Which is the better tool Business Objects or Crystal Reports?

[bad103]

Which is the better tool Business Objects or Crystal Reports?<br><br>Thanks,<br>B

 

[nickdaniels]

The simple answer is Business Objects.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, this does depend what you want to do.&nbsp;&nbsp;If it is the most basic, scratch the surface analysis you could use Crystal.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, if you have a reporting requirement now it will only become more demanding in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;I would recommend you start using Business Objects now, as it will allow you to do all standard reporting requirements and should give you a solid start point for more intricate analysis. <p> Nick<br><a href=mailto:ndaniels@ventura-uk.com>ndaniels@ventura-uk.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>If it's Data Warehousing or related then I want to know - but post it to the forum!

 

[icytrue]

In terms of pure report design, what features does BO have that Crystal doesn't?

thanks

Icytrue

 

[chadlmc]

BusinessObjects v Crystal is not an apples to apples comparison. Business Objects is a more robust tool that allows accross the board deployment functionality from desktop reporting to OLAP to SDK Development for extranet projects. Crystal offers desktop reporting but only at a minimal level. The semantic layer that is utilized in BusinessObjects allows for simple universe maintenance and mutie report creation. Also BusinessObjects can access multiple datasources to be used in single reports. Crystal cannot do this.

 

[AEldridge]

As Chadlmc states, comparing CR and BO is not comparing apples with apples...

Crystal Reports provides a much more capable report writer than BO - the learning curve is much lower and as it does not require the initial setup of the meta-layer you can get to work much faster. Also, as it is used as the embedded report writer by many popular applications (PeopleSoft, SAP, GreatPlains, VisualBasic/Studio, MSFT BackOffice, etc) it will be compatible with the files created in these.

However, CR is simply a content creation tool - it creates RPT files. If you want to share, manage and distribute these files to multiple users via the web, you should also consider Crystal Enterprise (which is included when you buy CR). CE allows you to take the RPT files created in CR and publish them over the web in a variety of formats (CR native with ActX, Java or HTML viewers, PDF, XLS, XML - the list goes on). CE can also publish contect created with Crystal Analysis - their OLAP report writer.

CE provides a true N-tier application architecture that is a more accurate competitor to the BO architecture.

At the end of the day, you will need to determine what your key requirements are and select the appropriate tool based on those needs. Often the easiest way is to contact both vendors and evaluate the tools side-by-side.

I hope this helps.
Alan Eldridge
Melbourne, Australia