Stick with Crystal?

[chri3s]

The company I work for has an electronic medical record. I compose views from the database in MS Server then use the views to write reports in Crystal 10. We're considering upgrading so I'm asking the group:
1. Is the current version of Crystal different enough we'd get good bang for the buck to upgrade?
2. Should we consider going with some other report writer to have a different tool in the toolbox? If so suggestions are welcome.

TIA, Chris

 

[AndrewBaines]

I'm in the process of upgrading a customer from 10 to 2008. I must admit, I was surprised how much new stuff had been added - you tend to forget the old versions.
Dynamic Parameters and Custom Functions alone are enough to upgrade for.

There are always going to be alternative products. They'll always be better in some ways, worse in others. You can spend a load of time and money converting your existing reports only to find there's something else that's annoying! Better the devil you know

Andrew Baines

http://www.pursuittechnology.co.uk

 

[chri3s]

Thanks Andrew,
Just wondering why you would choose to upgrade to 2008 instead of 2011? Chris

 

[AndrewBaines]

They're uprading from Crystal Enterprise 10 to Crystal Reports Server 2008.
Crystal Server 2011 is just too resource intensive & you can't migrate from earlier versions if there are any non-rpt instances (fixed in SP soon). There's also no upgrade from Crystal Enterprise 10 to Crystal Server 2011 without upgrading to 2008 first.

They use a custom user portal that manages the licenses very well too, so not interested in the new web UI, so no advantage to them on the server side.

On the issue of Crystal Reports 2011, they're not interested in rptr, or big Excel grids, so nothing new for them.

If you're looking at just using Crystal Reports with nothing on the server side, then go to Crystal 2011. No great improvements, but it will be supported for that little bit longer.

Andrew Baines

http://www.pursuittechnology.co.uk

 

[chri3s]

Thanks very much, chris