Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports 2011 / Crystal Reports for Enterprise

April 30, 2012/0 Comments/in Business Intelligence, Posts /by Adam Getz

With the release of SAP Business Objects 4.0 in 2011, there now exist two distinct current versions of Crystal Reports (Crystal Reports 2011 and Crystal Reports for Enterprise). In building the latest release of Crystal Reports, the goal was to create an enhanced developer interface and the best possible connectivity with the new semantic / universe layer in SAP Business Objects 4.0. But the new release needed to also have zero disruption in the use of legacy and existing Crystal Reports. Subsequently, SAP Business Objects has released a new version of the product that is similar to the existing product (i.e. Crystal Reports 2011) and a next-generation product that has a completely been redeveloped and includes a new user interface and new underlying architecture (i.e. Crystal Reports for Enterprise).

Crystal Reports 2011: • Incremental update to CR 2008 with a few new features; • Focused on serving the needs of legacy customers; • Delivers existing functionality with no regressions; • Seamless upgrades from legacy releases of Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports for Enterprise: • Major update & re-design of the Crystal Reports Designer; • Connectivity with new unx universe / semantic layer; • Enhanced report design tool (smart formatting); • Many new features and functions; • Some regression of functionality; • Limitation to universe as a data source

SAP Business Objects has determined the Crystal Reports for Enterprise is the future of the Crystal Reports product line and subsequently it provides the foundation for all future releases of Crystal Reports. To this end, there are a number of completely new features in Crystal Reports for Enterprise including:: • Smart Formatting of Reports; • Streamlined Tab Control User Interface; • New Charting Engine; • New Multilingual Support; • New Alerting Mechanism; • Enhanced Connectivity with Universes; • Enhanced Connectivity with SAP BW

Of the many features in Crystal Reports for Enterprise, there exists one that will fundamentally change how developers interact with reports. This new feature is called Smart Formatting and it will greatly enhance report developer efficiency. With smart formatting, the Crystal Reports Designer automatically detects patterns in report formatting. And upon changes to the report, the designer will rapidly adjust the design of the report.

Crystal Reports for Enterprise – Smart Formatting

Features of Smart Formatting in Crystal Reports for Enterprise include:: • Automatic Resizing Of Colum Upon Object And Column Insertion; • Automatic Column Shifting Upon Object And Column Insertion; • Guidelines For Easy Column Resizing; • Ability To Drag And Drop To Reorder Columns

There are also number of features that have not been incorporated within the initial release of Crystal Reports for Enterprise. These regressed features that are not included in Crystal Reports for Enterprise v4.0 include:: • No Native Connections to Database; • No Support for Database Connectivity (ODBC, JDBC); • No Support for OLAP as a Data Source (except BEx Queries); • No Support for Live Office; • No Support for Enterprise Search; • Gaps within API and SDK

New Product Names within SAP BusinessObjects Version 4.0

July 14, 2011/1 Comment/in Business Intelligence, Business Objects, Posts /by Adam Getz

The latest version of SAP Business Objects, released in 2011, has been officially named SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 with the title “XI” being removed from the release number. Many of the client tools in the SAP Business Objects application suite will also have a new name in the new version.

Business Objects Application Names for BOBJ XI 3.x vs. BOBJ 4.0

Source: http://bit.ly/gVurCF

BI Market: Operational Reporting (Vendors and Products) – 2011

July 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Business Intelligence, Posts /by Adam Getz

Operational reports are pre-designed business reports that focus on listings of data at the detailed level with data presented within a highly-structured format. Also known as “canned reports”, operational reports enable organizations to present data in a logical format and are designed to support the day-to-day activities of an organization at the transaction level. They are typically developed by information technology (IT) departments and/or advanced report users that have a good understanding of reporting tools, business rules, and database concepts. In addition, operational reports can be scheduled, refreshed, and distributed on a regular basis. Fundamentally operational reports are used by people with the responsibility for improving their organization’s operations.

In 2011, the market leading vendors for operational reporting include: SAP Business Objects, Oracle, IBM, MicroStrategy, Microsoft, Information Builders (IBI), Pentaho, JasperSoft, Actuate, and LogiXML.

Components of SAP BusinessObjects: Crystal Reports

July 4, 2011/0 Comments/in Business Intelligence, Business Objects, Posts /by Adam Getz

Crystal Reports is an operational reporting environment and component of the SAP BusinessObjects suite of products. Fundamentally, it is a tool that enables report authors to easily design interactive reports and connect them to virtually any data source. It is the ideal solution for canned or published reports as it allows for the creation of high-fidelity, pixel-perfect reports. Additionally, end-users benefit from on-report sorting and filtering – giving them the power to execute decisions instantly.

More details and graphics of Crystal Reports can be found on the Portfolio Page.

Crystal Reports – Sample Report in Designer Tool

With Crystal Reports, report authors and end-users can leverage an intuitive interface, access data spread across multiple systems, design reports with guided interactivity, and embed reports within both client-server and web applications. Crystal Reports can be used for report design, application development, and web report delivery.

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 E-Learning Catalog

March 15, 2011/0 Comments/in Business Objects, Posts /by Adam Getz

SAP is now offering official product tutorials to assist in learning the latest SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 suite of products. Each product page acts as a dynamic library of material where content is added as it is created. Below is the list of products with available interactive and animated tutorials online. For more information on what’s available, please click here.

• SAP Crystal Reports 2011

• SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise

• SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

• SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

• SAP BusinessObjects Information Design Tool

• SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

• SAP BusinessObjects Analysis (coming in Q1-2011)

Resources: SAP BI Suite ELearning Catalog

Source: http://www.pieterhendrikx.com/category/sapbo/page/3/

Sample Charter for a BI Center of Excellence (BI COE)

December 9, 2010/0 Comments/in Business Intelligence, Center of Excellence, Posts /by Adam Getz

Sample BI Center of Excellence (BI COE)

In order to ensure a predictable and repeatable usage of Business Intelligence (BI) services across organization X, and to maximize the value of licensing cost, organization X’s information technology department has adopted the formation of a Business Intelligence Center of Excellence (BI COE). This BI COE performs at an enterprise level and serves as a cross-functional team with a permanent, formal organization structure. The team includes defined tasks, roles, responsibilities and processes for supporting and promoting the effective use of business intelligence across the organization.

In addition, organization X has chosen to standardize on an organization-wide reporting and decision support platform from SAP Business Objects to provide analysts and decision-makers across the enterprise with easy and flexible access to critical data. While Business Objects is being made available to the users through-out the enterprise, there is a need to establish and uphold best practices, guidelines, policies, standards and training to ensure the usability, sustainability and maintainability of the environment.

Fundamentally, the BI COE at organization X has three major responsibilities:

1. Application/security administration of Business Objects environment
2. Management and support of Business Objects application infrastructure

• Web Intelligence

• InfoView

• Crystal Reports

• Xcelsius Dashboards

3. Oversight, development, and implementation of enterprise business intelligence projects.