Crystal Reports Writing Service
Contemporary's Crystal Reports writing service offers your business the ability to gain full access to the data held in its systems, without the need to fully understand the Crystal Reports application or indeed the way data is held in your corporate systems. Those who understand the complexity of Crystal Reports will be sure to recognise just what an excellent product Contemporary's Report Writing service is, something that our many customers are sure to agree with.
We have over 14 years of experience developing and designing reports for a whole range of industries over the whole of the UK, so whatever your industry sector, you can be sure that when you engage with Contemporary you will get a quality result delivered on time and to budget.
The Steps in Creating a Crystal Report
Whilst systems and companies vary widely, the process of writing a report with Crystal Reports is broadly quite similar. Being divided into a number of sections that need to executed in order and with precision, the steps below providing a high level view of the procedure.
- Step 1 - Planning the Report
The first and obvious part of the process is to lay out exactly what you wish to achieve, what data you wish to analyse and perhaps most importantly how the data gained will be useful to your organisation.
- Step 2 - Creating the Framework of the Report
Before any data can be retrieved, a connection to the data source must be made, tables must be added and any objects positioned and sized.
- Step 3 - Selecting Records
Using the "Select Expert" the criteria for selecting the records must be set, the data being retrieved and modified as required.
- Step 4 - Data Organisation
Here the sorting and grouping of records and the summarising of the data is carried out.
- Step 5 - Formatting the Report
Any specialist formatting is now carried out, as is the adding of graphical elements and the combining of text objects with database fields.
- Step 6 - Formula Creation and Formatting
Here all the formulas are defined and any necessary formatting at section level actioned.
- Step 7 - Representing the Data Visually
Chart creation etc. is carried out at this stage.
- Step 8 - Distributing the Report
Covers the areas of exporting and saving the report to BusinessObjects Enterprise systems as applicable
Powerful but Complex
As can be seen by the very high level "walk through" above, Crystal Report writing is not for the untrained or inexperienced, as it would be all too easy to create a report that was actually not telling the whole story. So, if your organisation is serious about business and wants to produce quality accurate results from its data, then Contemporary can help, either by providing a report writing service or by training your staff so that they can fully access, understand and therefore utilise the data held in your corporate systems.
The accurate insights you gain will enable your business to make business decisions easier and faster, something that could really give your company the competitive edge that is needed today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the difference between data and information?
A: Data can mean a lot of things to people but we are all guilty of walking into meetings with spreadsheets of data that is really just numbers and doesn’t mean that much to people that haven’t written them. What we are looking at with information, is making it available in a format that is instantly readable and relevant to the individual person that is looking at that information. And the other side of it is that it might not be just numbers or numerical figures, it may be that information around the business; documents knowledge, and other information that we may want to look at and that’s business intelligence.
How does BI save me money and make me more competitive?
Q: Can you give me an example of how this can save me money or make me more competitive.
A: Well, if you think of the example of a commercial banking or retail banking organisation. Enquiries coming in from customers, where the employee needs to make a critical decision which could affect the viability of the business. If someone phones me up and asks for a loan, enterprise reporting allows me to look at their repayment history, their current outstanding debt and allows me to make a better decision as to whether I should go ahead with that business transaction.
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