What reporting tool are people using in 9.x releases

[Cathy Wilbur]

We are looking at going to release 9.1 or 9.2 from 8.0. Was wondering what combination of reporting tools people are using. We are trying to decide when going to release 9.x what reporting tool we can use for OneWorld ERP1. Is there a combination for reporting tools we should be looking at. What are other people using for reporting tools in release 9.x.

We came up with the following questions.

1. Are you using the internal BI inside JDE and if so can you use it for all your reporting needs?
2. Do you also use BI outside of JDE to do reporting and if so for what type of reporting?
3. Are you using the spreadsheet server tool and if so for what type of reporting?
4. Did any of you use ReportsNow prior to 9.x release and if so what did you move to from ReportsNow?
5. Did any of you use Crystal prior to 9.x release and if so what did you move to from Crystal?
6. Are you using some other reporting tool?
7. Why did you choose the tools you went with for reporting?
8. If your end users run financial reports, what type of reporting tool do your end users use to run reports?

We want to eventually roll out reports to end users and the reporting tool needs to use One World ERP security. Reporting tool needs to be easy to use for end users. Most of our clients use Excel heavily to manipulate data so reporting tool would have to be easily integrated with Excel.

Hope to hear from many of you out there. Do not want emails from contract programmers. We are just trying to figure out which direction to go with respect to our reporting so we thought we would ask other technical programmers and developpers that have already moved to a 9.x release for their ideas or input.

Feel free to drop me a more detailed private email.

 

[Larry_Jones]

1. Internal BI Inside of JDE: Other than some operational reports and forms (Invoices,etc) we don't use JDE reports for BI
2. BI Outside JDE: Yes
3. What spreadsheet server tool?
4. ReportsNow: No.
5. Crystal: Yes - as part of Business Objects Suite of BI tools.
6. Other Reporting Tool: Web Intelligence (part of Business Objects suite)
7. Why did we choose our BI Tool: Too long a story to go into here - but basically JDE native did not have a good reporting / BI solution.

If your requirement is to use a toolset that integrates with E1 security then that narrows your list considerably.

Best suggestion I can give is that you attend Collaborate - the vendors/products you want to see are all there.

 

[Cathy Wilbur]

For people asking about the spreadsheet server product this is the one I am talking about.

Understand many people are using a combination of BI and something else. That something else might be the Spreadsheet Server reporting tool.

http://www.glbsoft.com/productspreadsheetserver.aspx

 

[altquark]

Hi Cathy

One customer of mine is using OneView (the "internal" BI tool), together with OBIEE

Another is using a combination of Insight Software and OBIEE

Both also utilize Hyperion for financial consolidation across multiple ERP and financial systems.

OneView and Insight provide much the same tool - ie, an end-user "reporting" tool that requires minimal end-user training. Works really well for those "quick" reports that Microsoft Access or Excel used to be used for, but under a much more controlled environment. OneView is newer - but seems to be a lower cost than Insight (the company that owns GL Company). OneView has a lot less "built in" reports than Insight - but its getting there. With the "might" of Oracle behind OneView, it'll overtake Insight eventually.

OBIEE and, of course, standard E1 reporting, provides in-depth frequent reports - though requires more user knowledge of how to use the toolset.

Since SAP ended up buying Business Objects, many customers that were using Crystal have moved to other products.

Finally, there are a BUNCH of "BI" tools out there - I want to say more than 30 different toolsets - and I've seen every single one working in different companies. I personally push companies to use OneView these days, only because its an Oracle product.

 

[daveschultz]

Hi Cathy

We use the internal BI Publisher for some reports, but not for all of our reporting needs. We use Reports Now (used it on 8.12 and now 9.0 with tools 9.1). Our users have been very happy with Reports Now and the cost is quite low.

Dave

 

[morglum666]

Hi Cathy,

1. Are you using the internal BI inside JDE and if so can you use it for all your reporting needs?

No.

2. Do you also use BI outside of JDE to do reporting and if so for what type of reporting?

No.

3. Are you using the spreadsheet server tool and if so for what type of reporting?

No. It does look interesting, however.

4. Did any of you use ReportsNow prior to 9.x release and if so what did you move to from ReportsNow?

We are currently using Reportsnow 5.4 against 8.12.

5. Did any of you use Crystal prior to 9.x release and if so what did you move to from Crystal?

No - Crystal is a brutal tool. Nice graphics but buggy as hell.

6. Are you using some other reporting tool?

No

7. Why did you choose the tools you went with for reporting?

Reportsnow for a few reasons

* Works with JDE Security
* Simple enough end users can actually use and design their own reports
* Simple reporting needs (No charts, graphs, etc)

8. If your end users run financial reports, what type of reporting tool do your end users use to run reports?

Primarily JDE reports that have been customized.

 

[Glenn Wirick]

Independent firm Bloor Research is giving a webinar tomorrow called: "A Comparison of Reporting Options in JD Edwards". Attend to get an unbiased comparison of your best JDE reporting options.
http://www.bloorresearch.com/events/2013-03-26/comparison-financial-intelligence-business-reporting.html

My two cents: OVR and Insight are not created equal. (IMHO, it isn't even a close comparison.)