What is our primary use case?
My usual use cases for SAP Crystal Reports involve designing reports based on the requirements of the clients and management, such as profit and loss, graphs, multiple reports, sub reports, and dashboards.
One of the best features of SAP Crystal Reports that I have found most valuable is the sub report, which allows me to merge many reports into one report.
The ability to integrate SAP Crystal Reports with other SAP applications benefits my organization very effectively in terms of data analytics and reporting because if I am stuck on something, I can use SAP Crystal Reports as an analytics tool similar to Power BI, and inside SAP, I can use many dashboards with this report, which is very useful for SAP, such as SAP B1 or SAP S/4HANA.
What is most valuable?
I assess the impact of SAP Crystal Reports' dynamic parameters on the customization and flexibility of my reports as very good. Sometimes it creates a problem when it suddenly closes during work due to improper shutdowns, but most of the time it's beneficial since I can fetch the data in one report very efficiently, which is great for the company.
The sub reports in SAP Crystal Reports help me enhance the depth and detail of my reports by allowing me to use multiple sets of records, especially when I have very large requirements, such as company dashboards that show what sales, purchases, productions, and HR are doing. Using sub reports as the main report is very beneficial because I can pull multiple department data into the main report.
Over the years, SAP Crystal Reports has had a very positive impact and benefits. It's a powerful tool to design any kind of report if you have knowledge of the database, and it can attach to both HANA and SQL databases. I can also connect this data with Excel, which makes it a very powerful tool for me.
What needs improvement?
I believe SAP Crystal Reports could be improved or enhanced because one of the problems I am facing with it is that sometimes it hangs and uses too much memory, which is frustrating. If it is closed due to any problem, it should be able to recover where I left off, similar to Excel, which should be a feature for SAP Crystal Reports.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with SAP Crystal Reports for 14 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
My usual experience with the deployment and installation of SAP Crystal Reports is straightforward. It's not too complicated, and if you know the basics of installation, you can do it easily. While development and deployment might require some technical knowledge, it's not typically too difficult, though sometimes it can be challenging if you're unfamiliar with certain things.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I measure the efficiency gained by my organization from SAP Crystal Reports' multiple export format options, such as PDF, Excel, and Word, as very good. Most of the time, there is a need to send customer invoices, vendor invoices, or pay slips, and being able to export in PDF or Excel and send it to the concerned department makes it a very good tool.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I evaluate the scalability of SAP Crystal Reports as 10 out of 10.
How are customer service and support?
I assess customer service and technical support of SAP Crystal Reports as satisfactory. I have not needed any technical or customer support since purchasing it, and I have not encountered any problems requiring assistance.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Since my career started, I have been using SAP Crystal Reports and have not used a different solution for these use cases.
How was the initial setup?
I normally participate in the initial setup and deployment of SAP Crystal Reports by myself.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with SAP Crystal Reports. If you buy SAP, you should have this tool because at the end of the day, management needs to see the output of the system, such as sales and purchases data, and while you can design things in Excel, not everything is covered without SAP Crystal Reports, so it's a very good investment for my company.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am aware that the pricing of SAP Crystal Reports gradually changes. When I bought it last time, I don't remember the exact price, and I need to check the current price on the portal.
SAP Crystal Reports is neither too expensive nor too cheap. You can afford this tool very easily.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options or vendors because most of the software is recommended as SAP Crystal Reports, which is why we stick with it. Most ERPs are using SAP Crystal Reports, so we will not consider another tool.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the stability of SAP Crystal Reports as 9 out of 10. My overall rating for SAP Crystal Reports is 10 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other