Opinions on Crystal Vision Server

[JD5241]

We're mulling the idea of getting Vision Server, and I was wondering if anyone here uses it, and what your opinions of it might be... good points and bad points. I only know what I've read about it, haven't had the chance to install the trial software yet. I wanted to get a feel of how others might like it (or not). Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!


"It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear." - Norm

 

[synapsevampire]

I've looked at all of the products seperately.

If you're heavily leveraged in MS Office, specifically Excel, or wish to be, it seems a reasonable way to go.

I build dashboards in Crystal Reports itself, which are sort of kludgy at times, but they get the job done.

-k

 

[fwatanabe]

I just downloaded Crystal Xcelsius (part of Vision Server) and I'm fairly impressed. Dashboards are great, but what I really like are the what-if analyzer capabilities. And because it's in Flash, IT LOOKS SO GOOD!

The process of building Xcelsius files is a little roundabout, in that you have to start with an Excel file, but then after the initial design, you can update your data straight from XML. Seems a little weird, but hopefully they'll streamline that and make it feed straight from an RDBMS. It does have a few limitations, like the charts aren't as customizable as in CR or MS-Chart (I can't make a descending y-axis) but I think it's minor stuff in comparison to the benefits... people's eyes light up when I show them samples.

I would love to have Crystal Vision Server... We already run CRXI Server and LiveOffice may or may not be beneficial to our users, but I can already think of a dozen managers and VP's who would benefit from having Xcelsius based analytic tools at their fingertips.

 

[dgillz]

I would be a lot bigger fan of Xcelsius if it would use any data source and not just Excel data sources. However the XML sounds intriguing.

fwatanabe, do you know of anyone that does Xcelsius training?

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

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"making predictions is tough, especially about the future" - Yogi Berra

 

[fwatanabe]

No I haven't heard of anyone doing Xcelsius training. They have great sample files that you can download and deconstruct. It didn't take too long to get it figured out.

I think this product is a definite winner. I really hope BO puts some effort into developing it further!

 

[GoldenBill]

I am starting to use Crystal Vision Server and I think it is great. The way it works is you create a Crystal Report, that is how you link to the database. You then bind it to an Excel spreadsheet. This includes selection criteria right in the spreadsheet. You then import that spreadsheet into Xcelsius, as normal. You set the refresh time, as little as a few seconds. This way you get virtually real time information in your Xcelsius Dashboard.

 

[GoldenBill]

If you are looking for Xcelsius training contact this person:

blee@goldencg.com

 

[satinsilhouette]

Hi,

I like the Crystal Vision server, it makes life a tad bit easier. XML feeds dynamically as well, and if you have a SOAP server up and running somewhere, you could possibly piggy back off of it to feed the Xceslius file.

They are working on integrating live data sources with Crystal Xcelsius.

And I teach Crystal Xcelsius.

You can take a look at the next offering on

http://www.woodburn.com