Reporting is one of the most utilized functional parts of any Enterprise Applications, and most often business users will rely upon reports to understand their business health through transactional details, Summary reports or dashboard visualization. The primary source for any Report is the data that the enterprise applications hold. The purpose of this blog is to touch upon the key features and usage of Crystal Reports and on how it’s changed over years into being the most versatile reporting tool.

SAP Crystal Reports, part of SAP Business Objects component, is one of the most versatile and flexible Reporting tool that has evolved into a more matured stable product over the years after its acquisition twice, first by Business Objects and then Business Objects acquisition by SAP. It can be seamlessly integrated with any application database.

Designing an effective dashboard is an art and irrespective of the technology used for building the dashboard there are certain rules of thumb which should not be ignored.

Rule 1 – Understand the audience for the dashboard because that will help determine how the dashboard is going to be used and the expected level of interaction.

Rule 2 - Understand the amount and depth of interaction that will be necessary within the dashboard and make recommendations accordingly to the business.

Rule 3 – Always do an analysis on the best technology that should be used to fulfill the business requirements. There still may be instances when your recommendation may differ from customer’s perception of best technology to use for building the dashboard. Especially in scenarios when the customer’s technological environment consists of multiple BI tools.