SAP Crystal vs. Zoho Analytics

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

Zoho Analytics is the best way to consume data created by Zoho products . It's robust and quick build formula libraries and auto generated reports. A data source can be integrated and be ready for consumption within minutes. This gives a well developed baseline for organizing to develop advance analytics. It's mobile dashboards are very intuitive and useful for leaders who are on the move.

• 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

• Zoho Analytics’ predictive analytics capabilities can help forecast future trends, allowing for proactive planning and risk management.
• Performance Monitoring: We can track key performance indicators (KPIs) across departments, such as sales, marketing, finance, and HR. This aids in identifying bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
• Decision making regarding resource allocation.

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

• I'm guessing it's out there somewhere but I really could have used a 'quick start guide' or guided start.
• Once I figured it out, it makes sense how to make sure the right data is provided in order to make dashboards quite flexible--- but without examples, I found it quite a challenge
• The initial organization of Analytics is NOT intuitive. Once in context, the organizational features make sense, but (at least initially) it would have been most useful if the organization of Analytics reports in Zoho Analytics had saved me a lot of time.

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.

Usefulness: I find Zoho Analytics highly useful for our data analysis needs. Its features, such as data visualization, reporting capabilities, and integration options, greatly aid our business and analytical processes. Ease of Use: The platform is user-friendly and intuitive, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. Reliability: We trust Zoho Analytics to deliver consistent and reliable performance. The platform's stability and uptime contribute positively to our overall experience.

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

For an end user, Zoho Analytics is pretty easy to use and very easy to access the dashboard. Linking data from multiple sources is very convenient. Multiple people can work on preparing and publishing the dashboards simultaneously, which helps delegate tasks.

Incentivized

ZOHO is a very reliable company/product. We never had any issues with downtime or inaccessibility to our data. Any type of maintenance that they had to perform was clearly communicated and never an issue. We use a lot of external hooks and we've never had any issues with getting ZOHO to communicate with any of those hooks.

Incentivized

ZOHO has obviously invested a lot of time effort and money in to creating a reliable infrastructure with high availability. We've never had any issues with performance and all of our data crunching small to large has always been well within reason. We have come to appreciate the performance of ZOHO and will continue to use it for all of our data needs.

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

The support team is honestly not that great. At times, it seems as if members of our own team know more about the product than the support team. They must not have a lot of training or the turnaround is quick

Incentivized

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

If your external data sources are previously organized and correlated (e.g.: in your datawarehouse or database) your implementation will be easier. Of cource some not previously predicted correlation would be necessary to be done during the implementation, but if your organization let it to be all done into Zoho Analytics, it will take more time from your team.

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

Zoho Analytics has the best UI and user friendly to create reports and dashboard along with features like Zia Assistance that guide in creating reports and dashboard and also help in the forecasting of the data based on the past records.

The system appears to handle large data volumes from different platforms and present the information in a standard format. While the information is helpful, the insight and analytics are very interesting and provide a return on investment. The next part is how the users use that data insight to make decisions.

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

• Zoho Analytics has dramatically impacted the time we spend creating reports. We probably save 20+ hours per month.
• Due to the tight integration with the rest of the Zoho platform, we don't have to manually import data; it just shows up for us.
• Having some of these reports in our pocket is great when the owner wants to see something, and we're not in the office. I love the mobile app and the ability to see reports on the phone.

Incentivized