|
June, 2004
We've Moved!
*Cool New Office
On June 1st, APOS moved into new offices,
please update your records with our new address and
phone number
information:
APOS Systems Inc.
285 Fountain Street South
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
N3H 2G3
Tel: 519-653-2767
Fax: 519-653-8511
If you're coming to see us, please
visit here
for directions.
Bursting Manager and View Time Security
*Typical Business Scenario
When APOS undertook the development of its
recently released
Bursting Manager—a
powerful report bursting add-in software
tool for Crystal
Enterprise v.9 Pro/Std and v.10 Pro/Express—it
did so from the knowledge that report
bursting was not a simple task, and the
product itself must be able to solve
different problems for different business
needs. Let’s look at one such problem, which
would involve the use of another popular
APOS product, the View Time Security (VTS)
tool.
This powerful combination can be illustrated
with an example, Wheels & Eats.
Profile:
Wheels & Eats has 1500 convenience
stops—combined gas station and stores—nation
wide. Accounting is centralized and done for
all the convenience stops at head office.
Every month, Wheels and Eats adds new stops
and closes older, non-profitable ones. They
need a dynamic system to distribute profit
and loss reports to the convenience stop
managers on a monthly basis.
Requirements:
The technology group at head office must:
•
Use the APOS Dynamic Parameters Add-In
Software tool
•
Run large monthly reports that include
detailed financial statements for all
convenience stops
•
Enforce security so that each convenience
stop manager can only see his or her own
part of the report
•
Keep a history of this large report instance
for 7 years
•
Distribute PDF versions of the statements to
the managers.
Some Real Issues:
For Sharon, the IT Manager, every day was
challenging enough. However, during last
month:
•
15 new convenience stops were added and 22
older ones closed
•
40 personnel changes to the convenience stop
managers occurred
•
Senior HQ management increased vigilance in
the financial statements of every
convenience stop
•
One of her key IT staff members resigned
These changes exacerbated an already complex
situation. “Crystal Enterprise has done us
well,” thought Sharon. “And we are already
using the APOS VTS tool to enforce row level
security. What I really need a simplified
way to handle the numerous changes to email
addresses and personnel, deal with the
changes to the stores, and still make sure
that the convenience store managers get
their reports flawlessly every month.”
Solution:
With Bursting Manager and VTS, Sharon was
able to solve the problems created by a
dynamic system as follows.
Crystal Enterprise is first used to generate
a large instance of the monthly report
containing all the data for all the
recipients. The creation of this instance,
in turn, causes the bursting definition in
Bursting Manager to run. The bursting
definition uses the row level security
information in VTS and the email addresses
stored in CE (the managers user group) to
burst that large instance into small PDF
files, detailing the financial statements.
Bursting Manager then sends the statements
to each of the managers according to their
individual security sensitivities. Once
finished, Bursting Manager automatically
sends a log of the burst to the
administrator.
More about Report Bursting
The APOS Report Bursting product is a
multi-functional solution. For more
information about the product and report
bursting in general, download this APOS
white paper:
If you want to check out how Bursting
Manager and/or View Time Security can help your application, please
visit here
to request demo download instructions and our current price list.
|
Case Study - Alto Dairy Cooperative
*Cool Customer
“Because it
appeared to answer the multiple parameter
dependency problems in Crystal Reports that I
was trying to solve when I searched the web. I
was impressed with the demo and, since our
purchase of the tool, I’ve been even more
impressed with APOS’ outstanding support,”
said Tim O'Brien, Senior Database Administrator
at
Alto Dairy Cooperative. |
 |
Tools Used:
Dynamic
Parameters (with Crystal Enterprise™ 9.0)
Background:
Alto Dairy Cooperative is a member-owned cooperative of dairy producers
with over a century of experience in
manufacturing and marketing dairy products.
Alto’s 700 dairy producers supply its three
manufacturing facilities with over 128 million
pounds of milk every month. The production
facilities convert the milk into award winning
cheeses and other products, recognized
throughout the industry. Alto is a highly
customer-focused organization, and looks to
continuous process improvement to sustain its
competitive advantages
Business Issue:
•
Simplify the process of scheduling and
delivering reports to financial and production
staff located in different geographical
facilities
When Mr. O’Brien and his staff implemented a
Crystal Enterprise solution a couple of years
ago, they were able to significantly improve the
development and deployment of Crystal Reports to
Alto’s financial and production staff. However,
configuring these reports to meet Alto’s
business rule constraints—security, location,
and controlled access—remained a fairly complex
task from an IT perspective. Setting up these
multiple dependencies was quite time consuming
and drew on limited and stretched resources. For
example, users in Finance would need to look at
branch plant data and warehouse stock according
to their approved security clearances. On the
production side, key users needed to run
specific reports as needed. Configuring the
multiple dependencies—different facilities,
users, and report types complex administrative
task for an IT group stretched for time and
resources. “We needed a better way to handle
reports with multiple dependencies,” said
Mr. O’Brien.
Solution:
•
Use the APOS
Dynamic Parameters Add-In Software tool
When Tim O’Brien downloaded the APOS Dynamic
Parameters add-in software tool for a test
drive, he quickly found that this tool offered
the solution he wanted: the ability to populate
parameters lists based on SQL lookups, cascading
parameters, and ePortfolio integration. “Now,
our financial users can choose a plant and all
the appropriate information for those users are
displayed, for example,” said Mr. O’Brien. “And our production folk can run reports
based on their security access permissions,”
he added.
Results:
• Saving approximately 10 hours per week in
administration time
• Easy to implement and use
• Excellent user acceptance
Mr. O’Brien estimated that Dynamic Parameters
alone saved about 10 hours per week in managing
the 100 or so financial and production reports
that the users either received or could access.
That is a substantial saving for an IT
department that has to deal with many other
critical problems. Additional savings in both
time and expense were realized because the tool
was easy to implement. Best of all, users now
have the ability to very easily and quickly get
the information their security access entitles
them to get without having to go through other
channels. “Our users like it a lot,” Mr.
O’Brien mentioned.
To
read the full Alto Dairy Cooperative
case study or
view others,
visit here.
Migrating from Seagate Info to Crystal
Enterprise?
*We Can Help
Some aspects of migrating from Seagate Info
to Crystal Enterprise are challenging. APOS
has the tools and experience to assist with
special needs like migrating existing report schedules from Seagate Info to
Crystal Enterprise.
Visit here
to request additional information on
Seagate Info migration services. |
 |
Rescheduling Challenges and Solutions
*Some Alternatives
Crystal Enterprise provides powerful
scheduling capabilities - but what about
rescheduling? Many of our customers look for
help with rescheduling challenges, here are some ideas
and solutions:
Rescheduling One Instance from the History page
Check out our
Freeware
solution for this, no charge!
Batch Rescheduling Using InfoScheduler
InfoScheduler is our popular Excel-based
batch scheduling tool, but did you know if
offers help with rescheduling as well? We
recently enhanced InfoScheduler to allow you
to 'import' scheduling information from an
existing report instance. Now, with one
mouse click, you can easily create an
InfoScheduler item that includes report id,
parameter names, database connections, etc.
- a fast track load! Then either request an
immediate 'Schedule' or make a few changes
to parameter values, format, destination,
etc. and then 'Schedule'.
Batch Rescheduling Using Instance Manager
Instance Manager is our popular
administrator tool that allows you to search
for and retrieve a list of reports, then act
on the results. For example, with Instance
Manager, you can search for all report
instances that 'Failed' in the last 2 days,
then request an action of 'Reschedule' on
any or all of the resulting list.
In summary, at APOS, we offer a variety of
rescheduling solutions, feel free to
contact us
for additional information or
visit here
to request demo download instructions for
any of these solutions.
New Features for Current Products
*Stay Current
For current release notes on all
our Add-in solutions,
visit here
to
login to our new self-service portal, and then
Search our new knowledgebase for all
articles containing 'Release Notes'. Here
are some highlights of recent updates . . .
Instance Manager v.10, v.9, v.8.5
- Added the ability to search by Report ID,
Folder ID, and Folder Hierarchy
- Added 'Search Folder Structure' command to
Edit menu which displays CE folders and
reports for selection; folder id's and
report id's can then be added to search
field
APOS Suite of Add-In Solutions
*Extend Crystal Enterprise
One of our challenges is keeping our
customers and colleagues current on the APOS
suite of Add-In products as it grows.
Visit here
to request demo download instructions and our current price list.
Desktop
Application Tools . . .
Bursting Manager - burst a large
instance into small ones, burst one report
to many*New!
DocAssist
- report documentation & repository tool
InfoScheduler
- power batch scheduling from Microsoft
Excel
Instance
Manager
- administrator power tool
Object
Manager
- report promotion, object management,
security maintenance
Server-Based
Add-Ins . . .
AddressBook Gateway
- integrate your addressbook with ePortfolio scheduling
Business
Calendars
- customized calendars for report
scheduling
Distribution
Server
- email link,
email content, failure notification,
distribute on alert
Dynamic Parameters
- SQL-based,
user-specific pick lists, cascading
parameters
Instance
Monitor
- email notification of failed instances
KPI
- who is viewing which reports, license
usage analysis, server activity monitoring
RunTime Manager
- availability time windows for Crystal
Enterprise components
View Time
Security
- row level data security without C++
development
Development
Tools . . .
Processing Extension RAD
- fast track
processing extension development
Frequently Asked Questions
Visit here to see our latest FAQ list
summarizing many of the needs our
customers have been asking for help with in our
various add-in solutions.
Suggestions, Requests, Unique Requirements
If you have a
unique reporting system requirement, let us
know. We love to work on special projects
and regularly save our customers a lot of
time and money by using our Add-In solutions
as a fast-track foundation for a specific
customized solution.
APOS Systems Inc.
Head Office: 285 Fountain Street
South, Cambridge, ON, Canada N3H 1J2
Tel: 519.653.2767 - Fax:
519.653.8511
Branch Office: 30703 Blueridge Drive #13, Abbotsford, BC,
Canada V2T 6M8
Tel: 604.864.0766 - Fax: 604.864.4291
Email:
apos@apos.on.ca - Web:
www.apos.on.ca
This newsletter is published approximately every
2 months. If you don’t want to receive future newsletters or would like to add someone else to our email list,
visit here.
If you have any compliments or
suggestions, we welcome those too! This
newsletter was sent to: {EMAIL}
(c) 2004 APOS Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Crystal Decisions, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, Seagate Info
and Business Objects are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Business Objects SA. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
|
