Over the last 12 months SQL Server Reporting Services has started to make its mark in the Business Intelligence market place. Not only does SQL Server Reporting Services deliver a new reporting tool, but it’s free as well. Suddenly everyone’s looking to ditch Crystal Reports - the report designer which comes bundled with VB and has been since VB 3 and integrated into Visual Studio .Net, but is SQL Server Reporting Service better?
What are the key differences between SQL Server Reporting Services and Crystal Reports, (Crystal Reports version 11). They both have strengths and weaknesses and these are the ones I’ve found, after working with both products, I compared them on what they say they can do and what I found on day one...
So Far...
Although Microssoft say it’s free, they don’t recommend the "free" configuration and you will need additional SQL Server licensing before you get started.
SQL Server Reporting Service handles less that 80% of the most common reporting scenarios I could come up with and some obvious features expected from a reporting tool are missing and some still have bugs in (these need to be fixed).
SQL 2005 reporting services does support ad hoc reports (the designer develops a report schema and deploys it on the reporting server).
I'll keep updating as I complete my testing on SQL Server Reporting Services and Crystal Reports.
In the mean time, if you wish to learn more on SQL Server Reporting Services and how it can benefit your organisation, please visit the Quantix website.
No comments:
Post a Comment