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SAP Crystal Reports v Phocas

When choosing business intelligence and financial planning software, remember it’s not just about what’s advertised. Reach out to fellow business peers for first-hand insights, explore online forums, ask for a demo, and read comparison reviews like this SAP Crystal Reports and Phocas overview. It’ll save you time (and money) in the long run.
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Comparison overview

SAP Crystal Reports

SAP Crystal Reports is primarily a business reporting tool that produces simple reports and pixel-perfect documents. Whilst it can pull data from multiple sources, it offers limited interactivity, only allowing users to create static reports. To produce more complex reporting and handle trickier data tasks, users need to be proficient in Structured Query Language [SQL]. As a result, it is not considered suitable for end users and usage tends to be limited to in-house Crystal ‘experts’ such as IT teams. By SAP’s own admission, Crystal Reports is “not as focused on collaboration and real-time interaction”.¹

¹ Source: Johann, Product and Topic Expert, Technology Blogs by SAP on community.sap.com

Phocas

Phocas is an all-in-one business planning and analytics platform that includes Analytics (BI), Financial Statements, Budgets and Forecasts and Rebates. Designed for mid-market businesses, Phocas caters to distribution, manufacturing and retail industries. Phocas partners with many ERP systems with a proven track record in connecting all your data (financial, sales, operational). Enabling data exploration that goes beyond the limitations of your ERP. Products are designed to be human-friendly and to work smoothly together - empowering whole businesses to access, analyze and understand their data, not just the data experts in IT or finance.
SAP Business One + Phocas customer

Simplicity makes Phocas useful to many

"Before Phocas, we were using SAP Business One to generate reports. It took quite a bit of time. We brought in Phocas and reporting has been instant. The ability to use Phocas on your mobile phone has been great. It makes things much easier to track”.

Theo Hatzis

National Sales Support Manager at ICCONS

Simplicity makes Phocas useful to many
Goal: Fast setup, full support

Implementation

SAP Crystal Reports

There are multiple versions of SAP Crystal Reports available for download from the SAP website, consisting of free and paid licenses, priced per user. Non-technical users may find it challenging to determine which version is right for their business. The implementation process is self-serve, with users requiring in-house IT expertise to follow an online installation manual. Although the overall implementation process can appear quicker than at Phocas, Crystal Reports is entirely 'off the shelf'. With limited support available, users then need to heavily customize it to fit their business' needs or employ a third-party Crystal specialist to do it for them which can elongate the process and increase the total cost.

Phocas

Since 2001, Phocas has developed long-standing relationships and direct integrations with multiple ERP systems such as Epicor, Infor, Kerridge, Sage and SAP. Data is pulled from your ERP or any other source directly into one centralized platform, providing a reliable data foundation that everyone can access and analyze. Phocas' finely tuned implementation process includes a thorough needs assessment, dedicated implementation team, secure data warehousing, data mapping, plus training and ongoing guidance from global support teams. All the heavy lifting is done by Phocas, and depending on the complexity of your implementation, we can have you up and running in a matter of weeks.

 

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Customer quote
"I had a manager who came from a personal trainer background, and within a few hours of using Phocas, he could create reports and understand the performance of each club. I just showed him once, and now he can run it for himself."

— Grace Zhu, Finance Manager at Viva Leisure.

SAP Business One + Phocas customer

Goal: Empower everyone

Custom reporting

SAP Business One

SAP describes Crystal Reports as "offering limited interactivity and is best suited for static reports"¹. Unlike Phocas which is fully interactive, users are unable to freely explore their business data in Crystal Reports. If someone has a question on a particular report, to find out the answer, they need to run another report, or brief someone else to run the report for them if they’re not technical. This prevents users from being able to follow their natural train of thought and slows down decision making. Although SAP Crystal Reports does offer custom reporting with lots of in-built customization options, users tell us that they take too long to prepare.

Phocas

All Phocas products offer custom reports and dynamic dashboards as a standard offering. Designed for non-techies, everyone can independently create and customize unlimited reports and dashboards. You can set up automated alerts and reports, send your insights externally or tag relevant people or teams directly within the software. With Phocas you'll gain so much more than simple data overviews as you can freely explore underlying data, right down to transactional-level detail. It's fast, easy to use and empowers everyone to independently analyze data, share insights and improve the overall understanding of financial performance. 
Customer quote
"The neat part of Phocas is its simplicity and intuitiveness. Any mistakes you make, you can just undo and reformat, and even when I make mistakes, I find something new that is valuable. The more we dig in and send out the weekly sales reports, the more people are telling us how valuable the data is.”

— Eric Tordjman, Owner at Mercury Lighting.

SAP Business One + Phocas customer

Goal: reliable, all-inclusive

Ongoing support

SAP Crystal Reports

The most common feedback from Phocas customers who have migrated from Crystal Reports has been a lack of support. After downloading a version online, users have access to a live help and chat functionality but do not receive 1-2-1 tailored support in the form of a customer success manager like they would have with Phocas. This can result in heavily reliance on the Crystal user community and self-initiated training once it is installed. It also has a steep learning curve and if users want to make the most of the product, they need to invest in additional training. Some businesses even go to the lengths of hiring dedicated SQL experts to write Crystal Reports; an additional cost you may need to consider if you don't have the skill set or resource already in-house.

Phocas

Like Phocas' human-friendly platform of products, customer support is people-centric. An initial needs assessment ensures our products are the right fit for your business right out the gate. A dedicated implementation team then supports you every step of the way. From there, Phocas employ dedicated support teams located in offices globally providing support that goes beyond just solving issues. We guide you through understanding your data, offering a helping hand whenever you need it. Through ongoing relationships with customers we also gain insights into ways we can push product development even further. Plus, our continued support is all rolled into our product pricing structure, so you won't need to worry about escalating consultation costs.
Customer quote
"Phocas is genuinely built for business users, not for IT. The simple, intuitive interface means you spend less time tinkering, and more time turning data into knowledge, and knowledge into results.”

— Fabian Morgan, Managing Director at Ardex Australia.

SAP + Phocas customer

Phocas goes beyond BI

Financial Planning & Analytics

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Financial Statements

  • Create dynamic profit and loss, balance sheet and cashflow statements
  • Customize statements to suit teams and departments, then automate reports across the organization 
  • Track performance at any time and freely investigate financials 
  • Quick, easy visuals mean more people understand business performance
  • Bring other business data into your statements
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Budgets & Forecasts

  • Choose from pre-built budget styles and add detail like inventory, sales and headcount 
  • Connect everyone with operational, sales and inventory data to serve budgets, scenarios and forecasts
  • Secure workflows deliver quick feedback and improve company-wide collaboration 
  • Make regular reforecasting easier by comparing live actuals to planned performance 
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Rebates

  • A purpose-built tool that automates multiple rebates programs - simple to complex 
  • Clear visibility of up-to-date rebates information enables everyone to tap into opportunities
  • Avoid costly errors or a stockpile of unprocessed transactions with trusted software
  • Review rebates programs against sales performance and view profit and margin impact
  • Strengthen key partner relationship with well-managed, accurate rebates
Customer quote
"Phocas is low cost, very fast, very effective and has a painless integration. We haven’t had to spend more on capital equipment. Often when you introduce reporting systems, you need additional support and HR to drive it. That’s not the case with Phocas."

— Phil Rose, MD at ICCONS.

SAP Business One + Phocas customer

Get a grip on your data

Understand the past, operate better today, and plan well for the future

Customer quote
Phocas makes me feel confident and it is certainly a good stress reliever. There are a lot of unknowns in business and there are a lot of things that Phocas can give me that become ‘knowns’ very quickly or easily.

— Owner at Timberline Bathroom Products.

Why Phocas

We think you’ll love Phocas, but don’t take our word for it

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Based on 270+ customer reviews
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Understand the past, operate better today, and plan well for the future

Whether you want to get your data organized for your team or you’re looking to combine business intelligence capabilities with financial reporting, planning and analytics… We can guide you. Let’s see if we can help.
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