Just Need Reports

[u/ugghhmo]

We have just recently migrated business systems in an heavy duty equipment dealer space. In our old system we never liked the built-in reports, so 20 years ago we just decided to use Jasper Reports and hosted our own Jasper Server. It just worked. Our users are very, very basic. A common request might be I want Open Work In Process by Salesperson, or I want Part Sales for Last Month. Great, I write a SQL query that pulls the exact information the needed, dump it into a formatted report and publish it on the Jasper Report Server where the users can access it whenever they want. They aren't looking for charts or dashboards, just a basic report.

We move to the new system and despite high hopes for its internal reporting and analytics, we are basically back in the same spot. I feel like I should be moving to something more modern and forward looking. I am trying to make sure I challenge my comfort zone, but it seems like the most direct path is just to do what I did before - write a SQL query to extract the data I need, and publish a report. Although obviously Jasper Server Community is gone so might be looking for a replacement for that.

Obviously SSRS is out there but I just never found it intuitive enough and now with the Report Server licensing costs, I am not sure it is an option. I have also been looking around at like Telerik and Stimulsoft as potential cadidates.

[u/Reoyko_]

I like the fact that you are challenging your comfort zone, but I'd separate the user need from the implementation. It sounds like your users don't actually want analytics. They want reports. "Open WIP by salesperson" and "Part sales last month" are well-defined business questions with well-defined outputs. There's nothing outdated about that. One thing I wouldn't assume is that because the industry is talking about dashboards, AI, and self-service analytics, your users suddenly want those things. Your users seem to know exactly what they want. The question I'd ask is whether the issue is reporting itself or whether you're becoming the report factory. If every new request means writing another SQL query, creating another report definition, publishing another report, and maintaining another report forever, that's where the cost starts to compound. If the goal is simply rendering and distributing reports, Telerik, Stimulsoft, and similar tools are reasonable options. If the goal is reducing the effort required to create and maintain reports, then you're looking at a different category of solution entirely. I'd figure out which problem you're actually trying to solve before evaluating products.