Crystal Report Writer
A Crystal Report Writer must have not only the technical knowledge of how to create a custom Crystal report, but they must have the business and communication skills to gather the proper requirements.
The first to Crystal report writing is to gather the report requirements from the end user. Mockups, screen shots, parameter specifications, ..etc are very helpful. A general understand of what information and questions the report answers for the end user is a must.
Next, the technical work begins. Crystal Developer is the application that Crystal reports are produced in. The file is a .rpt file. After this file is produced, you can view the report on your local machine; however, what if you want others to view the report? You must have a place a place to publish the report too for others to view it (unless you just send them a pdf or the rpt file for them to view in their copy of Crystal Developer). Normally, Crystal is embedded in an application, so you just publish it to that particular app. There is also Crystal Enterprise which provides a web portal to publish your reports too, but this software costs extra. SQL Server Reporting Services is an alternative that comes with SQL Server a no additional cost.
Within Crystal, you have to create a dataset that must connect to a datasource (such as SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, ..etc). After you are connected, the you can pull in your tables so that you can write logic against them to produce a proper report dataset. If you bring in more than one table, you have to “link” or join the tables together properly. Crystal will try to do this for you, but it is no always correct.
Now that you have your dataset, you can begin writing Crystal syntax for formulas, fomating, ..etc for you report. Reporting Guru recommends that you put as much logic as possible down at the database level. This allows you to reuse logic on different Crystal reports or different report engines such as SQL Server Reporting Services. You can arrange he columns as needed on the report palette or use Crystal objects such as crosstabs.
Now that the report is complete (rpt file), you must publish to a location. As previously stated, you must have a custom application or Crystal Enterprise to publish the report too.
If you need help, a Reporting Guru is always available to be your Crystal Report Writer.
How Crystal Reports Consulting Services Can Help Your Business
A lot of businesses purchase Crystal Reports software but a lot of them don’t utilize this tool to its full potential. As a result, the tool doesn’t perform as well as it could and the business using it doesn’t get the benefits the software can provide.
How can you get more out of Crystal Reports?
There are several aspects of Crystal reports consulting services that can help you get more out of this software.
*Training
*Consulting
*Report Writing
*Professional Services
Training
If you need basic reporting done, you need to learn how to write reports. This isn’t overly difficult but can have a steep learning curve if you’re not very technically inclined. Arranging for training on how to use this software tool can provide you with the ability to write custom reports for your business so that you can capture the type of data you want whenever you need it. Once you understand the basics of report writing, you can also begin creating more advanced reports on your own.
Consulting
Are you looking for Crystal reports help and other resources?
A lot of people that use Crystal Reports software don’t use it to its full capability. This might be because they don’t have the in depth knowledge of reporting and data mining and it might also be because they haven’t taken the time to dig in and really uncover all the bells and whistles the tool has. A consultant can shorten learning curves and can help you implement solutions for your business that allow you to use this tool to gather data that can make a big impact on improving your business.
Report Writing
Perhaps you’re using this software or another report writing software today for some basic reports but you don’t know how to get the data you need out of the tool. You can hire professional services to write reports for you. Not everyone loves data and not everyone is analytical enough in their thinking to sit down and be able to decipher how to run an advanced report. Instead of fussing with the tool and trying to learn how to do this yourself, you could hire professional services to simply provide you with the reports you need either regularly or on an ad hoc basis.
Professional Services
Other professional services for reporting consultancy could include implementing a solution to get reporting from. Crystal Reports can’t provide data if you don’t have the right programs in place to create information about your business transactions. You might want a solution implemented that Crystal Reports can draw information from. A professional Crystal Reports consulting firm can help you define your needs, implement a solution from start to finish and can also continue to provide after sales support as needed.
Need Crystal Reports Help?
Do you need Crystal Reports help? Despite how easy they make it sound to write your own reports, not everyone thinks in terms of 1’s and 0’s and greater than, less than and equal ‘to’.
Many find that once they’ve gone through the motions of writing a few reports, it becomes old hat but for some people, that struggle is rather frustrating. Whether it’s frustrating because you can’t get past an error message or report coming back with ‘0 records found’ or because you just can’t wrap your head around the basic directions you can get help.
Getting Crystal Reports Help
You can find help by searching through a knowledgebase, asking questions on a forum, fiddling through a manual, and searching online for your specific query. You can also utilize a support service. A support service can help you specifically and this can save you time and effort. It will probably cost you money but in the long run, you might decide that it’s worth the return on investment to get custom help straight away.
custom Crystal reports can help you and your team make wiser business moves.
As time progresses with using this reporting tool, you’ll become somewhat of an expert. That is of course, if you decide to keep at it and continue to read up and familiarize yourself with it so you can become an expert. Some people just find that they aren’t built for data analysis and just don’t enjoy it. In that case, it might be very prudent to secure the professional services of a reporting consultant who can rescue you from the depths of data prison and simply get you the data you need all packaged up pretty with a perfectly tied bow.
What are some of the common questions new users have with Crystal Reports?
Licensing
People are often confused about licensing issues. They don’t know if they can share their Crystal Reports license with another user. The product is licensed per named user and if it comes with a particular product as an OEM version, it can’t be transferred to a different product. If your company needs several copies, you may be eligible for a volume licensing agreement and discounts plus if you need a new version of Crystal Reports, an upgrade license is something you’re probably eligible for which will save you substantially over buying a net new copy. It’s important to review the EULA to be sure you’re in compliance with any software publisher’s terms.
Compatibility
People often have questions about compatibility with particular programs. This product supports a wide variety of data programs and when you purchase it, you can get pre-sales support so you are assured that you’re buying something that will do what you need it to do.
Training
People are also often in need of training so that they can effectively write reports on their own. Basic functions of the program are quite easy to master with a bit of practice but you might need help and training is available to help you either as self-paced training or via a classroom experience with a training consultant experienced with report writing.
You might want information on how to get more advanced reporting out of this tool as well in which case getting Crystal reports help from a professional consultant could prove very beneficial.
Getting Custom Crystal Reports
Reporting tools often offer some basic canned reports but you might want something more custom. Crystal Reports is a popular reporting solution because of its scalability and customization features. It works with so many products and many users find that they’re able to easily write their own ad hoc reports in very little time.
Business intelligence is vital today. That’s why there are so many products that can help you get data from your databases. By pulling knowledge from your systems you can forecast, plan, grow and change your business. This can help you stay afloat and evolve with the changing business tide. As boring as data mining might sound, the results are actually exciting because you can see your business’s pluses and deltas and today’s business reporting tools make it a breeze to grab any piece of information you need.
There are a lot of Crystal Reports products available including:
*Crystal Reports Server Edition
*Crystal Reports Viewer
*Crystal Reports Visual Advantage
*Crystal Reports for Visual Studio
*Crystal Reports for Eclipse
*Crystal Xcelsius
*CrystalReports.com
Crystalreports.com Crystal Reports Starter Edition
A starter edition can be tried out for free so you can see what this program can do for your business and once you’re ready for some enhanced functions or for some more robust custom Crystal Reports you can get a low cost professional edition priced monthly at a great fee for ten or more users.
Every business can benefit from business intelligence advisors.
Being able to run and share reports can be very helpful for your business and getting customized reports can help you as a contributor shine and as a business owner learn to grow and evolve.
Those who strive for excellence in business are not complacent. The best way to continue to evolve is to analyse your business so you can see where your strength and weaknesses are. You might also need reporting for a parent company, for your financial records and for potential investors.
Business intelligence can help you stay ahead of the curve and outperform your competition and having access to custom reports can help you continue to drill down through every nook and cranny in your business to improve the business overall.
Crystal Reports is very user friendly. A bit of training can help users be self-sufficient in no time and enable them to run their own reports and customize those reports as needed. This software solution has evolved over the last several years and continued to increase its user base. Many experts consider it to be the industry standard in terms of user generated reporting that can help a business in many ways.
In some cases you might need expertise beyond your current level of knowledge. There are consultancy firms that can help you with implementation, custom Crystal Reports, training and other help.
