Transforming Enterprise Reporting: Migrating 500+ Crystal Reports to Pentaho
The client is the owner of an investment company that operates a seniors housing property which provides various levels of care. In addition to housing and healthcare services, the property has commercial retail services that provide extra sources of revenue. Having more than 500 business-critical reports developed based on Crystal Reports, the client sought a modern and scalable reporting environment that could facilitate proper analytics, streamline operations, and improve decision-making.
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Industry
Finance -
Country
USA
Technologies
Crystal Reports
Pentaho
Years In Business
Projects Delivered
Happy Clients
Countries Served
Business Goals
The following business goals were defined to ensure a seamless transition while maintaining data accuracy, usability, and future scalability.
- Move more than 500 existing reports without losing data accuracy and business logic.
- Make sure that reports are presented and act just like original documents so that users would not face any difficulty.
- Design a reporting system that is scalable to changing data and analytics needs.
Business Challenges
Control Over the Size of Migration
It was not easy to migrate more than 500 reports. All the reports were subject to different data dependencies and business logic, and proper coordination was needed to prevent mistakes.
The Layouts Are Recreated in Pentaho
Pentaho and Crystal Reports have varying report formats. It was difficult to match sectioning, formatting, styling, and pagination manually.
Handling Complex Financial and Operational Calculations
There were numerous reports that contained precise investment measures, health care occupancy statistics, and store income data. It was difficult to migrate all of that to Pentaho, as it needs manual attention.
Training End Users
It was also essential that employees were able to proceed with the usage of reports without having to learn layouts again. For this, we had to make sure to train them to keep their daily operations smooth.
Technical Solutions
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Planned Migration Strategy
We migrated all reports step by step. Each report was migrated, and we understood the logical relations between dependencies and the purpose of the report.
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Manual Rebuilding in Pentaho
We focused on rebuilding all reports manually using Pentaho Report Designer (PRD) to ensure accurate report formatting, precise calculations, and consistent styling aligned with the original reports.
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Leveraging Pentaho Metadata and Analytics
With Pentaho Metadata and Analytical Services, we were able to maintain standardized definitions of data and increase its scalability and maintenance.
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Strict Data Verification of Each Step
Each and every report was tested to be functionally equivalent, i.e., identical to the corresponding Crystal Reports output, and visual fidelity was verified to ensure the use of familiar layouts and styles.
Project Glimpse
Key Features
Manual Report Migration
Layout Accuracy Handling
Financial Logic Validation
Metadata-Based Reporting
Centralized Report Access
Data Integration Pipelines
Performance Consistency
Result
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01.
Continued Access to Trusted Reports
The client did not have to worry about any data mismatch or logic errors after the migration because the critical reports could be used as before.
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02.
No Learning Curve for Business Users
The structure and layout of reports remained unchanged, which means the their employees can easily access their reports without additional training or confusion.
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03.
Less Complex Report Management
The reports can now be managed, updated, and extended with ease, as the business needs change and more reports are needed by the client using Pentaho.
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04.
Cost Saving
Achieved an estimated cost savings of $300–$600 per report by migrating from SAP Crystal Reports to Pentaho.
Let’s get in touch!
India
SPEC House, Parth Complex, Near Swastik Cross Roads, Navarangpura, Ahmedabad 380009, INDIA.
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+91-79-26404031, 32-33-34 -
[email protected]
