SAP Crystal Reports Reviews

In my experience, the strongest feature of Crystal Reports is in developing automated business intelligence reports which convert raw data into actionable business intelligence.

In 2000 when I joined a manufacturing firm, most of the accounting data was exported into spreadsheets, consequently extensive time was spent on preparing reports and making timely decisions. In 2002, I initiated utilization of the MS Access Reporting tool by importing Excel files into Access. I created reports about all accounts including customers, suppliers, employees and entities related to the business. I soon realized that MS Access reporting is a good start, but it became hard to integrate data from variety of sources, in addition to an additional step of importing data into MS Access. On further research, I found Crystal Reports to address the issue of data integration, and hence utilized Crystal Reports 8-9. I found Crystal Reports to be an excellent dedicated reporting tool, and I invested time in taking advanced training.

I would like to have horizontal paging like crosstabs.

I have been using Crystal Reports for the last 12 Years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

This is a mature product and so I have not came across any major stability issues.

It's been able to scale for our needs.

Previously, I used MS Excel, then Access before moving on to Crystal Reports.

It was fairly straightforward.

We performed an in-house implementation and this should be fine for all cases.

I found Crystal Reports to address the issue of data integration, and hence utilized Crystal Reports 2013. Crystal Reports is an excellent dedicated reporting tool, and I invested time into advanced training. I would say Crystal Reports is great tool, and has been in the business intelligence arena for a while. Hence, it's an excellent choice.

What I like about it is that it's easy to use and it provides good connectivity to various databases.

We use it for all of our operational and tabular reports.

The visualization needs work as the look is not very appealing. The UI definitely needs some updating.

Also, SAP charges an annual maintenance fee. Be careful, too, with the license model. I'd suggest that because Crystal Reports is for tabular reports, use another product for true BI.

I've used it for 10 years.

There have been no issues with the deployment.

Some reports take a while to be generated.

We've had no issues scaling it.

In my experience, the level of technical support is not good. They are, however, able to resolve issues in a timely fashion.

The initial setup was easy and straightforward.

Some reports come out-of-the-box within our applications and we built some others. So you could say that implementation was a combination of SAP's product as well as our in-house team's efforts.

Be careful with the annual maintenance fee, and get CPU based report access. Be careful with the license model. This product is for tabular reports, but for true BI reporting, use another product.

We are retiring Crystal Reports soon, and it will be replaced by IBI WebFOCUS and SQL Server Reporting Services.

Eliminate the reserved space in Page Footer section.

Find an easier way to utilize the Database > Links feature, or allow the ability to alter the selection SQL. Crystal Reports makes too many assumptions, causing odd results, which can sometimes be corrected by altering the SQL or changing the links (providing you understand the link options).

Since 2011.

I did not encounter any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

I was not part of the search/decision making process. I don’t know why the organization’s developers/decision makers chose this product to present their reports. They continue to use it, so it must be satisfying their needs.

I have not yet used other products, so I have nothing to compare against.

The product is easy to learn for the basics. However, some features are difficult to learn and use (e.g., cross-tab tables). Documentation is minimal.

The product makes assumptions with table/view/stored procedure links, which can create unpredictable results.

The option settings (especially font settings) are global. I work with many customers who use different fonts and sizes. It is annoying to have to reset the option settings based on which client report I’m working.

The page footer reserves space; if you use a page footer on only the first page, it wastes real estate on subsequent pages.

One of the most valuable features is the ability to precisely place data fields and labels on the report canvas either in Design Mode or Preview Mode. This is a great feature because when a report page requires many data fields, each item needs to be as close as possible.

Another valuable feature is the ability to select and format or align multiple data fields and labels because there are times when a group of fields needs a smaller font or to be moved together across the page.

There are two items that would improve the product. One is a simple text search across all formulas, and the other is a debug mode that would allow the developer to step line-by-line through long or complicated formulas.

I've been using it for 17 years.

We have had no issues with the deployment.

There have been no issues with the stability.

There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.

For the most part, technical support is responsive and helpful. However, the majority of technical support is in another country which can cause problems scheduling a contact time and can hamper verbal communication.

The initial setup is straightforward. However, on a couple of occasions the licensing was corrupted and required uninstalling and reinstalling the software.

Implementation was done by our in-house team.

Pixel perfect static reporting.

Bought and sold many times and newer product releases do not seem to offer much improvement. Maps and gauges are pretty much worthless and you need to buy a third party add-on.

17 years

None encountered.

Early versions use to be very prone to crashing. Much better in the 2013 version

None encountered.

You try not to contact SAP, just Google search for answers to your problems.

You try not to contact SAP, just Google search for answers to your problems.

Back in the days (90s), Quick Reports that came with Delphi. Crystal Reports had more functionality hence the switch.

Straightforward set-up.

In-house implementation.

The ease of making simple reports. The facts that many people use it, hence a lot of expertise can be found on the internet and trainings are available.

I develop reports for customers, for an ERP system that collects a lot of data, but has very few standard reports. Customers use the reports for making decisions and negotiations.

• Sub-reports in sub-reports
• Making graphs is very cumbersome
• Exporting to Excel
• Using Stored procedures
• Complex SQL Queries

I've used Crystal Reports in general for about 20 years, and v2008 for about six years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

We have had no issues with the stability.

We haven't needed to scale it.

I wasn't aware of there being any.

It's very straightforward.

I have only installed the developer version, and that can anyone do with it’s eyes closed.

The training of users can be more expensive. User training can take two to five days, and in addition, the user needs to understand the database, the tables, and where to get the data.

The training of users can be more expensive. User taining can take two to five days, and in addition, the user needs to understand the database, the tables, and where to get the data.

It does what it does have to do, but seems development has stuck for several years now. Many things are not possible either. Complex queries are impossible, you need to make SQL statements. Sub report in a sub report is impossible.

It is easy to use and it connects to the major databases.

It provides trusted business information for decisions and operations management.

The sales, operations, and IT areas could use improvement.

I have been using Crystal Reports for 20 years, since 1997.

I have had no major issues with deployment.

I have had no issues with the stability.

This is a simple but powerful reporting tool. I don’t have scalability issues for more than 100 users.

I would give customer service a rating of 4.5/5.

Technical support is good. I would give technical support a rating of 4.5/5.

I used Excel, but that was a long time ago when the BI tools were very basic.

I have implemented both with a vendor team and in-house. My level is expert.

The ROI depends on your use. In the first implementation, it was very productive with sales increases and time reduction.

Today, I only use a standalone license.

If you are looking for a cheap operational tool, the Crystal Reports family is the correct decision.

It has a lot of flexibility and can be used with a variety of data sources. A lot can be done with grouping and sub-reports.

Our organization previously exported a lot of data to Excel. This had to be endlessly manipulated by sorting, cutting, modifying pasting, de-duping, resorting, etc. Using Crystal Reports means all this manual work is eliminated. The report comes out sorted and in the right format without need for any manipulation.

Crystal also has a lot of options for grouping and creating formulas.

Some features are difficult to use for beginning users, such as shared variables.

About 10 years

With older versions of Crystal there was frequent "crashing" and reinstalling of the program. I have not seen any problems with Crystal 11.

Straightforward. Crystal has an easy installation process.

In-house set-up.

It's a great product that can be used out of the box, however it's always good to invest in training.