Web Intelligence vs. Crystal

Looking for some specific arguments comparing Crystal to Webi. I have the white paper that provides some examples (i.e., Pixel-perfect production reporting vs. ease-of-use / analysis) but am looking for other examples and thought the development community could help. I have always thought performance was a key differentiator (Crystal is faster). Is this your experience as well? I have been using Crystal for many years but am new to Web Intelligence and am being asked why we would use Crystal when Webi is "so much easier". We have a universe that can support both products to eliminate the "I have to know SQL and database schema argument" but anything else you could provide me to help explain why Crystal is preferred would be helpful. Thanks.

I am in the same situation. I am a Crystal Reports / SQL Server developer. I am now with a company that wants to deploy Business Objects enterprise. Now what is to be the reporting tool?
What is the differences/ comparison of Crystal Reports and BO Web Intelligence.

Similar Messages

Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, or Net Weaver?

I am putting togeher a plan to create better reporting for a 50 seat user deployment that currently has SAP BW deployed.
Netweaver is up and running, but is clugey. I heard Crystal Reports is easier to work with. I also heard Web Intelligence allows more end-user capabilities, like querying. I expect our users to really hit the system hard once properly trained.
Thoughts?

Hi Jeff,
what kind of reporting are you looking to dpeloy ?
Crystal Reports is Enterprise reporting type and Web Intelligence is an Ad-Hoc reporting tool.
let me know what you looking for
Ingo Hilgefort
Business Objects

Crystal Reports - Web Intelligence Migration

Hi
I just wanted to know about the Crystal to Web Intelligence Migraton.
My client has Reports developed CR XI R2, now they have deployed BO XI R2.
Is there any tool/utility by which we can migrate existing CR reports into Web Intelligence Reports.
Or do we need to redsign report in WebI

Hi Kuldeep,
Its not necessary to redesign reports.We can publish those reports in BOXIR2.
Regards,
Shweta

Crystal Reports - Web Intelligence

Our customer has some reports defined in Crystal Reports XI.
Is it possible to change / port / convert a RPT (Crystal Reports) file to a REP (Web Intelligence Reporter) file?
They are currently on Web Intelligence 6.5 but moving to XI R2.
Thanks very much in advance.
Edited by: Paul Band on Sep 8, 2008 4:20 PM

Hi Paul,
Report Conversion tool is used to convert Deski to webi. However the option to convert Crystal to Webi is not available.
In case if more details are required regarding the Report conversion Tool, please download the RCT guide from the below link:
http://technicalsupport.businessobjects.com/KanisaSupportSite/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=xir2reportconversiontoolenpdf&sliceId=&dialogID=25464252&stateId=1%200%2025430943
Regards
Abhijeet

How Web intelligence is differ from Crystal reports

How Web intelligence is differ from Crystal reports

it depends on what's the business requirement that will influence what kind of reporting format you want to use.
to list few differences:
1. CR more suitable for complex reports webi used more for general adhoc tor quick reporting.
2. CR can be published to enterprise or can be saved to the disk and can be accessed using crystal reports SDK: CRJ or CR.NET. Where as webi is strictly accesses only via Enterprise. There are no webi SDKs for accessing webi reports in unmanaged ( not published to enterprise) mode.
3. CR SDK\ RAS more powerful than Report Engine SDK( used for webi)
4. To view a CR you can use page server and cache server. To view a webi report, you use only webi processing server, no cache server available in BO framework. Similar for scheduling webi reports its the webi processing server that does it all.
5. CR offers more options to connect to database than for webi.
6. CR has mutliple 3rd party exporting formats. Webi has fewer.
7. CR can be designed from CR designer desktop tool, or CR.com or on demand or using RAS SDK ( at runtime). Webi report can be designed in webi rich client desktop tool or java reporting panel( JRP) available in Infoview or any app that can load this JRP applet. in 3.1 you can use Java Report Engine SDK to create webi report from scratch at runtime ( like RAS for CR).
So not that 1 is better than other, it really depends on your business requirements are.

Connection from Web Intelligence over Universe to SAP ERP without SAP BW

Hi there,
is there a way to create a Universe which ic connected to SAP ERP (ECC 6.0) ? I want to use Web-Intelligence to create the Reports for my ERP-Data. But i don't want to make the way over SAP BW.
Otherwise i have to use Crystal because Crystal + SAP ERP Integration Kit can handle a connection to ERP. But then i have to waste a lot of time for the accuracy to a pixel which i dont need and i dont want...
Any Ideas ?!
Thanks
Sebastian
Edited by: smenzl on Mar 31, 2010 9:17 AM

Hi
you have 4 options:
1) Load your SAP ERP data into an SAP BW system and use OLAP universes to build WebI reports.
2) Use Rapid marts for SAP. This product comprises Data Integrator mappings that will allow to load your SAP ERP data into a predefined DWH based on a relational data source (like DB2, MS SQL Server or Oracle). It also includes a universe based on the predefined relational DWH that will allow you to build WebI reports.
3) Use the Data Federator with the SAP R/3 connector. Please note that the R/3 connector is NOT a product rather a prototype tand will be used at own risk (SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Reporting for SAP ERP [original link is broken])
4) NOT RECOMMENDED: Try to access the tables directly in the underlying database. Please note that this may work for some but not all of the ERP data. In several case the data are stored encoded in the underlying tables and there is no way to extract the required information. Additionally the ERP security will not be leveraged into the WebI report.
Crystal reports is the currently the only BO reporting tool, which supports direct access to SAP ERP data sources.
Regards,
Stratos

Date data from Web Intelligence Report not equal to Date from Source

Hi,
I am creating a Web intelligence report based on a BEx query. I have a field called 'Date' that I am bringing over from the BEx query. It has a format of MM/DD/YYYY. When I view the 'Date' in Web Intelligence, it is displaying as 1/1/70. For example, in the BEx Query, 'Date' = 11/01/2011. In Crystal Reports, it is showing up as 1/1/70 as the only date. The source field contains more than 1 date. I'm not sure what's going on. I am using the 14.0.0 (2010) version of the Web Intelligence through the BusinessObject Launch Pad.
Please help!
-Janice

Hi
The patches for SAP BusinessObjects BI4.0 are accumulative. This means you can download the latest patch (for the Support Package that you have installed) and it will have all the patch fixes
It looks like older patches are being removed from the sites & only the most recent patch or patches are available since they are accumulative
I believe Patch 2.15 should now be available, but anything later than Patch 2.6 should help you in this instance
I hope this helps
regards...ian

Web Intelligence differences between IIS, Tomcat, etc.?

Post Author: waynemr
CA Forum: WebIntelligence Reporting
I am involved in a deployment of Business Objects Enterprise XI r2 where the initial testing was done with IIS as the back end for Web Intelligence. When I went to training for BOSE, it was clear that the interface for Web Intelligence was extremely limited when IIS was used as the back end. So, I am concerned about moving my project forward using IIS. I can just imagine a few months down the road, after being trained, my users coming back and demanding all of the functionality of the Web Intelligence interface on top of Tomcat or Websphere. Unfortunately, the developers in my shop are almost exclusively Micosoft/.NET focused, so they are concerned about switching the project to a non-IIS back end. So... management wants to see a document describing what is or is not available on the Web Intelligence interface on each of the different back ends.Does anyone know of such a document? Additionally, does anyone know officially if some future offering would allow greater functionality in Web Intelligence, using IIS as the back end?Cheers!

Hi Antonio,
Webi reports can export tabbed worksheets to Excel, where Crystal can't.
Webi requires reporting from Universes. It cannot report directly from a database.
If a universe is designed well enough, it is a very good ad-hoc reporting tool for your users.
On the flip side, proper universe design is required for this to happen.
Webi functions and formulas are harder to use. A lot of the functions and aggregation must be done in the universe.
In short, Crystal has more functionality in the report designer. Webi requires a lot of designing in the universe first.
I prefer to use Webi as a reporting tool for users. For my purposes, I prefer Crystal because it's more versatile with less setup requirements.
Hope this help,
Brian

Bad performance in web intelligence reports

Hi,
We use Business Objects with Web Intelligence documents and Crystal Reports.
We are supporting bad performance when we use the reports specilly when we need to change the drill options
Can someone telling me if exists some best practices to improve performance? What features should i look to?
                  Best Regards
                        João Fernandes

Hi,
Thank you for your interest. I know that this a issue with many variables because that i need information about anything that could cause bad performance.
For bad performance i mean the time that we take running and refreshing reports data.
We have reports with many lines but the performance is bad even when a few users are in the system
                             Best Regards
                                     João Fernandes

Functions in Web Intelligence ..

Hi,
is there a possibility to create functions in web Intelligence like in Crystal Reports. Where i only have to change input Parameter example function
tax (InpParameter)
inputparameter * 1,19

User defined functions are not supported in WebI at report level.
Regards,
Stratos

Dynamic variables in Web Intelligence

Hi Team,
I am new BO reports. Have already worked on Crystal reports XI. With that knowledge, I have started working in BO web Intelligence reports.
I am able to create a universe and able to create a sample WebI report using the universe.
SQL viewer shows
SELECT
COLUMN1, column2,column3 etc..
FROM
TABLE1
Parallel to this activity, we have designed a java application to generate this report with some dynamic join conditions, query parameters and order_by clauses.
Using @variable('name') did not work.
Please suggest me on this
Thanks in advance,
Kathirvel V

Hi ,
We can create a WebI Report having seperate Report Tab for each customer and filtering the data based on the Customer using RE SDK.
So once the report is created and exported to CMS then it can be scheduled to Excel format.
But here the Number of of customers reduce or increase, then the Number of tabs may not reduce or increase when the document is refreshed.
So this will work only for creation and schedule in that same time.
Thanks & Regards
Hari Prasad

Web Intelligence Rich Client Loading time

Hi all,
Need some help.
Anyone know what's the specification requirement to use the BO XI R3.1 Client Tools example for Web Intelligence Rich Client. I have an issue from client saying that their Web Intelligence Rich Client loading too slow before they can reach the login page (not connecting to the BO Environment, just opening the Webi Rich Client program used approximately 50 seconds before they can reach the login page as they told us). Is it because of the specification issue or it's actually others factor that causing this "trouble"?
Thanks for the advise!
Regards,
Steve

Hello Steve,
I recommend to post this query to the [BusinessObjects Enterprise Administration|BI Platform; forum.
This forum is dedicated to topics related to administration and configuration of BusinessObjects Enterprise, BusinessObjects Edge, and Crystal Reports Server.
It is monitored by qualified technicians and you will get a faster response there.
Also, all BOE Administration queries remain in one place and thus can be easily searched in one place.
Best regards,
Falk

Web intelligence/desktop intelligence

Hi guys i would like to know the difference between desktop intelligence and web intelligence.When should we go for desktop and webi given a senerio.(i am new to BO).
Regards,
jiyyana

jiyyana,
Welcome to BO
Most of the below response is from the following site posted on/about 2/11/2008; you can visit there for some ongoing discussion:
http://www.geekinterview.com/question_details/62695
Desktop Intelligence (DeskI) Reports: These are standard "rep" -type files created from BO's full client known as "Desktop Intelligence". The software is loaded individually to each workstation that will execute Deski. A Deski report can be modified/viewed using the full client as well as applying all the tools/options available when using the full client. As an added "benefit" a saved rep (Deski Report) can be imported to the XI web platform for "public" execution/view (but not for modification) -- all viewed via Infoview on the Web Intelligence platform.
Web Intelligence (WebI) Reports: These are standard "wid" -type files created using the online WEBI on XI and these reports can use tools and options available in Webi. These reports are built using WebI and and viewed using either WebI (modify mode) or Infoview (read-only mode). If further modifications to a report are needed then open in modified mode, correct, report, save, and then subsequently open in Infoview in cases where no further modification is required but you just want to view and move on.
DeskI was the initial product, offered prior to XI. When XI hit the streets, DeskI was not included, but users compelled BO to include DeskI in XI R2 and DeskI has been included ever since. BO strategy moving forward is to include as many features in DeskI into WebI, but that still remains to be seen. If you've never used DeskI before, then conventional wisdom is "don't", just learn to deal with everything in WebI and if it can't be done in WebI, then either look back to DeskI or consider Crystal, or something else. If you've used DeskI, then try to learn how to do the same things in WebI and encourage the use of WebI throughout your organization.
Thanks,
John

Creating iView based on Web Intelligence Report

Hi,
I have BO 3.1X on a dedicated Server with Web Intelligence on it, where I created my repot.
I want to "consume" this report as an iView via a Portal that is installed on a different Server.
The PIK is already installed on the Portal, but I believe that I am missing somthing since it is not working, and the whole configuration process is not clear to me.
Can someone tell me how to ensure that my system is defeind correctly? what is the correct way to create Portal System for BO?
How to create an iView for it? using what tempalte? "Crystal Enterprise Report" or "Crystal Enterprise Report"?
Thanks,
Doron

Hi Doron,
I am also getting same issue. After deploying com.businessobjects.pct.masteriview.par we failed to get that u201CBusinessObjects Integration Kit -iView templateu201D. Do you have any idea on this?
For time being with that par file created an portal component iview and testing on that. Once we see the report we are getting the following error.
HTTP Status 404 - /sap/2.0/reportView.do
type Status report
message /sap/2.0/reportView.do
description The requested resource (/sap/2.0/reportView.do) is not available.
Apache Tomcat/5.5.20
Is this because of faild to deploy com.businessobjects.pct.masteriview.par file? Or else any thing we are missing out?
And here is the complete URL (try right click and Properties on the window):
http://Domain:8080/sap/reportView.do?iDocID=<XXXX>&id=<XXXX>&sap_sysid=BI&sap_client=<XXX>
Regards
Venkat

How to add a baseline in a line graph in Web Intelligence?

Is there a way to add a baseline in a line chart in Web Intelligence just like adding a custom Y-Axis grid line in Crystal Reports?

Tony,
like adding a custom Y-Axis grid line in Crystal Reports
Nope, not a feature. However, if you "play" with building a column of numbers and use the Vertical and Bar Line Chart feature, you might be able to simulate a "baseline"......
Thanks,
John

Web Intelligence vs. Crystal

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for