Be warned… this is a rant 🙂
I have a client, which for the past 6 years has been happily running Crystal Reports 8.x and Crystal Enterprise server 8 to deliver custom reports internally. Recently, I upgraded this client to Windows 2003 server, which also required an upgrade to Crystal XI.
The client was in two minds as to if they would continue along this route, so asked me to download the trial software for XI and install it. I did this, but the installation failed (most likely due to Windows 2003 SP1 incompatibilities with Crystal XI – DEP errors etc).
So, I call the local BusinessObjects support centre and am told that I cannot get pre-sales technical support for free to help me get the trial software up and running. I am amazed, but the support engineer tells me to contact the sales team. I do this…
The sales team, to my amazement, tell me that “My client has to be large enough to warrant free technical support on trial software”. I explain that I am dealing with lots of small companies, and ask as to why they “do not count”. After much argument, I gave up. Then, I contacted BusinessObjects in the USA… same story… Grrrrr…..
I am looking for a web based product that will allow me to deliver, simply, the custom Crystal reports via a website… If anyone out there can help, please post here.
I would also ask that those who also find this “no pre-sales technical support” policy from BusinessObjects a farce, to email them / call them to complain. In the mean time, I will go out of my way to find another product.
/Rant over.
Well thats often the case with big ego-driven companies, they forget about the people that make them successful.
Have you tried Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services? Its a lot cheaper and just as powerful. Very well architected but the average Crystal user normally has blinkers on when it comes to anything but Crystal. But try it out.
Hi Craig,
Yeah…. thought about it, but the problem is that we have written over 200 Custom Crystal reports that link to a pretty nasty ODBC link.
If the client was willing, and could afford a coder to rewrite these reports using SQL reporting services I think they would… Problem is, they will in the next 12 months be moving to a new accounts package that will have all of these reports built in….
Thanks for the though however! 🙂
You know what is even worse…… The performance of Crystal XI over Crystal 8 Server is horrific! Displaying a simple report is a VERY slow process now.
The whole .NET Web interface is just "laggy" (<<< Looking for a better word).
What to do? 🙁