VBI - Anyone Using?

Yahoo Archive
1
On other thought to add on the subject of VBI....
There is a CorVu YahooGroup just like this one (except a lot less active). Might be handy so I signed up for it yesterday. I found it while looking for books on using CorVu (apparently there are none).
Check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CorVu_User_Group
-Todd C.


-----Original Message-----
From: Babette Welch [mailto:bwelch@...]
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 7:38 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] VBI - Anyone Using?


We are using VBI / CorVu
It is very quick to analyze data and make quick reports.
Has ability to make far more complex inquiries than RB.
Even with lots of programming background, I needed training for a kick-start.
We did attend training, very helpful with Tom Keating.
He was excellent.

As for the background of custom reports....
we face the same problem.
We have about 80 RB reports
Yes, CorVu could be used in place of most of those RB reports
but who has time for all of the re-write?
.
We move to Vantage 6.1 in about 3 weeks and then
we will sit there.
When it's time for Sonoma (meaning RB is gone)
I hope to retire.

BW

=============================================
Babette Welch
IT Director
Argonics
1110 Wright
Marquette MI 49855
906.226.9747 ext 235
906.228.0951 fax




[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



_____

Yahoo! Groups Links


* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/


* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>


* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
2
We just finished a webcast demo and were impressed.

But how easy to create new reports or to customize existing?
Creating views and filtering?

Would you recommend over Crystal Enterprise? It seems more cost-
effective, but what about ease of use and report creation speed?

What about the 200+ canned reports? We were told that we shouldn't
have to create any reports from scratch, just build on/from the
canned reports.

All input will be greatly appreciated.

Lonnie
3
I am moderately deep into the learning curve now. It will go a lot better when I get to CorVu classes next week. If you seriously want to develop with it then training will be a must. It's about as far beyond Crystal as Crystal is beyond Report Builder, complexity wise. Initially I plan on simply tweaking the canned reports mainly because this means dealing only with the nightly re-generated Dynasets and not the live database. This seems to be the preferred mode so real-time reporting is a different story and could impact system performance a bit. I am particularly interested in using VBI to export data to spreadsheets and publish scheduled reports to an intranet. But I have a lot yet to learn.

One gotcha we ran into was that it would not run the nightly process on our NT 4 Vantage server (hung on user/password entry). With assistance from Support we got it working on another server (Win2K) and pulling the data over from the Vantage server. Hopefully this will get resolved when the NT server gets upgraded to Win2K (or Win2K3) because it is a performance hit, albeit overnight.

One thing I am very interested in accomplishing is the commissions reporting we now do via extract to an Access DB. In talking to Kevin Rosell it should handle the array fields for split commissions with no problem. He wrote most (or all) of the 200 canned reports and claims he has yet to find a reporting task CorVu can't handle.

-Todd C.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lonnie Drew [mailto:lonniedrew@...]
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 4:46 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] VBI - Anyone Using?


We just finished a webcast demo and were impressed.

But how easy to create new reports or to customize existing?
Creating views and filtering?

Would you recommend over Crystal Enterprise? It seems more cost-
effective, but what about ease of use and report creation speed?

What about the 200+ canned reports? We were told that we shouldn't
have to create any reports from scratch, just build on/from the
canned reports.

All input will be greatly appreciated.

Lonnie



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



_____

Yahoo! Groups Links


* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/


* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>


* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
4
Thanks Todd, I'll forward your comments to CFO.

The "Powers That Be" are pretty well sold on VBI, and I believe I
will be too, but I need to see more than Brian's demonstration. Is an
evaluation version available? How much are the classes, where and
how long?

Future questions we'll need answered.....

Can a VBI report be called from a Progress program when graphical
output needed (as we now do with RB)?

Does VBI connect directly to Progress DBs as does RB, without ODBC?

Can a VBI report be attached to Vantage menu?

How fast is ad-hoc reporting?

Can the casual user wade through the Dynasets and get useful data as
VBI is advertised?

What about security and payroll data?

When I learn more I'll pass it along. Thanks again for your help.

Lonnie




--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "Todd Caughey" <caugheyt@h...> wrote:
> I am moderately deep into the learning curve now. It will go a lot
better when I get to CorVu classes next week. If you seriously want
to develop with it then training will be a must. It's about as far
beyond Crystal as Crystal is beyond Report Builder, complexity wise.
Initially I plan on simply tweaking the canned reports mainly because
this means dealing only with the nightly re-generated Dynasets and
not the live database. This seems to be the preferred mode so real-
time reporting is a different story and could impact system
performance a bit. I am particularly interested in using VBI to
export data to spreadsheets and publish scheduled reports to an
intranet. But I have a lot yet to learn.
>
> One gotcha we ran into was that it would not run the nightly
process on our NT 4 Vantage server (hung on user/password entry).
With assistance from Support we got it working on another server
(Win2K) and pulling the data over from the Vantage server. Hopefully
this will get resolved when the NT server gets upgraded to Win2K (or
Win2K3) because it is a performance hit, albeit overnight.
>
> One thing I am very interested in accomplishing is the commissions
reporting we now do via extract to an Access DB. In talking to Kevin
Rosell it should handle the array fields for split commissions with
no problem. He wrote most (or all) of the 200 canned reports and
claims he has yet to find a reporting task CorVu can't handle.
>
> -Todd C.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lonnie Drew [mailto:lonniedrew@c...]
> Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 4:46 PM
> To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Vantage] VBI - Anyone Using?
>
>
> We just finished a webcast demo and were impressed.
>
> But how easy to create new reports or to customize existing?
> Creating views and filtering?
>
> Would you recommend over Crystal Enterprise? It seems more cost-
> effective, but what about ease of use and report creation speed?
>
> What about the 200+ canned reports? We were told that we shouldn't
> have to create any reports from scratch, just build on/from the
> canned reports.
>
> All input will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Lonnie
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> _____
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
> * To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/
>
>
> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage-
unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
>
>
> * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
5
Couple questions I can maybe answer now...

1. The classes are about $795 for two days or $495 for one-day. There are 2 two-day classes and 1 one-day. I am taking CorBusiness Applications I and CorBusiness Report Writer next week. Classes are held in Edina, MN and Atlanta, GA at CorVu and are not Vantage specific nor probably Progress specific either (likely SQL Server). Perhaps when a critical mass of Vantage users have it Epicor could make a VBI specific class of their own.

2. My understanding is that CorVu can connect directly to the database without ODBC and in particular has a very fast interface - as fast as native Progress. But I had also heard it places some load on the database and can affect users if huge data sets are being created. As an example the couple times I have run the nightly dynaset builds during the day people started complaining pretty quickly. But that is a huge bunch of data access going on all over the database. A smaller single area application might run without notice.

3. Security is accomplished by regular Windows security on the .rpt files/folders. In particular for the canned reports.

Hopefully I'll know a lot more next week.

-Todd C.



-----Original Message-----
From: Lonnie Drew [mailto:lonniedrew@...]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 9:08 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: VBI - Anyone Using?


Thanks Todd, I'll forward your comments to CFO.

The "Powers That Be" are pretty well sold on VBI, and I believe I
will be too, but I need to see more than Brian's demonstration. Is an
evaluation version available? How much are the classes, where and
how long?

Future questions we'll need answered.....

Can a VBI report be called from a Progress program when graphical
output needed (as we now do with RB)?

Does VBI connect directly to Progress DBs as does RB, without ODBC?

Can a VBI report be attached to Vantage menu?

How fast is ad-hoc reporting?

Can the casual user wade through the Dynasets and get useful data as
VBI is advertised?

What about security and payroll data?

When I learn more I'll pass it along. Thanks again for your help.

Lonnie




--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "Todd Caughey" <caugheyt@h...> wrote:
> I am moderately deep into the learning curve now. It will go a lot
better when I get to CorVu classes next week. If you seriously want
to develop with it then training will be a must. It's about as far
beyond Crystal as Crystal is beyond Report Builder, complexity wise.
Initially I plan on simply tweaking the canned reports mainly because
this means dealing only with the nightly re-generated Dynasets and
not the live database. This seems to be the preferred mode so real-
time reporting is a different story and could impact system
performance a bit. I am particularly interested in using VBI to
export data to spreadsheets and publish scheduled reports to an
intranet. But I have a lot yet to learn.
>
> One gotcha we ran into was that it would not run the nightly
process on our NT 4 Vantage server (hung on user/password entry).
With assistance from Support we got it working on another server
(Win2K) and pulling the data over from the Vantage server. Hopefully
this will get resolved when the NT server gets upgraded to Win2K (or
Win2K3) because it is a performance hit, albeit overnight.
>
> One thing I am very interested in accomplishing is the commissions
reporting we now do via extract to an Access DB. In talking to Kevin
Rosell it should handle the array fields for split commissions with
no problem. He wrote most (or all) of the 200 canned reports and
claims he has yet to find a reporting task CorVu can't handle.
>
> -Todd C.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lonnie Drew [mailto:lonniedrew@c...]
> Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 4:46 PM
> To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Vantage] VBI - Anyone Using?
>
>
> We just finished a webcast demo and were impressed.
>
> But how easy to create new reports or to customize existing?
> Creating views and filtering?
>
> Would you recommend over Crystal Enterprise? It seems more cost-
> effective, but what about ease of use and report creation speed?
>
> What about the 200+ canned reports? We were told that we shouldn't
> have to create any reports from scratch, just build on/from the
> canned reports.
>
> All input will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Lonnie
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> _____
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
> * To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/
>
>
> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage-
unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
>
>
> * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service < http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
>
>
>
>
> [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



_____

Yahoo! Groups Links


* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/


* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>


* Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
6
I have only seen the VBI module demonstrated once, maybe a year or so ago.
My initial impression was it seemed pretty complex. I decided that for my
environment Crystal was adequate.
Last week I attended a Crystal reports users group. With the recent
acquisition by Business Objects the combined companies have become the
number 1 reporting tool in the world.. In light of what's happening with
report builder and the upcoming release of Sonoma with Epicor seemingly
favoring Crystal, I would carefully consider an investment in VBI. We were
also shown Crystal Version 10, with version 11 slated for 1Q 2005. My
understanding is that Crystal 10 professional version comes with a 5 user
license of Crystal Enterprise. I currently have Crystal 9.0 running on a
test server. I am not using it in a live environment because Epicor is not
supporting it yet that I know of.

Just by .02 worth.

Dan Shallbetter
States Electric Mfg.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lonnie Drew [mailto:lonniedrew@...]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 9:08 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: VBI - Anyone Using?


Thanks Todd, I'll forward your comments to CFO.

The "Powers That Be" are pretty well sold on VBI, and I believe I
will be too, but I need to see more than Brian's demonstration. Is an
evaluation version available? How much are the classes, where and
how long?

Future questions we'll need answered.....

Can a VBI report be called from a Progress program when graphical
output needed (as we now do with RB)?

Does VBI connect directly to Progress DBs as does RB, without ODBC?

Can a VBI report be attached to Vantage menu?

How fast is ad-hoc reporting?

Can the casual user wade through the Dynasets and get useful data as
VBI is advertised?

What about security and payroll data?

When I learn more I'll pass it along. Thanks again for your help.

Lonnie




--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "Todd Caughey" <caugheyt@h...> wrote:
> I am moderately deep into the learning curve now. It will go a lot
better when I get to CorVu classes next week. If you seriously want
to develop with it then training will be a must. It's about as far
beyond Crystal as Crystal is beyond Report Builder, complexity wise.
Initially I plan on simply tweaking the canned reports mainly because
this means dealing only with the nightly re-generated Dynasets and
not the live database. This seems to be the preferred mode so real-
time reporting is a different story and could impact system
performance a bit. I am particularly interested in using VBI to
export data to spreadsheets and publish scheduled reports to an
intranet. But I have a lot yet to learn.
>
> One gotcha we ran into was that it would not run the nightly
process on our NT 4 Vantage server (hung on user/password entry).
With assistance from Support we got it working on another server
(Win2K) and pulling the data over from the Vantage server. Hopefully
this will get resolved when the NT server gets upgraded to Win2K (or
Win2K3) because it is a performance hit, albeit overnight.
>
> One thing I am very interested in accomplishing is the commissions
reporting we now do via extract to an Access DB. In talking to Kevin
Rosell it should handle the array fields for split commissions with
no problem. He wrote most (or all) of the 200 canned reports and
claims he has yet to find a reporting task CorVu can't handle.
>
> -Todd C.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lonnie Drew [mailto:lonniedrew@c...]
> Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 4:46 PM
> To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Vantage] VBI - Anyone Using?
>
>
> We just finished a webcast demo and were impressed.
>
> But how easy to create new reports or to customize existing?
> Creating views and filtering?
>
> Would you recommend over Crystal Enterprise? It seems more cost-
> effective, but what about ease of use and report creation speed?
>
> What about the 200+ canned reports? We were told that we shouldn't
> have to create any reports from scratch, just build on/from the
> canned reports.
>
> All input will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Lonnie
>
>
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
7
We are using VBI / CorVu
It is very quick to analyze data and make quick reports.
Has ability to make far more complex inquiries than RB.
Even with lots of programming background, I needed training for a kick-start.
We did attend training, very helpful with Tom Keating.
He was excellent.

As for the background of custom reports....
we face the same problem.
We have about 80 RB reports
Yes, CorVu could be used in place of most of those RB reports
but who has time for all of the re-write?
.
We move to Vantage 6.1 in about 3 weeks and then
we will sit there.
When it's time for Sonoma (meaning RB is gone)
I hope to retire.

BW

=============================================
Babette Welch
IT Director
Argonics
1110 Wright
Marquette MI 49855
906.226.9747 ext 235
906.228.0951 fax




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