Enterprise Reporting Solutions [closed]

Answer 1

In his blog at SAP Community Website, Henry Nordstrom, has given a very good evaluation of various reporting tools available. Though he has done the same from SAP usage point of view, the facts are applicable to anything else also.

Henry's Blog on SAP Developer Network

Answer 2

Having experiences with both (CR and SSRS) here is the lowdown of what I think:

CR lets you develop a report very fast. As long as its simple. If it gets slightly complicated, it gets fishy trying to make it do what you want. Per example you are limited to a max hierarchy of 2 subreports. It gets weird when you have subreports that need parameters that must be altered in a main report, etc. Plenty of workarounds but sometime they simply suck. Also the report layout is basically fixed; you have to put your data and info into the specific sections (Page Header/Footer,Details/Report Footer/Header). This is rather helpful as it helps you correctly display data that spans on multiple pages. Also it has a fairly complete set of functions that can be used to manipulate financial data and etc.

SSRS is more flexible around the report editing. Its report wizard allows you to basically create a report in a WYSIWYG environnement, it allows you multiple subreports so you can easily display multiple datasets in one page. It allows you to connect .NET assemblies to do complicated data manipulation/calculation. However, it can get hard to properly display your reports in a fixed way, you often have to struggle to get everything displayed as you want it.

Crystal Reports is $$$. SSRS, if I remember correctly is now bundled "free" in the SQL Server Enterprise edition. Of course you probably pay for it in the price of the whole package, I guess it's MS way to try and push it in corporate land.

Answer 3

A "pure Java" solution is i-net Clear Reports (aka i-net Crystal-Clear).

• Supports Crystal Reports templates as well as any JDBC data source.
• Comes with a FREE visual report designer.
• Good price for what it does, especially in comparison to some of the "pricier" alternatives.
• The latest version includes a web-based configuration tool as well as an ad-hoc report creation tool.
• Has a .NET port (with extensive API)

Answer 4

I've been using SSRS for a while now... and coworkers who look over my shoulder say it looks to be MUCH easier to do the SSRS thing than the Crystal. I've never used Crystal, so I can't tell you which is better, but I get the distinct impression that MS tried to rush SSRS out the door.

Largest weaknesses:

• Sharing Datasets. I work in a DoD environment. 90% of my reports use a Service parameter. I get sick of typing the same query over and over again.
• Skinning. If you do the report wizard you can skin your report, but not if you do it manually? huh? I can "skin"things by selecting all the affectedfields and then setting back colors,fore colors, etc. But nowhere (atleast no where I can find) can youskin something with 1 click.
• No custom skinning. Report wizard/ manual, there's no where I can find to implement a custom skin. Would be nice to just set up something (like CSS for HTML) and then just link to it. Tools should help you by reducing your effort rather than add to said effort.
• Matrixes need better documentation. I can do VERY simple things, but once I try to get into fun/difficult things, books/the internet seem to let me down. Tables don't have this issue.

Strengths:

• Very simple for an old SQL developer to get good reports that at least look better than the drek that dumping a restlt set to Excel provides.
• Custom sorting (use on most reports)
• Handles SP and Straight SQL. Love that I'm not locked into 1 path or the other (I've used both depending on circumstances).
• Price... once you've paid for Visual Studio/SQL Server... it's a freebie.

My 2 cents, hope this helps you.

Answer 5

One of the most comprehensive solutions is Cognos.

Dislike: You wouldn't believe how many CDs it ships in... its huge.

Answer 6

There are a number of really great solutions out there for Enterprise Reporting. Within the big four (BO/Crystal, MS SRSS, Cognos, Oracle) the basic reporting functions are all covered. You really need to evaluate what core functionality is most important to you and what the pre-dominant architecture in your environment is.

The consolidation within the BI market has made the environment issue all the more relevant. If you have an Oracle enterprise, you may as well use Oracle BI. The same applies for SAP/BO, IBM/Cognos, and Microsoft. Particularly if you are making a new BI decision.

Finally, there are a number of Open Source solutions (BIRT, Jasper, Pentaho) that make sense if you are an OSS shop or if you are looking to avoid some of the licensing fees associated with the major BI players.