SAP Crystal Reports Expert Session
Orchestra’s very own John-Michael Davis recently co-hosted an online expert session with SAP representative Dan Love to present some tips and tricks when using Crystal Reports in SAP. These sessions are aimed to help fellow SAP partners by sharing relevant tips and tricks when running reports and other functions in SAP.
SAP often selects recognized experts within the community to share their knowledge and expertise. This session focused on implementing dynamic and optional parameters within your SAP reports as well as handling NULL values in formulas to avoid report crashes when the data is not coming in as expected.
Optional Parameters in Crystal Reports
In the first segment of the session, Dan shared some tips on setting optional parameters using Crystal Reports within SAP. Using optional parameters, Dan presented a step-by-step process showing users how to run a Net Sales report for a single customer or for all customers without having to run two separate reports.
Dynamic Grouping in Crystal Reports
In the second segment of the session, John-Michael presented a simple, but time saving method of using parameters to dynamically group your report by Sales Person, Customer Group or individual Customer - all in a single report.
Handling NULL Values in Crystal Reports
JM topped off the web session by tackling the issue of handling NULL values at the formula level. JM dazzled a captivated online audience with an impressive display of technical know-how that included a combination of formulas, keystrokes and a dash of wizardry resulting in a successfully completed report function.
SAP hosts these sessions on a regular basis to help fellow partners maintainefficiency in reporting and other functions. Knowledge sharing is crucial to the success of any partnership and Orchestra is proud to participate. Join us at the 2011 SAP ASUG conference in Atlanta where Orchestra and JM will once again share knowledge and expertise in Crystal Reporting and other SAP related topics. JM’s session will walk you through the complete process of creating a Crystal Report, pulling live SAP Business One data, filtering it by parameter, and prepping it for the dashboard. The session will conclude by building the dashboard and connecting it to the live Crystal Report data source. More on the 2011 ASUG conference: http://www.asug.com/EventsCalendar/EventDetails/tabid/150/EventID/2538/Default.aspx
About John-Michael Davis
JM, as he is known around the office, is a founding partner of Orchestra, an SAP Partner located in Portland, Oregon. He currently works as Chief Engineer of Systems and Analytics. He has taught Crystal Reports courses for SAP Business One users and is currently working with SAP to provide web based expert sessions to the greater SAP Business One community. He has also worked with Crystal Reports extensively over the past 4 years as it has been tightly integrated into SAP Business One
JM is also an SAP Business One expert with more than 5 years of experience with the application. Orchestra is honored to have one of the premiere SAP Business One support consultants on our staff and helping our clients. JM brings a tremendous amount of experience to his role in support of our clients and their IT systems.
JM has developed numerous innovations in small business IT support while at Orchestra, including the use of digital video for troubleshooting, developing Orchestra's Preventive Support Offering, or working directly with SAP on improvements to the supportability of SAP Business One.
