• Allow all business users to securely access reports on the Web
• Make better decisions with interactive reports
• Refresh data in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
• Minimize IT cost with job scheduling and automatic report delivery
• Share reports anywhere via email, portals or Microsoft Office documents
• Grow your business with a flexible licensing model
• Supports all new features in Crystal Reports 2008

• Crystal Reports Server 2008 Features

  Empower end users to explore reports interactively
  

  Xcelsius Integration
  Visualize the potential outcome of your business decisions with what-if scenario models built in your report file. Import Xcelsius-generated SWF files into your report and benefit from improved design-time integration. IT and developers will design fewer reports to support the decision making process. Please note: Xcelsius design tool is not included in Crystal Reports 2008.

  Adobe Flex Integration
  Execute business decisions from within the report file. Integrate your reports with operational workflows by embedding Adobe Flex (SWF) applications into your reports. Using Adobe Flex Builder you can create any business-user UI to access report data and integrate with external web services. Data in your report can be passed to the Flex application via Flashvars, making it easy to create a flexible UI even when you don't have access to your data via web services. The Flex applications can do tasks like database write-back - invoking operational workflows directly within Crystal Reports. IT and Developers benefit from instant, coding-free integration of Crystal Reports with your business processes. Please note: Adobe Flex Builder is not included in Crystal Reports 2008.

  Parameter Panel
  The report designer and the .NET Winform, and .NET Webform viewers have a parameter panel so that parameter values can be set without refreshing data. Parameters used are displayed on the panel so that report consumers can easily see them, make changes, and have the new values applied directly to the saved data. Another solution to reduce report count and IT/Dev support cost.

  Interactive Report Viewing
  Users can answer more business questions with fewer, more flexible reports – significantly reducing Developer and IT support dependency. On-report sorting, filtering, and report reformatting with the .NET Winform, and .NET Webform viewers allows users to explore information interactively without re-querying the database. New optional parameters provide for complex user-driven filtering scenarios.

Create compelling reports with stunning visualizations

• Flash Integration
  Create stunning visualizations by adding dynamic charts, graphics and even video files to your reports. A wide variety of flexible data presentation options are now available through Flash. Flash (SWF) files can be integrated into your report and report data can be shared with SWF via Flashvars for compelling, interactive, and information-rich reports. The SWF files can quickly be embedded in the report or linked via a website saving IT and Development time.

  Powerful Crosstabs
  Add business-critical information to your reports without coding. Summary, variance, and any other customer calculations can be inserted into a crosstab row or a column – especially useful for reports that benefit from a table structure such as financial reports. The crosstab table structure makes reports much faster to build and maintain. This feature also provides powerful benefits to crosstab-based charts since custom formulas in the crosstab can be visualized within the charts.

  Flexible Pagination
  Facilitate better online report viewing to your end users. Report designers can customize page size and easily control page breaking after N records/groups. A single report can combine portrait and landscape oriented pages and the white space at the end of groups can be removed by compressing the page footers. Online report consumption is improved because reports are easier to read.

Develop Powerful Data Mashups

Xcelsius, Adobe Flex, and Adobe Flash Integration
Crystal Reports developers have now the ability to produce powerful mashups pulling data from various sources. They can easily integrate components designed in Flash and Flex without any coding, and significantly expand the scope of their application deployment. Please note: Access to commercial third party flash components like ESRI ArcWeb Services as shown in the demonstration is not included in Crystal Reports 2008.

Enhanced Web Services Data Driver
Expand your access to data over the web. Integration with various web services can be difficult and complex due to a wide variety of implementation types. The new data driver offers additional web access to web services by providing support for RPC encoding of SOAP messages, SSL-secured web servers, as well as a working compatibility with the WS-Security standard. It adapts to custom logon requirements such as email addresses or user/password. Developers can combine the flexibility of XML and Web Services with report formatting and visualization to deliver reports linking report data to sophisticated interactive data mashups such as integration with third party mapping systems.

Save Valuable Report Design Time

Built-in Barcode Support
Save design time and reduce your cost. Generate barcodes with only a few clicks of the mouse by using the new 'turn to barcode' function in the context menu. Easily convert fields to Code39 barcodes without any coding or extra steps. Additional barcode fonts are available from third-party vendors.

Enhanced Designer Features
Report designer will be more productive with features like global formula search, duplicate formula, duplicate running total, auto complete field names, and the Find in Field Explorer feature.
 
Single Edition
A simple solution for all your design needs. Crystal Reports 2008 comes in a single edition that is the feature equivalent of the previous Developer Edition. This single offering provides customers with quick access to the features they need to meet any application and user requirement. Report samples and developer documentation are now a free, optional download.

Multilingual Reporting
Provides flexible implementation. Choose the working language you prefer by simply selecting the language packs you wish to use during product installation. Then switch the report designer UI to use any of the installed language packs. The report content locale can also be explicitly set for each report file. This setting controls sorting, grouping and formatting that matches the local language customs and conventions.
 
Reduced Install Footprint
The download size has been reduced to 300MB to provide fast access via the download site. The runtime files included in developer applications are also significantly smaller.
 
Hyperlinking Wizard
Report designers will save time by automatically creating the Crystal Reports formula required to invoke a BusinessObjects Enterprise OpenDocument hyperlink.

Enjoy Comprehensive Report Deployment Options

Save reports directly to crystalreports.com
Expand your deployment options with on-demand reporting capabilities when you open and save reports directly to crystalreports.com. This new integration allows you to manage and share your reports securely without dependency on IT.

Integrated SalesForce.com Driver
The salesforce.com driver included with Crystal Reports 2008 allows for easy access to complete customer data - turning it into actionable business information. Reports that use a salesforce.com driver will refresh when deployed to crystalreports.com.

Improved XML Exporting
Render reports in almost any format and enjoy faster and easier integration with your industry-specific business processes—without any custom coding. The XSLT transformations are embedded into the report file and will be triggered by users from within the viewer when exporting to XML. This provides a powerful, flexible hook for transforming Crystal Reports data and integrating it into other applications.

NET Report Modification SDK
The Report Application Server SDK is now available for users of CR.NET API without the use of a RAS server. Report modification such as changing / adding / removing database providers, adding / removing / creating report objects, parameters, formulas, and sections can be achieved by accessing the RAS SDK through the CR .NET SDK.

Advanced Report Publishing
Expand your IT capability and deliver a better customer experience. Also known as report bursting, advanced report publishing is a platform for the mass distribution of personalized content. Multiple reports can be created based on different data sources, combined into one desired file format (such as PDF), loaded with personalized content, and then sent to a dynamic list of recipients—with a single action. The content can be archived, printed, or emailed in separate actions, or simultaneously. This makes scheduling much faster and easier, with the ability to conduct cost effective one-on-one marketing campaigns and other personalized high-volume reporting

BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 is a point-and-click data visualization tool, specifically designed to create interactive analytics and dashboards with secure, live connections to BusinessObjects Enterprise or BusinessObjects Edge Series. These stunning and meaningful visualizations can then be share "live" via Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, the Web, Crystal Reports 2008 or business intelligence (BI) Portal. Xcelsius drop-down menus and sliders present complex business data clearly, giving your decision makers an easy way to interact with data and test out future business scenarios—all with the click of a mouse.

Why BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise?

• Provide access to secure and personalized dashboards from anywhere
• Gain value from dashboards built on top of a trusted, secure BI platform
• Transform multiple Crystal and Web Intelligence reports into a single dashboard
• Empower business users to create BI dashboards with the power of what-if analysis
• Increase BI adoption by offering visual simplicity

BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise 2008 Features

Point-and-click ease
An intuitive interface, including pre-built components and data connectors enables you to create dashboards connected to live company data in days instead of months.

Flexible design capabilities
Using various visual analytics, themes, colors and fonts, you can easily customize the look and feel of your dashboards to fit your corporate standards.

Software Development Kit
Leverage Adobe Flex to create your own custom visualization components and data connectors for use with Xcelsius.

Connect

Deliver up-to-second views of your business performance

Connectivity to BusinessObjects Query as a Web Service
Maximize the value and use of your BusinessObjects universes by transforming them into easy-to-understand live visual models with point-and-click ease.

Connectivity to BusinessObjects Live Office
Increase your productivity by consolidating multiple Crystal and Web Intelligence reports into a single live dashboard.

Connectivity to Adobe LiveCycle Data Services
Create operational dashboards off of your real-time transactional data sources and reduce network congestion by leveraging Adobe LiveCycle Data Services to broadcast data to multiple dashboards in real-time.

Connectivity to Microsoft Reporting Services
Create live business dashboards from any Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services report with point-and-click ease.

Manage

Adopt a trouble-free data management

Data and lifecycle management
Organize your data connections in one centralized menu for easy administration. Then, leverage the BusinessObjects Enterprise lifecycle management to easily move Xcelsius models from development to production environments.

Secure, interactive data visualization
BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise is specifically designed to leverage the Business Objects platform. Connect live to any corporate data source and take advantage of the power of BusinessObjects Enterprise XI security. Security, connectivity, and interactivity are maintained whether the Xcelsius visualization is deployed to InfoView, Dashboard Builder, or embedded inside Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF.

Capture historical data and analyze trends
Xcelsius has unique components to quickly allow you to capture historical data and analyze trend lines.

Deploy

Empower end-users with actionable BI

Visual modeling
Visual sliders on the screen allow end-users to quickly evaluate multiple business scenarios by altering the underlying assumptions, and immediately see the impact on the results.

Drill down charts and maps
Summarize rows of data in easy-to-understand charts and maps and provide report-level details with a click of a button.

Dynamic menus and selectors
Take advantage of a large selection of dynamic menus to display large amount of data clearly and concisely. Plus, build user-friendly OpenDoc URL builders that enable your end-users to easily select reports parameters and run personalized reports.

Stunning presentation
A comprehensive library of eye-catching visualization components allows you to deliver complex company data in easy-to-understand business dashboards.

Export to Adobe Acrobat 9
Easily embed, resize and move around your Xcelsius models inside PDF documents by taking advantage of the new flash content support features in Adobe Acrobat 9.

Export to Adobe AIR
Expand the reach and use of your business data by delivering them as part of easy-to-use desktop applications and widgets.

Maximize the value of your IT-solutions

Improved Crystal Reports 2008 integration
Create interactive charts and what-if scenario models for your reports and easily bind them to your report data with a click of button—no manual coding required.

Platform independence
Xcelsius visual models can be exported—with one click—to Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Adobe PDF, Adobe Flash, BusinessObjects Enterprise, and the Web. Plus, Xcelsius visualizations are in Adobe Flash format - allowing application developers and OEMs easily embed them into web or thick client applications.

Microsoft SharePoint Integration kit
Provide your SharePoint end-users with interactive charts, graphs and dashboards that have never been possible using the SharePoint Portal Server.

IBM WebSphere Integration kit
Integrate Xcelsius dashboards and content into your WebSphere Portal. Xcelsius allows you to easily turn Xcelsius dashboards into WebSphere portlets without coding and enables the creation of complex dashboards which interact across portlets.

With Web Intelligence, you can make better decisions in less time, by turning information into actionable insight at the speed of thought.
Web Intelligence is built on our proven, mature BI platform—BusinessObjects Enterprise. This ensures that your deployment meets performance demands and supports standardization efforts.
From improving corporate decision-making to sharing information with customers, suppliers, and partners, Web Intelligence delivers self-service insight to everyone who needs it.
BusinessObjects Web Intelligence empowers your users with self-service information access and interactivity, while delivering:

• Powerful, on-line and offline ad hoc query and reporting
• Integrated and trusted analysis for all users
• A tool built upon the most complete, trusted, and agile business intelligence (BI) platform

BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Features
Powerful, On-line and Offline Ad Hoc Queries and Reporting
Web Intelligence provides an intuitive interface that allows your business analysts and nontechnical information consumers to ask spontaneous and iterative business questions of their data using their everyday business terms. For example, a user can easily compare the performance of suppliers this year over last year, combine with his forecast from his Excel spreadsheet, access the trusted data source for more detailed information, and quickly identify trends and determine areas within the supply chain that can be optimized to ensure maximum profitability—all within a single session.

• Empower your end users via a robust semantic layer
• Make query building easy with an intuitive, web-based interface
• Ensure controlled and secure information access
• Provide the power on mobility with offline capabilities

Integrated and Trusted Analysis for All Users
BusinessObjects Web Intelligence delivers a unique, single Web environment to access and interact with information whether in an online or offline mode. Its interactive analysis framework ensures that a full range of users can access and analyze secure information, thereby reducing the number of tools

• Access and analyze information in a single interface
• Easily personalize, explore, and discuss information
• Interact with information via the interactive analysis framework

Built Upon The Most Complete, Trusted, and Agile Business Intelligence (BI) Platform
BusinessObjects Web Intelligence is built on the proven and mature capabilities of the BusinessObjects Enterprise BI platform. This ensures that it meets the performance demands of end-user query and analysis for all sizes of organizations.

• Enable BI standardization via shared administration and security
• Deliver query, reporting and analysis globally via a single deployment
• Extending the reach of interactivity and analysis beyond the enterprise

Easy and Secure Deployment
Multiple languages and geographically dispersed users are supported from a single deployment. Organizations can extend these vital self-service capabilities beyond their employees to partners, suppliers, and customers with secure extranet deployments.

For users who not only want to view standard reports, but also need to analyze the data they see, perform ad-hoc queries to fetch new data, and create their own reports—whether they are in the office or on the road—there's BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence.

BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence Features
User-Friendly Information Access and Exploration
Desktop Intelligence lets users easily create reports and provides powerful offline analysis of data—freeing your IT resources to concentrate on other issues.

• Robust semantic layer
• Powerful offline access
• Single interface

Powerful Query and Offline Analysis
Desktop Intelligence offers a wide variety of data source access, all from a Web-enabled desktop tool. Its open object model means it can act as both a business intelligence (BI) development platform and as an off-the-shelf BI tool for information analysts.

• Multiple data source integration
• Efficient, accurate data retrieval
• Easy to customize

Built on the Proven, Market-Leading BI Platform
Desktop Intelligence is built on the proven and mature capabilities of the BusinessObjects Enterprise BI platform.

• BI standardization via shared administration and security
• Deliver query and analysis globally via a single deployment
• Flexible deployment options

Dashboard Builder provides visibility across an organization to drive better decision making. The drag and drop framework allows you to display your Business Objects reports and Xcelsius models in a unified dashboard view. Dashboard Builder delivers the power to understand key business drivers by providing the means to drill from high level information to detailed review of root cause analysis.

PRODUCT BENEFITS

Drive performance success with a unified view
Display your BI content together in one consolidated view. With Dashboard Builder, employees are empowered to make the right decisions and improve overall business performance.
Understand business drivers
Dashboard Builder's catalog of analytic templates helps your organization understand business performance. Leveraging universe security, users only access what they are privileged to see and they can navigate from a high-level summary to detailed analysis.
Extend the power of performance dashboards
With drag-and-drop functionality, Dashboard Builder enables organizations to quickly build dashboards and rapidly deploy them across the organization.
BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder Features
Display Multiple Content Types
On a single dashboard page, multiple objects can be displayed—from business analytics and Crystal Reports to Web Intelligence documents and Xcelsius files.
Drill Down Into a Report
By drilling from summary-level to detail, users can maintain the context of the analysis. A guided workflow allows you to explore your operational information without getting lost in the data, or having to use another tool.
Drag and Drop Design Interface
You do not need to be a technical wizard to build a dashboard. The AJAX interface allows you to design dashboards with a floating toolbox and by dragging and dropping objects onto the page.
Pre-built Analytics
Pre-built selectors, gauges, charts, maps, and buttons are included—allowing users to create dashboards dynamically from a visual and simple interface.
Leverage the BI Platform Security
You do not need to maintain a separate security model for your dashboards as Dashboard Builder can be incorporated into your platform security model.
Web-based Content Creation
The tool used to create the dashboards is a zero client application that is accessed through a web browser. No software needs to be installed on the designer's desktop machine thus making it easier for IT to maintain.
Create Multiple Pages
With a single click, the designer can create an additional tab view within a dashboard—similar to the way you can create an additional worksheet in Excel. A tabbed layout makes it easier to organize your content allow users to navigate around information quickly.

Live Office integrates with Microsoft Office, embedding up-to-the-minute corporate data in Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word documents. This releases you from your dependency on IT and provides self-service access to your trusted business intelligence (BI) from within your familiar business tools.
BusinessObjects Live Office Features

Self-Service Access
Access business intelligence (BI) content directly within Microsoft Office - no IT assistance required. Select data from a Crystal Reports report, Web Intelligence document, or via ad hoc data selections—all within Microsoft Office.
 
Trusted Information
With Live Office, your Office documents display data from the same trusted source that supports your organization's decision-making and enterprise performance—the BI platform.
 
BI in Microsoft Office Outlook
Embed BI directly in your e-mails messages using Outlook. The underlying report automatically retains your security parameters to ensure that recipients see only the data they should have access to—and security is maintained, even when you share the document outside the firewall.

Secure, Direct Refresh
Automatically refresh a single data item—or all the data in your Office document. Instant refreshing and refiltering put the most accurate, up-to-date data at your fingertips for more confident decisions.
 
Formatting and Calculations
Once you have embedded your BI data, format and perform calculations using familiar features of Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. All formatting and calculations are retained.
 
Shared Documents
Publish Office documents to BusinessObjects Enterprise for instant access over the web or email your "live" Office documents—security is maintained, even when you share the document outside the firewall.

Why Crystal Reports 2008 Visual Advantage?

• Drive performance with industry-leading report and visualization solution
• Maximize your reporting power from day one with "what-if" analysis
• Present your data like never before with stunning visualizations
• Minimize your IT and developer effort with interactive reports
• Empower your users to make better operational and strategic decisions

Crystal Reports 2008 Visual Advantage Features
Review some of the key features of Crystal Reports 2008 Visual Advantage below.

Interactive Parameters
Reduce the number of reports you have to design and maintain. End users can select the parameter panel that provides them with data view that suits their needs. Or apply a conditional formatting to the optional parameter in order to narrow down the data selection to gain better business insights.

Operational Reporting
Take action from inside your report and make decisions faster. End users can make decisions directly from inside the report without having to switch to another tool, and gain work efficiency.

What-if Scenario Models
Use Xcelsius what-if scenario models embedded in reports to model the future outcome of your decisions. Get better insights on your business, visualize the future financial impact of your decisions, and gain confidence to execute your action plans.

Stunning Visualization
Take advantage of a comprehensive library of eye-catching visualization components to deliver complex company data in easy-to-understand interactive reports and dashboards.

Point-and-Click Ease
Xcelsius' intuitive interface, including pre-built charts, gauges, maps, dials and data connectors enables you to create dashboards connected to live company data in days instead of months.

Rapid Deployment
Easily communicate your results with one-click-export of your interactive Xcelsius dashboards into Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF documents or the web.