CRYSTAL REPORTS Jacob Grogan

CRYSTAL REPORTS AND WHY IT’S USEFUL? “ Crystal Reports is a popular Windows-based report generation program that allows a user to create reports from a variety of data sources with a minimum of written code.” (techtarget.com) Developed by Seagate Software, Crystal Reports can access data from databases and can integrate data from multiple databases within one report using Open Database Connectivity This means that SAP Crystal Reports can access any data from any application Examples-Microsoft Access, SQL Server, ect…

WHAT IS CRYSTAL REPORTS? Crystal Reports is a business intelligence reporting tool offered by SAP “IT professionals, report authors, and developers have been using SAP Crystal Reports software for almost two decades to create powerful, user friendly reports” It’s Purpose? To allow a user to easily create a report using data from a broad range of database types Can create simple as well as complex reports Typically used in small businesses

FEATURES & BENEFITS OF CRYSTAL REPORTS Features: The Intuitive design of the Crystal reports interface allows the user to easily find and manipulate data to create a report This ease of use allows any worker any of the functional areas of the business to run reports Crystal reports also has a broad range of data sources which include: Native, ODBC, OLE DB, and JDBC Connected to OLAP, Web services, XML, enterprise data sources and salesforce.com

FEATURES & BENEFITS OF CRYSTAL REPORTS… CONT. Powerful report delivery options Crystal Reports allows users to select which their preferred language and format of their report New support in Excel exporting This allows data to be exported into a single excel worksheet Mobile Support Also, Crystal reports provides users with Interactive reports are now available through mobile devices. Crystal Reports is Windows 7 compatible

REPORTING TO THE WEB In Crystal Reports you are not limited to only creating reports, reports can be published in many different formats which include but are not limited to Microsoft Word, Excel, and over the Web. Web reporting lets other members of your workgroup view and edit a shared report over the internet via web browser. By Crystal Reports supporting user editing over the web, It makes reporting accessible to users virtually anytime. This feature can increase work productivity immensely.

CRYSTAL REPORTS BASIC TOOLBAR FEATURES Similar to the Microsoft office suite, Crystal Reports has a toolbar that is very easy to use. Crystal reports has basic formatting such as: Bold, Italic, Underline, and alignment Crystal Reports also has useful data reporting tools such as: Database expert, text box, filter, group, and sort functions

SAP CRYSTAL REPORTS PRICING Crystal Reports costs: $ Upgrade to Crystal Reports costs: $ Crystal Reports XI Developer Full Product costs: $ SAP Crystal Server Full Product, 5 named user licenses costs: $2,495.00

CONCLUSION Overall, Crystal reports is an inexpensive reporting tool that can be easily integrated into a business because of its compatibility to many applications and intuitive reporting functions. Crystal Reports can be connected to a wide variety of databases with little effort from the user. Also, because this software is windows compatible it makes Crystal Reports an ideal candidate for business integration. With mobile support, report editing via web browser, and many publishing formats, Crystal Reports has proven to be a productive tool for businesses and is a great way to make a business more efficient.

REFERENCES techtarget.com SAP Crystal Reports 2013 User Guide