working with data in an ad hoc fashion. There are even ETL capabilities (though we haven't really explored those much).
- There is also flexibility when it comes to connecting to different data sources, defining security, etc.
- Within reports you aren't even limited to the libraries that JasperSoft provides! We've done some very rich and complex visualizations through JasperSoft using third party libraries like D3.js. Really, the sky is the limit.
- I haven't run into a data presentation problem yet that I can't solve at least in part by using Jaspersoft.
- Report creation tools. Jaspersoft Studio is extremely powerful. It is also a very familiar environment for folks coming from other report creation tools. This is important to us because we have to train dozens of report writers across our clients every year. For those that come from Crystal Reports, Jaspersoft Studio feels very intuitive very quickly.
- Pixel perfection. We have a lot of standardized reports from the IRS and other government entities. Jaspersoft makes it easy to put a very visually complex form together quickly and accurately.
- Power. I have yet to run into a reporting problem Jaspersoft cannot solve.
Cons
- Excel defaults. When designing a report for PDF then exporting to Excel, Jaspersoft, in an effort to maintain pixel perfection, makes the excel version a bit unusable. It is possible to mitigate some of that with some intelligent directives but it would be easier if some things -- getting rid of extraneous rows and columns, for example, would behave a bit more intuitively without intervention.
- More intuitive security on JasperServer. Much of the security features on Domains and Ad Hoc reporting require either direct manipulation of SQL, XML, or repository placement. I'd like to see some intuitive screens for setting up security in a more visual and intuitive manner.
- More flexible security on JasperServer. I'd also like to see security down to the data source layer. Going through Domains is not always viable.
- Better automatic validation up and down the Datasource to Domain to Ad Hoc chain when there is a change to a datasource or domain.
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
Both the online and In-person training have been excellent. JasperSoft's documentation is second-to-none. There has been constant and continuous care from JasperSoft to train and retrain our own people as well as our clients on using the JasperSoft product.
The in-person training was done in our office and was very hands on. It lasted for two days and they asked plenty of questions to tailor the training to our needs (the original, stock, training is three days but we really didn't need the security bit since we embed JasperSoft into our own product which has its own security).
In short, they have been fantastic.
The in-person training was done in our office and was very hands on. It lasted for two days and they asked plenty of questions to tailor the training to our needs (the original, stock, training is three days but we really didn't need the security bit since we embed JasperSoft into our own product which has its own security).
In short, they have been fantastic.
The closest product we've used to TIBCO Jaspersoft is SAP Crystal Reports.
The only advantage Crystal has over Jaspersoft is that more report developers are familiar with it. Otherwise Jaspersoft beats it hands down. We have found Jaspersoft to be faster, cheaper, reliable, flexible, and powerful. And JasperSoft just offers more with its dynamic report output and ad hoc capabilities on top of standard canned report generation.
The only advantage Crystal has over Jaspersoft is that more report developers are familiar with it. Otherwise Jaspersoft beats it hands down. We have found Jaspersoft to be faster, cheaper, reliable, flexible, and powerful. And JasperSoft just offers more with its dynamic report output and ad hoc capabilities on top of standard canned report generation.
Jaspersoft Feature Ratings
Additional Questions
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
- Implemented in-house
Using TIBCO Jaspersoft
40 - All of our consultants and business analysts use JasperSoft daily to create and evaluate reporting products for our clients. Internally our Executive Team used JasperSoft for reporting of our time utilization and progress made toward milestones.
7 - We have four report developers that create reports to our client's specifications. We have one data analyst that uses JasperSoft to create visual analysis of the data generated by our clients and we have a couple of deployment specialists in operations that make sure that the created assets are deployed to our clients. We also have numerous business analysts and testers that check the generated reports for accuracy or that collect requirements from our clients for reports they'd like to see.
- Basic static reports against our client's databases.
- Dynamic Dashboards generated from our client's data.
- Ad Hoc reporting for executive-level employees of our clients.
- Some of our clients have been able to take dashboards that we've generated to be embedded in our products pages and repurpose them for their own public-facing portals. If there are any changes in the underlying logic, their portal dashboards are updated at the same time!
- Right now we use very specific 'Dashboard pages' to show dynamic reports and graphs. In the future, we plan on embedding dynamic, interactive graphs seamlessly throughout our product.
Evaluating TIBCO Jaspersoft and Competitors
Yes - Crystal Reports.
Crystal became prohibitively expensive. Further, it was opaque. When it failed, we just had to restart and hope for the best. They also discontinued the embedded product we relied on. JasperSoft took care of all of these issues in one fell swoop.
Crystal became prohibitively expensive. Further, it was opaque. When it failed, we just had to restart and hope for the best. They also discontinued the embedded product we relied on. JasperSoft took care of all of these issues in one fell swoop.
- Price
- Product Features
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
- Third-party Reviews
It is a tie between price and product features. JasperSoft allowed us to deploy to all of our clients with very flexible site licensing.
It also had all of the features we needed for static reports and many more to boot. And the development environment was very familiar to our users.
It also had all of the features we needed for static reports and many more to boot. And the development environment was very familiar to our users.
I wouldn't. It's worked out beautifully.
TIBCO Jaspersoft Implementation
Yes - First, we embedded the JasperSoft reporting engine into our product to create static reports in a way our clients were familiar.
Then we connected our product to JasperSoft server to give our clients access to the AdHoc capability. Then we embedded JasperSoft dashboards into our product. Next, we will seamlessly integrate AdHoc reports into our product.
Then we connected our product to JasperSoft server to give our clients access to the AdHoc capability. Then we embedded JasperSoft dashboards into our product. Next, we will seamlessly integrate AdHoc reports into our product.
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - Our clients were very nervous and resistant to change from Crystal Reports. We should have had more on-site training before we deprecated Crystal Reports.
- Figuring out the security module
- Figuring out deployment workflow with our current operations processes
- Training our clients to use the new system
- Excel formatting reports that Crystal handled automagically.
TIBCO Jaspersoft Support
Not Sure - JasperSoft
Yes - Yes it was.
We were attempting to create a link for the users of our product to jump into JasperSoft server and use the AdHoc features. Our main sticking point was security. Some of the AdHoc reports contained very sensitive information. There was a bit of an impedance mismatch between our security models. We also had a very limited understanding of JasperSoft's model. Over the course of several weeks JasperSoft stayed on the phone with us, answered our questions, performed go-to meetings to look at our code and security examples and, in general, did every thing they could to understand our security model and our aims and helped us craft a plan to make our end-user's experience as seemless as possible.
Using TIBCO Jaspersoft
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using | Requires technical support Slow to learn Lots to learn |
- Connecting to a Data Source
- Scheduling Reports
- Distributing Reports
- Creating Ad Hoc reports
- Changing underlying Domains
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