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Crystal Reports:
Crystal Enterprise
This is a robust application that is extremely capable.
But, like many good things in life--it's also expensive. That expense may be justified, depending on the
size of your operation and the reporting needs you have.
Crystal
Enterprise is a Web-based application. We also offer a viewer that allow you to use a less
expensive desktop-based approach and still get the business intelligence
power of Crystal Reports. For many users, this is more than sufficient and
it provides an enormous cost-savings. See the cView links at left.
Now, about Crystal
Enterprise. This amazing software has evolved a bit since its
inception. Today, with Version 10.0, you must choose from among 4
editions:
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Embedded (RAS). This edition is for
developers. It comes free with Crystal Reports 10.0 Developer, but
there's a catch. To actually use any of the test applications you create
with this, you must have a license for Advanced Developer. You can
upgrade from Developer, or buy a separate license. But, hold onto
something solid or be sitting when you do this. That license is a lofty
$25,000.
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Express. This edition comes free with
Crystal Reports 10.0. Good thing, too. Express 10.0 has a limitation its
predecessor did not. That is, it supports only named users. The
predecessor supported concurrent users. Drag. This limitation carries
some implications. While it does provide security, it does not provide
for business views or scheduling. And, it gets worse. You can use it
only on a single server. Worse still, you can use it for only five named
users. Worse even still, you can add more users for $450 a pop. Ouch.
Consider Express a sorry excuse of a poor demo package--about like
Outlook Express is to Outlook.
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Professional. This edition comes free
with Crystal Reports Developer. Professional--ah, now we're talking!
This edition does support multiple servers and concurrent users. You get
scheduling and business views--great news. But, you also get alerts and
much more. But, with the good news is also some bad news. Like Express,
this is limited to five users. To add more is not cheap.
For a company that wants 25 concurrent users, expect to spend $64,500
for the processor license alone, plus another $17,500 for Named Users.
If you wanted 25 Concurrent Users, you'd be writing a check for $102,500
in addition to the license.
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Premium. It doesn't get any better
than this. Premium is what the name implies, and this edition has
everything CR has to offer. This performance comes, as you might
expect, at a price.
For a company that wants 25 concurrent users, expect to spend about
$88,000 for the processor license alone plus another $25,000 for Named
Users. If you wanted 25 Concurrent Users, you'd be writing a check for
$147,500 in addition to the license.
These prices are why we suggest you look
at products like
cView. Do keep in mind that many people look at a desktop
approach and go with Crystal Enterprise anyhow. They're not stupid. They
just have the funds for that level of performance. But if you can't afford
that, don't give up on Crystal Reports. Buy and use Crystal Reports, and use
our products to help you get the most out of it--whether you use Crystal
Enterprise or not.
If you do have Crystal Enterprise,
protect and optimize your investment with
Report Analyzer, Enterprise Edition.
"Report Analyzer does it all.
This is the best Crystal Reports 3rd party application on the
market today! The numerous features combined with great
performance makes Report Analyzer the ultimate documentation and
analysis tool." -- Brian Kuipers, CrystalInfo.Net, USA
Report Analyzer is the ultimate documentation and analysis tool for
Crystal Reports users and developers. With a comprehensive library
of analysis and documentation reports, Report Analyzer provides you
with complete documentation, analysis, and performance suggestions
for your Crystal Reports projects. Keep your investment in Crystal
Technology at its best performance using Report Analyzer!
How does Report Analyzer Work?
Report Analyzer connects to your local Crystal
Reports or Crystal Enterprise APS servers and imports their design
definition into a documentation database. These imported reports are
organized into documentation groups within the database to organize
your information for easy referencing and reporting.
How can Report Analyzer help you?
Report Analyzer now comes in two editions -
Standard and Enterprise (click
here for Enterprise features).
Both editions of Report Analyzer assist with:
Comprehensive report analysis
Reducing maintenance effort
Performance/design tuning
Change management
Test plan development
Extensive documentation
Improve report performance
Report Analyzer automatically detects potential
performance issues in your report design settings, including record
selection formulas, grouping options and database options.
Automatically detect reports that do not take
advantage of server side database processing.
Detect record selection formulas that use data
type conversion functions.
Detect group fields that use formulas instead
of SQL Expression fields.
Find report tables which use less than an
optimal number of fields.
Discover special fields which cause an
additional pass over the report data source.
Improve report reliability and maintenance
Report Analyzer documents over 30 design and style
settings.
Discover unused Formulas, Fields, and Variables.
Identify group settings that cause blank pages
and footers.
Identify missing standard Crystal documentation
best practices (Report Title, Author, Description special fields).
Locate reports which may use the "Convert null
field to default" setting inconsistently.
Keep versions of your documented reports for
historical comparison.
Speed development and maintenance
You can easily view dependencies between report objects such as
formulas, SQL expression fields, parameters, and database fields with the dependency viewer. Additionally, the powerful
query feature lets you view dependency information across reporting
projects.
View report designs in a design window similar
to the one in the Crystal Reports designer program.
Select design objects and view/print settings,
formula code (including conditional formatting formulas), dependencies
with other design objects, and call stacks (for formulas only).
Use interactive diagrams (trees) of formula
hierarchies, object dependencies and report design elements.
Click to enlarge
Query and print over 600 report settings across
all documented reports. Perform instant impact assessment for database
changes and formula changes across all documented reports.
Locate which reports use specific functions,
parameters, and design settings.
Click to enlarge
Project Management
Report Analyzer generates comprehensive
documentation of your reports, with over 100 presentation quality
reports. Complexity metrics assist with test case planning and
maintenance estimates.
Generate summary and detailed documentation.
Analyze report complexity metrics to assist
with test plan development and maintenance planning.
Easy to use documentation explorer to browse
and compare report design settings.
Print report design diagrams.
Print report data dictionaries.
Extensive formula printouts including call
trees, object cross references, formatted listing, and conditional
formulas.
All documentation can be exported in a variety
of formats including PDF, HTML and Word.
Uses Crystal Reports to produce the
documentation, enabling complete customization.
Plus more!
Click to enlarge
Disclaimer: Each Crystal Reports product
has its place. This review is personal opinion and is not meant to disparage
Business Objects or Crystal Enterprise. You should review all of your choices against your
business needs and make the the decision that's best for you. If you
find Crystal Enterprise is too pricey for you, then a less expensive
solution from Business Objects--combined with our world class
Crystal Reports tools--may be exactly what you need.
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