OLAP universes and Crystal Reports

Hi everybody,
as we know Crystal Reports can not use OLAP universes as data source. The details about that have been discussed several times in this forum, for example in the threads:
Logon failed with Universe data source
Logon failed when trying to connect to a SAP BW related universe
The possible data sources are perfectly explained in the Blog from Ingo Hilgefort.
/people/ingo.hilgefort/blog
But... why these connection type is not possible???
From my point of view these missing functionality comes with a lot of drawbacks. The universe has a lot of advantages, and first of all it is isolating the business users form technical complexities. But if the business users can not access to the OLAP universe they have to face to technical complexities.
Another point: Consider a perfect integrated SAP BW environment with Business Objects Enterprise and Crystal and Xcelsius. The administrator can now define a perfect universe structure, tailored on the particular business needs of the end users. This universe structure can be used for Web Intelligence and Xcelsius (QaaWS). But for the Crystal Reports I have to define another interface to the BW data sources, which can not be done by the Administrator.
So, some open questions:
- Why is the connect to OLAP universes not possible - does that make sense?
- Will the connectivity be available in future - is that part of the actual roadmap?
- What is the recommanded approach for a business case as shown above, meaning how can I isolate my business users from technical complexities by using SAP BW as data source for Crystal Report.
Thank you for any comments and advises,
Sebastian

Hello to everybody.
When I was starting to work on the BO products I had exactly the same question.
Why were the OLAP Universes not supported in Crystal Reports?
Well, I have a few facts in my mind, I explained the decision of SAP in this case with for myself.
1. Very simple and my first thought: monetary aspects. There excist the SAP Integration Kit. These drivers work pretty fine. So for what reason SAP should invest money in an other technique to access the SAP data?
2. It excist a server solution for small and medium-sized companies named Crystal Reports Server. I'm not sure but I don't think this package contains the Universe Designer. If acces on SAP data over the OLAP Universes would be possible, the Crystal Reports Server customers should also get the Designer tool and the Translation tool, too. Less profit margin.
3. Creating a Universe out of OLAP data destroys the moredimensionality. Universes are flat constructs. So maybe it makes no sense to use this meta layer.
4. A typical Crystal Report user isn't someone who had no technical understanding. For me these users should know and understand the data source very well. So an Universe would limit there the possibilities for building a report.
5. I think the SAP itself did not know where the journey should go with this toolset. A roudmap that changes severalt times in one year an many many rumours about these tools proof this.
So I think maybe we just have to wait a few months and the support for the OLAP Universes will come with a fix pack. Who knows...
Greetings,
Sebastian

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OLAP universes and Crystal Reports

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