A few months back I was invited by SAP’s PR group to be one of the “Crystal solutions experts” in an SAP sponsored competition.  The goal was to promote the CR product line and let some experts show off their reporting skills.  I was intrigued.  But thanks to my customers I have had a very busy year so I declined to be an official participant.   Instead I thought I would review the challenges and compare my own approach to those of the official participants.

So I was a bit disappointed when the project finally went public as the Reportapalooza.  Despite the name, the primary creative challenges are now for interactive dashboards rather than for reports.  Since very few of my customers are currently focused on dashboards I probably won’t be following this as closely as I had planned.  But I did read the PR group’s case study of the campaign and I found that even more interesting than the project.  I will be curious to see how effective a social media campaign is in the BI market.

My wife was reading something called “deal news” and told me that there was a free download for something from SAP.   It turned out to be Xcelsius (under its new name).   I downloaded it  just to have it but I probably won’t have time to play with it for a while since CR consulting is keeping me very busy.  But if any of you are interested in playing with Xcelsius you can try it out for free.  Note that it is no longer called Xcelsius, but is now known as “SAP Crystal Presentation Design”.  Also note that a promotion like this usually indicates a new version of the software in the wings.

In general, I think interactive dashboards Continue Reading »
Free download of Xcelsius

I just read a blog post by Blair Wheadon of SAP.  They want to encourage migration from Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services to Crystal Reports so they have introduced a way to run SSRS reports from within the CR Server environment.  This is intended to cushion the transition and means that you can get your reports and dashboards accessible from one system.  Note that this does NOT import the SSRS reports or convert them.  It just links to them so the run in the SQL Server environment.

What I found interesting is Blair’s explanation of how CR Server is a better solution – even going so far as to claim a lower TCO.  That is an interesting claim when you consider that SSRS is free for most users who are already paying for their SQL Server license.   If anyone would like to weigh in on either side of this issue, let me know.

This may not sound like much of a change, but I think it is important because it signals SAP’s commitment to the Crystal Reports platform and the value that SAP puts on the product.  According to this blog post by Blair Wheadon, Crystal Reports has now been promoted to a full ‘portfolio’ instead of just being a piece of the SAP/BO product mix. Xcelsius is even being re-branded as “SAP Crystal Dashboard Design” (DD) which clearly shows which product is considered the long-term brand anchor.

One comment made me smile. All of the products are now following the SAP naming convention with the goal of allowing us to “tell what the product does (at a high level) from the product name”.  What a novel idea.

Also tucked in the FAQ section was a note that the next major release of CR won’t be until 2011 – a bit later than I had expected.

There is a handy grid in a blog post by Ludek Uher.  It shows all the different SDKs and which versions of Crystal Reports supported them.  So if you have to upgrade a Crystal related application, and you want to know how far forward you can go and keep within the same SDK, then this grid should help.  Users have suggested that he create some similar grids.  If he does then this link will be even more helpful.

I don’t go off-topic much, but this article is one I thought worthwhile.  It is because I am constantly amazed at how little value people put on their time (or their employee’s time) when making decisions.  Maybe because I am self employed and bill by the hour I am more sensitive to wasted time than most people.

This article from the Boston Globe covers a study that shows that sometimes the security measures we are forced to follow aren’t worth the time they cost us, which is probably why compliance isn’t always complete.

Most of my readers know that I don’t think much of the various Crystal Reports certifications that have been offered over the years.  But for those of you find these valuable, you should know that SAP is changing the Business Objects certification exams to align them with the SAP exams. You can read more about it on this BLOG post by Kenneth Schieffer.

The summary is that there will be only one 3-hour exam for each product line (Crystal Reports, BO Enterprise and Web Intelligence).  Passing the exam now makes you an “SAP Certified Application Associate.  And if you are only partially through the current exam process you have until April to complete the exam under the old scheme. Otherwise you have to start over with the new scheme.

Thanks to Gordon Portanier of Crystalize in Canada for pointing this article out to me.

It appears that SAP will release a new version of Crystal Reports this year.  This isn’t a big surprise given that it has been two years since the last version.  There are no details yet but George Peck mentioned in a recent article that the SAP Users Group might give a preview in the next month or so.   Anyone have any details to share?

And thanks to Gordon Portanier of Crystalize in Canada for giving me the heads up.

If you need to buy an older version of Crystal Reports, all the way back to v8.5, you can now download them directly from BO (for $595).  This link includes all versions from 8.5 forward.

If you want to save a few bucks you can check on Ebay, where I regularly find older versions for sale.  Just make sure you know what you are purchasing.  In 2002 I wrote an article about what to look for when buying CR on Ebay.  That article still applies, although some of the product codes listed might be different in newer versions.

Or check with me.  I sometimes know of extra copies that are available.

There is a link on my library page that explains how to enhance the mapping feature in Crystal reports to include maps by zip code or county.  Unfortunately, adding these features isn’t free.  You have to purchase additional map ‘layers’ for the MapInfo module in CR.  MapInfo is now part of Pitney Bowes.

One of my readers, Robert Meyer, just let me know that he called Pitney Bowes and found that my pricing information was out of date. They used to sell zip codes and county maps one state at a time.  A zip code map for a single state was $395 for one user.  Now you can get a zip code map for all 50 states for $2,250 (still one user).  Not that this is cheap but it is much better than before.   A county map used to be $125 per state per user and it is now $495 for all 50 states.