Crystal Reports Alternatives 1

[arachnoid]

Does anyone recommend any "affordable" alternatives to Crystal Reports?

We are currently running CR8.5 and it is going to cost roughly 175K to upgrade to CR10; which, based on this years sales, just isn't going to happen.

I have a budget of about 50K for an entirely new tool and I have no idea where to even start looking.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks,

 

[synapsevampire]

Check out Microsoft's Reporting Services, it appears to be poised as the Crystal killer, eventually...

http://www.dw-institute.com/research/display.asp?id=6969&t=y

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1544745,00.asp?kc=PCNKT0209KTX1K0100360

-k

 

[lupins46]

It's none of my business, of course, but who is forcing you to upgrade at all? I have clients who are buying V9/10 licenses and getting 'downgrade' keys from BO so that they can go on installing v8.5.

 

[IdoMillet]

What exactly are you upgrading? Many designer licenses or a CE platform?

Cheers,
- Ido



CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[arachnoid]

We are having several issues with 8.5 and are finding it VERY difficult to find support.

For instance, just last week, Crystal decided to quit exporting to .pdf format. We have no definitive answer as to why and the solution turned out to be creating a new user account to run Crystal in. Which fixed the .pdf issue, but caused many, many more.

How are your clients getting support? How are they distributing their reports?

We have put together a series of macros along with a program called Automate to dynamically generate our reports on a nightly basis. This is NOT a prefered method of distribution, but it is the only method we have been able to come up with that is cost effective.

Personally, I would prefer to stay with Crystal instead of having to learn a new tool and re-write 250-300 reports.

 

[arachnoid]

We would be upgrading to CR10. The cost incurred would primarily be for the concurrent user licenses as well as 10 developer licenses.

 

[IdoMillet]

What type of concurrent user licenses? CE?

Why do you need 10 Developer Licenses? Will you have 10 people developing applications with Crystal runtime components?

There are other report scheduling & distribution mechanisms that are relatively cheap, easy, and powerful. See a list of 3rd-party Report Managers at:

http://www.kenhamady.com/bookmarks.html

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Please check out Crystal Enterprise v10..For much less than 175K you can deliver your reports via a Web Interface or have them sent to users automatically.

The Processor-based license and a Report Distribution License will be well under that figure.

http://www.businessobjects.com/products/reporting/crystalenterprise/default.asp

 

[JohnEck]

If you are running SQL Server I highly reccomend converting to Reporting Services. It could save you a ton on maintenance costs. While I didn't have 250 reports to cenvert it was well over one hundred and had a fairly easy time converting reports. If you are dealing with a changing environment(who isn't) RS is much better than CR at dealing with it. Republishig modified reports is easier. Parameters are fully dynamic. There are a few concerns like no support for multiple select parameters and no built in print engine. You need to export to pdf to print. With the cost you outlined you may be able to purchase a server, Enterprise edition of SQL server and all the liscensing you need for significantly less than the 175K you stated for CR upgrade. It's worth a look and report conversion is not as hard as you think.

 

[ezypezy80]

------------------------------------
Crystal Report or MS Reporting Services
------------------------------------

I'm currently looking for a reporting tool, and I would appreciate any opinions or suggestions on what to choose.


What tool would be best to purchase, in terms of
- price
- features
- easyness to learn
- support


considering that:
The company I work for is using SQL Server. We are in Finance industry.

I am coming from VB 6 background and sometimes also using Access queries to create reports.

Thanks guys, looking fwd for your replies