Middesk vs. SAP Crystal

Middesk is an excellent and vital tool for any business needing to set up operations in a new state. The process the seamless and easy. For businesses looking to transfer administration of existing state accounts, the process is a little more clunky. Either way, Middesk saves a ton of time and brainpower needed to maintain registrations with state agencies.

Incentivized

Generation of templated reports is the strong suit of SAP Crystal. Allows users to change formats in templates bases on requirement with minimal effort. Automated report delivery requires the user to be aware of sql which cannot be expected from all users. Should support more document export formats and improve the UI for SAP B1 Users

Incentivized

• Gathering information needed for registration.
• Making the registration process efficient.
• Guiding us through the process when we hit snags.

Incentivized

• Great visualization for static format & precise tasks: For presentation to senior management /ex-co/vendors where concise decisions need to be made, Crystal is a nice choice to slide data into presentable views.
• Diverse data source connect: We have used it to write reports using data from DB2, SQL, Progress, Excel spreadsheets, XML data, Access, and Lotus Notes databases. It can also be used to join different database types together in one report.
• It uses the "recurring bands" structure for page layout which is efficient and fungible for generating different types of reports. Crystal doesn't require that we set up a metadata layer before creating reports and provides direct access to tables and dimensions.

Incentivized

• Better navigation.
• More marketing and make it very reachable to customers.
• Login is difficult.

Incentivized

• Crystal Reports charting engine is ok but compared to some other visualization products available it is behind the times.
• Crystal Reports uses a proprietary format for its data storage, using an open format (like XML) would be much better
• You cannot add add a structured table object to the page layout, you can only use lines and boxes

Incentivized

We have been using this product for so many years and it has truly become a cornerstone to our business processes when it comes to developing and distributing information via reports. We currently have over 500 reports developed to date over about 30 systems and that will continue to grow as user needs change.

UI is not as intuitive as other systems we use. For states that require income tax withholding, some of them require registration with multiple agencies - the UI doesn't easily tell you which login credentials are tied to which agency.

Incentivized

Being able to get up and running quickly is a key asset. There's plenty of advanced features to master that are surprisingly difficult in others tools (or just missing from other tools altogether). The UI can feel a bit dated at times but its usability isn't affected. Any issue you have can usually be resolved by searching in the user community

Incentivized

The user experience of this tool must be rearchitected. I am able to observe a lot of lag in the process when initiated. There are sometimes when the tool's navigation becomes difficult. The time taken at times is large to process a request and this can also be highly improved in the future.

Incentivized

SAP Crystal report is very supportive in daily need of reports or any organization. Basic functionality of operational reports detailing the Sales Order details or PO in a manner which can be used very easily. A readily available solution for delivering any customized need in terms of pixelated reporting can be met easily with the tool

Trainer was patient and thorough in going through the basics and willing to answer questions by email after the initial training

Incentivized

Just like any other implementation: When designing the differing reports, get end users' input, make sure to design the reports so that they display the information that the company requires, in the best and clearest way possible.

Test, test, test, revise when needed, and, particularly, do sufficient training so users are comfortable using Crystal Reports!

Incentivized

It provides higher quality. Although the price is very costly compared to its competitors, the result after usage is exceptional. Although this product has less marketing, it is able to be reached a large number of people. The navigation is slightly better than the other competitor tools. User experience is another important reason it attracts people.

Incentivized

For standard pixel perfect reporting, our company still uses Crystal Reports. It allows us to continually provide standard reporting to our clients. For dashboards, we are moving towards Microsoft Power BI. Power BI allows similar collaboration, but generally has better features for dashboards. Power BI also allows us to publish multiple reports and dashboards into a single app for our end users.

Incentivized

• Better speed.
• Better quality for optimal cost.
• Saves a lot of time.

Incentivized

• Time and cost savings achieved by automation of report creating across many data sources we maintain.
• The ability to drill down into granular details of the data leads to a better understanding of the business procedures.
• Well-presented reports are invaluable for getting new clients on board.

Incentivized