We have just launched our internal BI Portal based on a set of WebI based reports. Initially our decision was to use WebI as the default coporate tool to develop any kind of reports and to use Crystal Reports Enterprise for particular cases (need to print to word) in order to reduce cost of maintenance. Menawhile our internal developers are pushing to replace WebI by Crystal as corporate report developer tool and to leave webI only for ad-hoc queries. They argue that Crystal provides much more capabilities.
What do you think? Do you think that SAP product roadmap will some day consider merge this 2 tools?
If you are always going to use Universe as the source then I suggest you use Webi as far as possible. Because you can use full capability of universe while creating reports. See attached documents for advantages and limitations of using crystal with universe.
I know it is difficult for Crystal developers to move towards webi as Crystal is very powerful. But it is not a good tool for ad hoc reporting. You can not re-use the logic (like join, condition, formula etc in other reports easily). But Crystal developers should have patience while moving to Webi and you should use crystal when it is unavoidable(ex. very complex formatting, for BLOB data type images).
Remember Webi is also very powerful if used to its full potential.
Also, universe support in Crystal is ok, but there are some limitations as to what you can do with it. When I’m using Crystal, I much prefer connecting directly to the database instead of using a universe.
Unless you are using universe, Crystal Report is a terrible tool when it comes to change management. The data connection is embedded into the report. When you are promoting the report from Dev to QA to Prod, guess what? You have to manually change the connection. Your internal audit folks will absolutely hate it.
As I have said that in my presentation at SAP BusinessObjects Users Conference last year, SAP is really misleading their customers to think that Crystal is the ONLY tool for pixel-perfect report and WebI is only good for ad-hoc reporting. I have personally seen many perfectly formatted reports that are created with WebI.
As of merging WebI and Crystal, you are not going to see that in the next decade…if not for your lifetime. With that being said, SAP is attempting to move Crystal to web-based to be in sync with other SAP tools. Crystal For Enterprise is their first stab.
Alf-gon,
It sounds like your developers are “old-school” Crystal people (whom typically abhor Webi & Deski), and are trying to use some old IT Politcs to ignorantly get they’re way.
If any Report developer says that Crystal offers “much more capabilities” over Webi (and/or Deski), I would venture to say that those same developers probably have never really created a Webi Report before.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of two (2) features that Crystal has over Webi. Connecting to more disparate data sources, and a couple more exporting formats. Thats about it.
IMHO, I find Crystal extremely difficult & time-consuming to use, and is about the most UN-user/developer friendly reporting application I’ve ever seen & used. I find the features, functions and general usability & development time in Webi & Deski GREATLY overshadows Crystal.
I use CR on a daily basis. I will freely admit that I do not know much about WebI. I have tried to ‘re-create’ a CR in WebI with limited success. Mostly my issues were with grouping and getting running totals, counts to work the same. It has been a while since I tried, so details of my issues are fuzzy.
I like the fact I can put together a report by connecting to a DB and dragging in fields pretty quick. I also have tried using Microsoft Report Writer, it has some neat features, but some things are harder.
Thanks to everybody for the provided comments. My impression is that we take the right decision (use webi as standard report tool and use only CR /Enterprise in particular cases). You have provide me enough arguments to maintain our original plan.
They are 2 completely different tools for different requirements. Knowing both in depth they both have their own strengths and weaknesses and cant be deployed for the same requirements about 80% of the time anyway which is why they sit under the same architecture, Im still flabberghasted that nearly 10 years on post BO Crystal aquisition they are still considered separate tools (Crystal Server and BOE Pro licenses notwithstanding).
i.e. Webi, multiple tabs, OLAP based drilldown, very friendly parameter dialogs, input controls etc.
Crystal, can connect to anything, pixel perfect (webi is fiddly at best in this area), sub reports, integration with Xcelsius, the fact you can share code within reports, and also across whole environments, handles it`s own memory better etc.
(BOB member since 2008-05-26)
(BOB member since 2007-04-16)
etc.
(BOB member since 2006-02-08)