Crystal 8.5 - Why?

For everyone's edification, You CAN download from the web sit still. Also
if you go to the developer edition, in 8.5 you can still produce compiled
reports. (so says a Crystal Sales Rep.

Shirley

-----Original Message-----
From: Thad Jacobs [mailto:tjacobs@...]
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 2:15 PM
To: 'vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


In essence, NO.

CRYSTAL 9 CANNOT SAVE DOWN TO EARLIER FORMATS, so I'd strongly suggest
getting 8.5 if you want to make modifications to vantage crystal forms.

Even still, I plan on getting 9 sometime soon, for its .NET integration
capabilities. It will only be installed on my development machine, so it
won't conflict with the vantage dll's.

Crystal decisions seems to have a policy that resellers only sell the
latest
version, which is understandable. You can always by downrev releases
directly from crystal decisions.

Thaddeus Jacobs



-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Goss [mailto:bobg@...]
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 11:13 AM
To: 'vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


This may be a stupid question. I went to our software supplier and tried
to
order Crystal reports Release 8.5 They only have 2 copies left as Release
9.0 is already available. Does anyone know whether I can use 9.0 as it is
surprisingly enough less expensive than 8.5? Just curious

Bob Goss
Office Manager
BC Instruments

905-939-7323
www.bc-instruments.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:21 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?

James,
I imagine there could be several reasons for migrating Vantage to
Crystal
8.5 -- none of these are anything I've heard for real, but having dealt
with
both version 8.0 and 8.5, here are my observations.

1. Crystal 8.0 will soon become 'outdated' as CR 9.0 is just being
released.
Thus, I'm sure Epicor does not want to rely on a product that possibly
wouldn't get the support the end-user might need. Besides the fact that
it's difficult (and may soon be impossible) for new customers to get older
version of Crystal.

2. DLL issues have continued to be a plaging issue between CR 8.0 and 8.5.
They just don't like each other and it has caused headaches for Epicor, so
by settling on the newer version, it helps clear the field for tech
support
issues related the .dll's.

3. CR 8.5 works much more efficiently that 8.0 did -- at least in Crystal
Designer. Run the same report on both versions, and 8.5 will get you the
information on the screen sooner.

I don't believe the web capability has much at all to do with Epicor
choosing version 8.5, but for us it has been a great feature for
distributing reports outside of Vantage. Take just about any old PC,
install NT 4.0 (you can find these cheap these days) and put Internet
Information Services on it and you've got your web server. Some users are
intalling the Crystal Web component right on their Vantage server with no
problems (other than slowing the server down a bit at times).

I personally think they were wise to move to 8.5. I'm just sorry for the
extra cash that it will cost people to get the newer version. I believe
there are a couple Vantage users who are experimenting with using 8.0 with
Vantage 5.2 just to see what the implications are.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


----- Original Message -----
From: meco_inc_paris
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:02 PM
Subject: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


Why does Vantage 5.2 REQUIRE that you upgrade to 8.5 Crystal
I was told by our sales rep that 8.0 would be sufficent for our needs
We want to upgrade to 5.2 but now they are saying we have to ahve 8.5
crystal
My question is WHY?
I downloaded a PDF from Crystal Decisions that compares all the
modules. The only difference I can see is that 8.5 has some web
features built into it.
Is 5.2 Vantage using the WEB feature for something?

Another Micro$oft strategy? Force you to upgrade for features you
could care less about?

James Piper
Meco Inc



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder
and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/


Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Why does Vantage 5.2 REQUIRE that you upgrade to 8.5 Crystal
I was told by our sales rep that 8.0 would be sufficent for our needs
We want to upgrade to 5.2 but now they are saying we have to ahve 8.5
crystal
My question is WHY?
I downloaded a PDF from Crystal Decisions that compares all the
modules. The only difference I can see is that 8.5 has some web
features built into it.
Is 5.2 Vantage using the WEB feature for something?

Another Micro$oft strategy? Force you to upgrade for features you
could care less about?

James Piper
Meco Inc
I use crystal 8.5 developer and it is stable. It has built in pdf export,
whereas 8.0 doesn't.

Epicor is using the latest version of progress and the latest stable release
of crystal. I can't blame them for that. There are were also under the hood
improvements that made 8.5 a more stable product for development, which is
probably why epicor is using it. The only reason they didn't recommend us
using it before is because they were on an earlier version, and trouble
happens when you have multiple copies of crystal

Take the cost of the crystal 8 to 8.5 upgrade. Divide that by the number of
users that will be using your reports. Consider the fact that your users
will be to do a direct pdf export from custom reports.

It may be a nuisance, but I don't mind the fact that Epicor is using
up-to-date tools in its product.

In fact, its a blessing, because now we can all use crystal 8.5 with its web
features, without worrying about conflicts with vantage.

Thaddeus



-----Original Message-----
From: meco_inc_paris [mailto:admin@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 1:02 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


Why does Vantage 5.2 REQUIRE that you upgrade to 8.5 Crystal
I was told by our sales rep that 8.0 would be sufficent for our needs
We want to upgrade to 5.2 but now they are saying we have to ahve 8.5
crystal
My question is WHY?
I downloaded a PDF from Crystal Decisions that compares all the
modules. The only difference I can see is that 8.5 has some web
features built into it.
Is 5.2 Vantage using the WEB feature for something?

Another Micro$oft strategy? Force you to upgrade for features you
could care less about?

James Piper
Meco Inc




Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
James,
I imagine there could be several reasons for migrating Vantage to Crystal 8.5 -- none of these are anything I've heard for real, but having dealt with both version 8.0 and 8.5, here are my observations.

1. Crystal 8.0 will soon become 'outdated' as CR 9.0 is just being released. Thus, I'm sure Epicor does not want to rely on a product that possibly wouldn't get the support the end-user might need. Besides the fact that it's difficult (and may soon be impossible) for new customers to get older version of Crystal.

2. DLL issues have continued to be a plaging issue between CR 8.0 and 8.5. They just don't like each other and it has caused headaches for Epicor, so by settling on the newer version, it helps clear the field for tech support issues related the .dll's.

3. CR 8.5 works much more efficiently that 8.0 did -- at least in Crystal Designer. Run the same report on both versions, and 8.5 will get you the information on the screen sooner.

I don't believe the web capability has much at all to do with Epicor choosing version 8.5, but for us it has been a great feature for distributing reports outside of Vantage. Take just about any old PC, install NT 4.0 (you can find these cheap these days) and put Internet Information Services on it and you've got your web server. Some users are intalling the Crystal Web component right on their Vantage server with no problems (other than slowing the server down a bit at times).

I personally think they were wise to move to 8.5. I'm just sorry for the extra cash that it will cost people to get the newer version. I believe there are a couple Vantage users who are experimenting with using 8.0 with Vantage 5.2 just to see what the implications are.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


----- Original Message -----
From: meco_inc_paris
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:02 PM
Subject: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


Why does Vantage 5.2 REQUIRE that you upgrade to 8.5 Crystal
I was told by our sales rep that 8.0 would be sufficent for our needs
We want to upgrade to 5.2 but now they are saying we have to ahve 8.5
crystal
My question is WHY?
I downloaded a PDF from Crystal Decisions that compares all the
modules. The only difference I can see is that 8.5 has some web
features built into it.
Is 5.2 Vantage using the WEB feature for something?

Another Micro$oft strategy? Force you to upgrade for features you
could care less about?

James Piper
Meco Inc



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This may be a stupid question. I went to our software supplier and tried to
order Crystal reports Release 8.5 They only have 2 copies left as Release
9.0 is already available. Does anyone know whether I can use 9.0 as it is
surprisingly enough less expensive than 8.5? Just curious

Bob Goss
Office Manager
BC Instruments

905-939-7323
www.bc-instruments.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:21 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?

James,
I imagine there could be several reasons for migrating Vantage to Crystal
8.5 -- none of these are anything I've heard for real, but having dealt with
both version 8.0 and 8.5, here are my observations.

1. Crystal 8.0 will soon become 'outdated' as CR 9.0 is just being released.
Thus, I'm sure Epicor does not want to rely on a product that possibly
wouldn't get the support the end-user might need. Besides the fact that
it's difficult (and may soon be impossible) for new customers to get older
version of Crystal.

2. DLL issues have continued to be a plaging issue between CR 8.0 and 8.5.
They just don't like each other and it has caused headaches for Epicor, so
by settling on the newer version, it helps clear the field for tech support
issues related the .dll's.

3. CR 8.5 works much more efficiently that 8.0 did -- at least in Crystal
Designer. Run the same report on both versions, and 8.5 will get you the
information on the screen sooner.

I don't believe the web capability has much at all to do with Epicor
choosing version 8.5, but for us it has been a great feature for
distributing reports outside of Vantage. Take just about any old PC,
install NT 4.0 (you can find these cheap these days) and put Internet
Information Services on it and you've got your web server. Some users are
intalling the Crystal Web component right on their Vantage server with no
problems (other than slowing the server down a bit at times).

I personally think they were wise to move to 8.5. I'm just sorry for the
extra cash that it will cost people to get the newer version. I believe
there are a couple Vantage users who are experimenting with using 8.0 with
Vantage 5.2 just to see what the implications are.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


----- Original Message -----
From: meco_inc_paris
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:02 PM
Subject: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


Why does Vantage 5.2 REQUIRE that you upgrade to 8.5 Crystal
I was told by our sales rep that 8.0 would be sufficent for our needs
We want to upgrade to 5.2 but now they are saying we have to ahve 8.5
crystal
My question is WHY?
I downloaded a PDF from Crystal Decisions that compares all the
modules. The only difference I can see is that 8.5 has some web
features built into it.
Is 5.2 Vantage using the WEB feature for something?

Another Micro$oft strategy? Force you to upgrade for features you
could care less about?

James Piper
Meco Inc



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
In essence, NO.

CRYSTAL 9 CANNOT SAVE DOWN TO EARLIER FORMATS, so I'd strongly suggest
getting 8.5 if you want to make modifications to vantage crystal forms.

Even still, I plan on getting 9 sometime soon, for its .NET integration
capabilities. It will only be installed on my development machine, so it
won't conflict with the vantage dll's.

Crystal decisions seems to have a policy that resellers only sell the latest
version, which is understandable. You can always by downrev releases
directly from crystal decisions.

Thaddeus Jacobs



-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Goss [mailto:bobg@...]
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 11:13 AM
To: 'vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


This may be a stupid question. I went to our software supplier and tried to
order Crystal reports Release 8.5 They only have 2 copies left as Release
9.0 is already available. Does anyone know whether I can use 9.0 as it is
surprisingly enough less expensive than 8.5? Just curious

Bob Goss
Office Manager
BC Instruments

905-939-7323
www.bc-instruments.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Funte [mailto:tfunte@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:21 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?

James,
I imagine there could be several reasons for migrating Vantage to Crystal
8.5 -- none of these are anything I've heard for real, but having dealt with
both version 8.0 and 8.5, here are my observations.

1. Crystal 8.0 will soon become 'outdated' as CR 9.0 is just being released.
Thus, I'm sure Epicor does not want to rely on a product that possibly
wouldn't get the support the end-user might need. Besides the fact that
it's difficult (and may soon be impossible) for new customers to get older
version of Crystal.

2. DLL issues have continued to be a plaging issue between CR 8.0 and 8.5.
They just don't like each other and it has caused headaches for Epicor, so
by settling on the newer version, it helps clear the field for tech support
issues related the .dll's.

3. CR 8.5 works much more efficiently that 8.0 did -- at least in Crystal
Designer. Run the same report on both versions, and 8.5 will get you the
information on the screen sooner.

I don't believe the web capability has much at all to do with Epicor
choosing version 8.5, but for us it has been a great feature for
distributing reports outside of Vantage. Take just about any old PC,
install NT 4.0 (you can find these cheap these days) and put Internet
Information Services on it and you've got your web server. Some users are
intalling the Crystal Web component right on their Vantage server with no
problems (other than slowing the server down a bit at times).

I personally think they were wise to move to 8.5. I'm just sorry for the
extra cash that it will cost people to get the newer version. I believe
there are a couple Vantage users who are experimenting with using 8.0 with
Vantage 5.2 just to see what the implications are.

Troy Funte
Liberty Electronics


----- Original Message -----
From: meco_inc_paris
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:02 PM
Subject: [Vantage] Crystal 8.5 - Why?


Why does Vantage 5.2 REQUIRE that you upgrade to 8.5 Crystal
I was told by our sales rep that 8.0 would be sufficent for our needs
We want to upgrade to 5.2 but now they are saying we have to ahve 8.5
crystal
My question is WHY?
I downloaded a PDF from Crystal Decisions that compares all the
modules. The only difference I can see is that 8.5 has some web
features built into it.
Is 5.2 Vantage using the WEB feature for something?

Another Micro$oft strategy? Force you to upgrade for features you
could care less about?

James Piper
Meco Inc



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT




Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/