Crystal Reports Replacement & Migration
for businesses in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
Crystal Reports .rpt files carry their own connection details, their own SQL and their own formulas. That is why reporting is the thing that breaks when a legacy application is replaced, and why it is so often discovered late.
- Independent No licence commission, no reseller agenda
- 18+ yrs Building business software
- Fixed Price scopes, no surprises
- AU NZ UK US Perth-based, working remotely
The reports are a system of their own
Crystal Reports was bundled with an enormous amount of business software through the 1990s and 2000s, especially alongside Visual Basic 6, Delphi and PowerBuilder. Over time the reports accumulate: a few dozen at first, then hundreds, each with its own connection string, its own SQL and formula logic written by whoever needed it that week.
Businesses discover this during a migration, when it turns out the reports were never part of the application at all and nobody has a list of them.
Your Crystal Reports project, end to end
Three stages. Scoped and fixed-price before anything starts, delivered by the founder, and your existing system stays running until cutover.
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Week 0
Read the system as it is
We go through the existing application and record what it actually does, including the parts nobody documented. You get a written inventory and a fixed price before any build starts.
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Weeks 1-N
Rebuild and run in parallel
The replacement runs beside the original until the numbers reconcile. The old system stays untouched and switched on the whole time.
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Cutover
Go live and hand over
Cutover on a date you choose, then thirty days of support. Source code, documentation and credentials are handed to you, in your name.
What the work actually is
Inventory first. Most reports turn out to be dead.
The first piece of work is finding every .rpt file and establishing which are actually run. That usually shrinks the project dramatically, because most of them have not been opened in years.
What you have now
- Hundreds of .rpt files, location unknown
- Connection strings inside each report
- Formula logic nobody documented
- A runtime tied to an old application
Inventory first. Most reports turn out to be dead.
The first piece of work is finding every .rpt file and establishing which are actually run. That usually shrinks the project dramatically, because most of them have not been opened in years.
See how a project runsWhat you end up with
- A full inventory of which reports exist and which are still used
- The live ones rebuilt in a current reporting tool and reconciled
- Business logic recovered from the formulas
The 5 pieces of Crystal Reports work we are asked for
Most engagements are some combination of these, and most start with the first.
Find every report
They are rarely in one place. An inventory of what exists, where it lives and what it connects to is the first deliverable.
Work out what is still used
Typically a small fraction. This is the single biggest cost reduction available in a Crystal migration and it comes before any rebuilding.
Recover the formula logic
Crystal formulas often hold business rules that exist nowhere else, including how a figure is actually calculated for the board pack.
Rebuild the live reports
In a current reporting tool, then reconciled figure by figure against the Crystal output until they match.
Archive the rest
Dead reports kept as a readable archive rather than rebuilt, which is most of them.
Where you are now
It works, and nobody will touch it
- Hundreds of .rpt files with no list of what exists
- Connection strings and SQL buried inside each report
- Business rules living in report formulas and nowhere else
- A runtime tied to an application you want to replace
After
Supported, documented and yours
- A written inventory of every report and its status
- The reports that matter rebuilt and reconciled
- Calculation logic documented instead of hidden in formulas
- Reporting that no longer blocks replacing the application
Scoped and quoted before you commit. You own the code, the documentation and the credentials at the end of it.
Get a fixed-price scopeCrystal Reports questions
We have hundreds of reports. Is this going to be enormous?
Almost certainly not, once the inventory is done. In our experience the great majority have not been run in years. Establishing which are live typically cuts the project to a fraction of what people fear.
Why does reporting break during a migration?
Because .rpt files hold their own connection and SQL, so they are not really part of the application. Change the database underneath and the reports stop, which is why this is discovered late and painfully.
What replaces Crystal Reports?
It depends on where the data ends up and who writes reports. What matters more than the tool is that figures reconcile to the old output, because that is what the business checks first.
Can the formula logic be recovered?
Yes, and it is worth doing. Crystal formulas frequently contain the only written definition of how a number is actually calculated, which the business often cannot reproduce otherwise.
Can we keep Crystal and change only the application?
Sometimes, if the database structure survives the migration. It is a legitimate way to stage the work and reduce risk, and we will propose it where it fits.
Sending your details…
You can stay on this page while we send it.
Tell us what you are running
What the system does, roughly how old it is, and what is forcing the question. We will come back with a straight answer and a fixed-price scope, even if the answer is to leave it alone.
Prefer a quick chat? Call 0425 531 127. We answer the phone in Perth.
