REPORT CRITERIA DECISION TREE

PROJECT IDENTIFICATION
Project Name

CPI/Project Number

Project Type

Customer Name

Customer Number

Planned Start/Finish

(CBI, Implementation, CSS, Upgrade, Internal, other)

SAP Customer Partner

Project Sponsor

Program Manager

SAP Project Manager

Customer Project Manager

Partner Project Manager

Table of contents
1.
2.
2.1.
2.2.
2.3.
2.4.
2.5.
2.6.
3.

Introduction.........................................................................................................................2
General Guidelines...........................................................................................................2
Crystal Reports..........................................................................................................................2
Web Intelligence........................................................................................................................2
OLAP Voyager...........................................................................................................................3
Crystal Xcelsius.........................................................................................................................3
Live Office..................................................................................................................................3
Dashboard Builder.....................................................................................................................3
Report Criteria Matrix....................................................................................................3

1.I NTRODUCTION
The objective of this document is to provide a high level product comparison. This product
comparison will allow decision makers a vehicle they can use to select the correct Business
Objects tool to use in any given situation. This Decision Tree document should be used as a
starting point, and will guide a decision maker to the best tool to use in any reporting situation.

2.G ENERAL G UIDELINES

This section will provide general information about each tool. It should be used to understand the strengths
and primary purposes of each tool.

2.1. Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports is a high quality transactional reporting environment. It provides documents that require pixel
perfect layouts and highly formatted information. It provides extremely rich graphics and a high quality look.
Crystal Reports allow users to quickly and sufficiently print pixel perfect documents.

2.2. Web Intelligence

Web Intelligence is a high quality analytical reporting environment. It provides self-service access to corporate
information. Web Intelligence documents allow end users the capability of interacting with the information in
meaning ways. It allows users the capability of creating high quality documents. These documents can
contain rich graphics and a high quality look. However, the ability to drill-down, drill-across and slice-and-dice
the data is the real benefit of a Web Intelligence document. Users truly have the capability of analyzing the
data in any way they see fit.

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Copyright 2009 SAP AG. All rights reserved

2.3. OLAP Voyager

OLAP Voyager allows users to explore OLAP data. The OLAP Voyager tool is designed specifically for
financial and business analysts, and delivers to them a full range of functions to analyze multi-dimensional data
sets (i.e. OLAP cubes). Users are able to quickly answer business questions and then share their analysis and
workspace with others.

2.4. Crystal Xcelsius

Crystal Xcelsius allows organizations the ability to visualize their business with consolidated views of key
metrics and information. Through "what-if" analysis, customer segmentation and forecasting, an organization
can transform information and interact with sophisticated visual representations of business processes that
provide new insights and the ability to respond quickly with informed decisions. Crystal Xcelsius is a data
visualization tool designed to create flash-based interactive data presentations and dashboards.

2.5. Live Office

Live Office allows users to access corporate data from within Microsoft Office (i.e. Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel,
and Word documents). Right within Microsoft Office, you can use intuitive wizards and tool bars to select
corporate data from a Crystal Reports document, a Web Intelligence document, or via an ad-hoc data selection
(i.e. Query Panel). These documents can be shared with others over the web for collaborative decisionmaking.

2.6. Dashboard Builder

Dashboard Builder provides visibility across an organization. It allows users the ability to quickly and easily
display their Business Intelligence content together in one consolidated view. By leveraging universe security,
users only access what they are allowed to see. They can navigate from a high-level summary to a detailed
review of root cause analysis. With drag-and-drop functionality, Dashboard Builder enables users the ability to
quickly build dashboards and rapidly deploy them across the organization.

SAP AG 2009
Copyright 2009 SAP AG. All rights reserved

3.R EPORT C RITERIA M ATRIX

The Report Criteria Matrix is illustrated on the following page. It is provided to quickly and
efficiently examine common features of the various toolsets. It is provided as a starting point when
deciding which toolset to use for a given report or application. The matrix summarizes the features
of each toolset and allows decision makers to make informed decisions based upon

SAP AG 2009
Copyright 2009 SAP AG. All rights reserved

General
Export Options

Crystal Reports

Web Intelligence OLAP Voyager

Crystal Xcelsius

Live Office

Dashboard
Builder

Pixel Perfect
Transactional
Reports
RPT (Crystal
Reports format)
Adobe PDF
Microsoft Excel

High Quality
Analytical Reports

OLAP Cube
Analytical Reports

Visualizations and
Dashboards

User Built
Dashboards

Adobe PDF

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel
CSV

CSV

SWF (Macromedia
Flash)
Adobe PDF
Microsoft Word

Access to Corporate
Data from within
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

CSV (with options)

Microsoft
PowerPoint
Microsoft Outlook

RTF (rich text

format)
XML

HTML

Printing

Print directly to a
printer

Export to PDF for

Printing

Export to PDF for

Printing

Drilling

Some Drilling
Functionality

Extensive Drilling
and Slice & Dice
Functionality

Prompting

Cascading and other

prompting

Extensive Drilling
and Slice & Dice
Functionality
Cascading and other
prompting

Print directly to a
printer (Designer
tool only).
BOXI 3.0 print
from screen to
printer.
Drilling can be built
into the report
Prompting can be
built into the report

Microsoft Word
Microsoft
PowerPoint
CSV
RTF (rich text
format)
XML
HTML
Print directly to a
printer

Browser print
functionality
available

Drilling can be built

into the report

Drilling can b
into dashboar

Cascading and other

prompting

Prompting ca
built into dash

Sorting

Interactive Sorting

Interactive Sorting

Sorting can be built

into the report

Interactive Sorting

Sorting can b
into dashboar

Filtering

Designer tool only

In BOXI 3.0
sorting available in
viewer
Designer tool only

Interactive Filtering

Interactive Filtering

Interactive Filtering

Ranking

Designer tool only

Interactive Ranking

Interactive Ranking

Data Sets

Large (>10,000
rows)
Universe, Business
View, Freehand
SQL, others

Medium (<10,000
rows)
Universe, Freehand
SQL

Large

Filtering can be built

into the report
Ranking can be built
into the report
Small to Medium

Filtering can
into dashboar
Ranking can b
into dashboar
Large

OLAP Cube

N/A

Security applied to
instances
Authoring training
recommended for
developers.
No view training
required
Designer tool only

Security applied
upon refresh
Training needed for
more advanced
authoring
capabilities

Security applied to
instances
Minimal Training
needed to navigate

Interactive Changes
& Formatting

Interactive Changes
& Formatting

Security can be built

into the report
Authoring training
recommended for
developers.
No view training
required.
Designer tool only

Universe, Crystal
Report, Web
Intelligence
Document
Security applied to
instances
Minimal Training
needed to navigate

Semantic Layer

Security
Training

Changes &
Formatting
Miscellaneous

Sub-reports can be
embedded, designer
tool only

In addition to
dashboarding, can
provide a prompt
selector front-end to
Crystal Reports and
WebI documents.
Also provides
database write-back.

SAP AG 2009
Copyright 2009 SAP AG. All rights reserved

Interactive Ranking
Large

Interactive Changes
& Formatting

N/A

Security appl
instances
Minimal Trai
needed to cre
dashboards.
No view train
required.
Interactive Ch
& Formatting