Crystal Reports Administration: Solving Network Capacity Problems

Your IT department is getting complaints about slow network response. You've discovered data packet crashes, as well. And you know most of the time there's a system slowdown, it's because of the sheer number of Crystal Reports being distributed. You don't know how much longer you can avoid political repercussions, which means you must do something. Now.

So far, your two proposed solutions have been shot down:

1. Upgrading your network to a higher physical capacity would result in a layoff-inducing budget crunch. Word from the CEO is to find another way.

2. Upgrading to Crystal Enterprise would probably solve your problem, but you aren't sure of anything except it costs a lot.

With these options off the table, what can you do? You must accomplish one or both of the following:

1. Reduce the overall amount of megabytes being transferred across the network.

2. Reduce the peak transfer load at any given time.

How do you accomplish number one? Here are some choices--you pick the correct answer:

1. Ask people not to send as much e-mail, and to edit any e-mails they do send down to the bare essentials.

2. Prohibit attachments to be sent or received via e-mail.

3. Reduce the number of Crystal Reports being used and reduce the size of the distribution lists.

4. Optimize the Crystal Reports you are using, so they require fewer resources.

If you chose option #4, congratulations! If you don't have a tool for optimizing your Crystal Reports, you need Report Analyzer. If you are using some other tool, you still need Report Analyzer. If you don't have Report Analyzer Version 4 or later, you need to upgrade!

OK, so now you have reduced the total load on your network. But you still have the problem of a flood of reports going through the network. You've tried to explain this is like 10 people trying to get through the same door at the same time, and you want a bigger "door." But, you can't afford to upgrade your whole network.

The obvious solution here is to schedule your reports.

Instead of all kinds of reports going out at the start of the workday, you can use a  scheduler to begin sending those reports during the offpeak hours--when network traffic is at its slowest. You can remove the entire Crystal Reports load from the network simply by using a  scheduler.

Compare that to the cost of upgrading your network or taking administrative steps that undermine productivity, and you see that the scheduler isn't just inexpensive--it's effectively free, because you recover the cost (and then some) in freed up resources you would otherwise have to buy.

Also, take a good hard look at the reports you're sending out. Can they be simplified and reduced? Sent less often? Sent to fewer people? With information overload being a real problem today, you should make it a priority to determine who doesn't really need a given report, and winnow down your distribution lists. That will reduce network load, but more importantly reduce worker load.

This article is copyrighted by Crystalkeen, Mindconnection, and Chelsea Technologies Ltd. It may be freely copied and distributed as long as the original copyright is displayed and no modifications are made to this material. Extracts are permitted. The names Crystal Reports and Seagate Info are trademarks owned by Business Objects.