Crystal Reports has long been a legacy staple for operational reporting, but modern businesses require agility, interactivity, and real-time insights that traditional paginated reports fail to deliver. Power BI offers a modern, scalable, and interactive analytics platform that enables self-service business intelligence, real-time dashboards, and enterprise-grade governance.

At MAQ Software, we specialize in helping organizations like yours modernize legacy reporting infrastructure. Our free 3-week Crystal Reports to Power BI assessment offers a detailed evaluation of your current Crystal environment and how Power BI can unlock new business value.

Target customers

Digital transformation & innovation leaders
IT executives (CIO/CTO/CSO)
BI/Analytics Team
Power BI Admins
Project/Program Managers

Agenda

Week 1: Discovery and Analysis

Kick-off Meeting: Confirm scope, introduce teams, align expectations, and plan communication
Crystal Reports Analysis: Review sample RPT files, database connections, parameters, and subreports
Data Source Evaluation: Assess underlying data sources, query logic (SQL/stored procedures), and report generation performance
Stakeholder Interviews: Understand business logic, usage scenarios, and data consumption needs
Initial Power BI Overview: Introduce Power BI’s capabilities like interactive dashboards, row-level security, real-time data refresh, and cloud publishing

Week 2: Power BI Evaluation and Planning

Feature Demonstrations: Show how Crystal functionalities (e.g., formulas, conditional formatting, grouping) map to Power BI features (e.g., DAX, bookmarks, filters)
Power BI for Operational Reporting: Discuss options like paginated reports within Power BI Premium for regulatory or formatted reporting needs
Data Architecture Planning: Propose how stored procedures, joins, and parameters in Crystal can be replicated via Power Query, DAX, and semantic models
Migration Strategy: Define possible phased approaches—by business unit, report complexity, or usage priority
Preliminary Effort Estimation: Estimate level of effort based on number and complexity of Crystal reports and database logic

Week 3: Roadmap and Recommendations

Refined Migration Roadmap: Provide a phase-wise migration plan with key activities, responsible roles, dependencies, and timelines
Cost Analysis: Outline expected licensing costs for Power BI (Pro, PPU, Premium Capacity) and projected implementation costs
Risk and Gap Analysis: Identify potential blockers such as unsupported visuals, VB scripting, or print-format dependency
Governance and Adoption Best Practices: Share guidelines for Power BI governance, workspace security, dataflows, and end-user enablement
Final Presentation and Q&A: Present full findings, roadmap, estimates, and answer business and technical questions

Deliverables

In-depth analysis of your Crystal Reports environment and mapped Power BI capabilities
Phased migration plan with effort estimation, dependencies, and priority order
Suggested Power BI structure for datasets, workspaces, access, and refresh models
Recommendations for Power BI SKUs and total cost of ownership
A clear guide for initiating a full migration project, with Power BI best practices and adoption strategies

Benefits

Get a clear view of the feasibility and effort required for migrating from Crystal Reports to Power BI
Learn how Power BI can address pain points like hard-coded logic, inflexible layouts, and developer-heavy maintenance
Understand potential ROI from reduced licensing costs and improved reporting efficiency
Receive a preliminary migration roadmap aligned with your business and technical goals
Discover governance, security, and architecture improvements with Power BI

Why choose MAQ Software
Our team of Power BI-certified experts brings deep experience modernizing legacy platforms like Crystal Reports. We understand the technical differences—hard-coded SQL logic, heavy use of stored procedures, and print-oriented formatting—and guide clients through a structured transformation. Our proven methodology ensures accuracy, performance, and usability in your new Power BI environment. We don’t just assess—we build a roadmap that sets your team up for long-term success with modern, self-service analytics.

Ready to modernize your Crystal Reports environment with Power BI? Contact CustomerSuccess@MAQSoftware.com to schedule your free 3-week assessment and begin your journey to better business intelligence.

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