Enhanced Reporting Features For Crystal Decisions AppEnhanced Reporting Features For Crystal Decisions App

Crystal Decisions Inc. on Wednesday began shipping a new release of its Enterprise reporting and information-delivery software that includes more powerful analytical capabilities. Enterprise 9 also provides enhanced report-design features that speed up the development and maintenance of reports.

The release's new ad hoc analysis features and ability to more easily tap into data from a wider range of sources mean users can go beyond basic reporting. "They're bringing more analytical functionality into the fold," says Dan Vesset, IDC analytics and data warehousing analyst.

Enterprise combines the vendor's Reports and Analysis tools. Enterprise 9's scalability, both in terms of the number of users and the number of tasks it can support, has been improved from earlier versions, the company says, although benchmark numbers weren't available. The product also has enhanced alerting capabilities that notify users by E-mail of changing conditions, such as dropping inventory levels, when reports are run.

Enterprise can be licensed using named-user, concurrent-user, or processor-based options. The entry-level price for Crystal Enterprise is $2,000.