The latest version of Seagate Crystal Reports - Version 8 - is going to entrench the industry leadership it already enjoys among Windows report writers and help broaden the user base among South African corporates of all sizes.
According to Walter de Meyer, product manager, Seagate Software at Siltek Distribution Dynamics, the new features and enhancements built into Version 8 take report writing into a new dimension.
"Globally, Crystal Report is already a best seller with more than 4-million licences shipped. Version 8 is that much more powerful a tool, that I can see it totally dominating the report writer market from now on," he says. "The South African market for Crystal Reports has always been steady, but with opportunities for upgrading Version 7 users and winning new markets because of the wider appeal of its extra functionality, I see tremendous sales growth in the year ahead."
With an enhanced multi-threaded report engine, the processing performance of Crystal Reports 8 is up to 10 times faster than Version7. The new version also connects to data faster and easier with the new Data Explorer graphical interface.
"There are also the enhanced web-reporting capabilities of version 8. These make it a truly comprehensive, scalable web reporting solution providing an easy way to deliver great e-reporting," says De Meyer.
For example, the re-designed Web Component Server's new multi-threaded architecture provides multiple users with faster report viewing, enhanced presentation quality and better overall performance.
Users also have the ability to store, update and save reports directly to a web folder on a web server when running Microsoft Office, with Windows 2000, Windows 98, 95 or NT.
"New, powerful development tools will make life much easier for developers that have to integrate reports with Windows and web applications,' he adds. Designed for Microsoft Visual Studio and other COM-based development environments, Crystal's report Designer Component gives developers unprecedented control over report layout and formatting. More than 100 new royalty-free runtime properties, methods and events have been added to the 650 already available.
Microsoft InterDev 6.0 developers can now leverage the scalable, high performance reporting capabilities of Crystal Reports in their web projects. Another new function with Crystal Reports Version 8 is that Microsoft Office 97 and 2000 users can easily create reports within familiar Office environments with new Add-ins for Microsoft Excel or Access.
"It all adds up to a great new product that is bound to attract a lot of market interest," concludes De Meyer.
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