I don't know Crystal reports, but long before we got JDE we bought and have
used very successfully a generic OLAP tool called TM1 (Essbase is the best
known one but I've always preferred TM1's appproach & speed). I believe
Crystal reports brags about having some predefined canned approaches for JDE
but I've never been happy using some other designer's approach. I've always
liked a generic tool because you can make it do anything you want within the
tool's limitation.
I'm a big fan of OLAP and multi-dimensional tools in general, particularly
those that have an Excel add-in which lets users create reports using a tool
they already know (the spreadsheet). To build the cubes and maintain the
dimensions (metadata), we have automated daily and on-demand downloads from
the G/L account balance file, sales history files, and work order files to
the OLAP server. Then we use Excel to report on them getting data across
the network directly from the OLAP server's RAM (yes...it is unbelievable
fast). If my company had the resources, I would get a product called
Insight (from Arcplan) which is a web-enabled report writer that can read
both OLAP data and relational data. Combining your relational data with
OLAP and Insight technologies, you can build anything from simple reports to
full blown EIS, using just spreadsheets or using the most sophisticated web
technologies available. And these OLAP tools are not just report writers,
in fact most users create budgets, forecasts and sophisticated plans using
these amazingly powerful tools. But you gotta think multi-dimensional not
relational...it different.
If interested in OLAP technologies, I recommend you go to
www.olapreport.com. Lots of good info. there. I'm a TM1 user so of course
I would recommend it (
www.applix.com). If you are interested in a powerful
OLAP and relational web-enabled report writer, check out Insight
(
www.arcplan.com)...Gerry
World 7.3 Cum 10
OneWorld lurker