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.