Why SSRS?

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Why SSRS?

robert.jones-950810

SSC Eights!

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July 24, 2009 at 10:30 am

#212577

We have a SQL Server 2005 environment and Crystal Reports. We do not have Sharepoint in our infrastructure. My understanding is that you really need Sharepoint to take advantage of SSRS...
What are the benefits of SSRS over Crystal? How can I leverage it to our organization if we do not use Sharepoint (i.e. how do I publish reports, etc...). What are the advantages/disadvantages of SSRS? What are your experiences and what are you using?
I'm just looking for some insight.
Thanks!
Robert

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 1

You do not need SharePoint to take advantage of SSRS. SSRS integrates with SharePoint allowing you to manage security from one place, SharePoint, if you so desire.

robert.jones-950810 SSC Eights! Points: 893 More actions · Answer 2

Gotcha, that is good to know. Are there any benefits of SSRS over Crystal? How does you deploy your reports in SSRS?

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 3

I can't really answer that question. We do use SSRS, but I'm not currently involved with it myself beyond using a few reports which we get to using the RS Report Manager.

Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323518 More actions · Answer 4

isn't Crystal still client-server based, so you have to install Crystal on every machine that will run a report, vs SSRS which is a web server HTML based reporting system?

So with SSRS, anyone with a browser can get to published reports, but the reports tend to be limited to whatever the developer wrote it to present...you know, I wrote this report, and it can drill down to this detail-level report, and that's it.

If you have Crystalinstalled, you can start tweaking your own ad-hoc reports yourself.

someone correctly if I'm wrong.

Lowell

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 5

Lowell (7/24/2009)
isn't Crystal still client-server based, so you have to install Crystal on every machine that will run a report, vs SSRS which is a web server HTML based reporting system?
So with SSRS, anyone with a browser can get to published reports, but the reports tend to be limited to whatever the developer wrote it to present...you know, I wrote this report, and it can drill down to this detail-level report, and that's it.
If you have Crystalinstalled, you can start tweaking your own ad-hoc reports yourself.
someone correctly if I'm wrong.

Depends with Crystal. What did you install on the users desktops, the run-time or the designer. If only the run-time, then the reports are what the reports are, the uses can't modify them either. We have quite a few Crystal Reports here that are used regularly.

robert.jones-950810 SSC Eights! Points: 893 More actions · Answer 6

We have Crystal Enterprise Server so we have a mixed environment. It delivers web based reports (can be customized to each users login), it will email reports to users (pdf, excel, etc...) and we have the ability to install Crystal on the desktop of power users so that they can create their own reports.

I didn't know about the web functionality of SSRS so that is good to know. I guess you could use Perspectives in SSAS to sort of customize the reports for individual users/groups?

doug.williams Old Hand Points: 390 More actions · Answer 7

We are starting to replace crystal with SSRS, at least for new products. SSRS is very powerful in that the reports are located on a central server and can be accessed from almost anywhere. For departmental security, we have developed a web application that allows us to provide access to reports based on custom security requirements, but I digress. (Sorry)

The big seller is that the report (rdl) can be replaced/updated at a single point where most crystal reports are located at the client side and would require some form of update to be triggered. The Reporting Services Manager (RSM) has levels of Security. Where by a Browser is a read only type that can run a report. That would fit most users. For the advanced users, there is 'Content Manager' this is the publisher/developer role. From the RSM you can actually create new reports. This may not be for everyone, but it is very powerful. You can also restrict access on a report by group and or user.

There is a run time option in this where the report is stored in a DB as a rdlr and can be run directly from there.

Does that help or is it clear as mud?

robert.jones-950810 SSC Eights! Points: 893 More actions · Answer 8

That does speak to a lot of the questions I had about SSRS, thanks! Most of the limitations you mentioned with Crystal don't exist though if you are using the Enterprise Server. W/ the Enterprise Server there is no client that needs to be installed and much of what you are saying sounds like the capabilities that exist in Crystal Ent, w/ a few exceptions. The RSM sounds very intriguing as I didn't know all of those capabilities existed.

It's too bad we didn't go down this path a year or two ago before our corp sunk in upwards of 30K for the Crystal Ent.... I know the saying about sunk costs but I've got to show a HUGE differential between SSRS over CES do to past leaders.

Thanks

smallmoney SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4378 More actions · Answer 9

Lynn Pettis (7/24/2009)
Lowell (7/24/2009)
isn't Crystal still client-server based, so you have to install Crystal on every machine that will run a report, vs SSRS which is a web server HTML based reporting system?
So with SSRS, anyone with a browser can get to published reports, but the reports tend to be limited to whatever the developer wrote it to present...you know, I wrote this report, and it can drill down to this detail-level report, and that's it.
If you have Crystalinstalled, you can start tweaking your own ad-hoc reports yourself.
someone correctly if I'm wrong.
Depends with Crystal. What did you install on the users desktops, the run-time or the designer. If only the run-time, then the reports are what the reports are, the uses can't modify them either. We have quite a few Crystal Reports here that are used regularly.

At my old job, we upgrade from an old Crystal to Crystal 10.

Crystal was web base so all the users needed was IE to run reports. One of the biggest new feature was the centralization of reports instead of having them on a shared folder in a file server.

Ed B Hall of Fame Points: 3665 More actions · Answer 10

We switched from Crystal to SSRS mainly because of cost. We just had the freebie five license web server for Crystal which meant when 5 people were viewing reports, nobody else could. It would have cost thousands to get more licenses.

SSRS costs us nothing because we have SQL Server already.

SSRS 2000 was fairly weak, but 2005+ is decent. I'm not a programmer, but I still like the integration with visual studio. There are some things that I remember Crystal did intrinsically (like page N of N, reset on break of group) that are a huge PITA in SSRS.