Annoyed by Google’s recent privacy policies, I’ve decided to give Microsoft Bing a chance by making it the default search engine on my Apple iPhone 3GS and iPad 2. Last week, I was putting Bing to the test looking for information about the ABAP transports that Crystal Reports 2011 needs to communicate with SAP ECC (thanks to Tammy Powlas, an SAP Mentor and one of the Crystal Reports experts at the “Ask the Experts” session at last week’s SAP Insider BI2012 conference). Bing suggested some really curious advertisements for Crystal Reports 2012.
In case you were wondering, there is no product named Crystal Reports 2012, current or planned. The 2012 version number glitch only appears in Bing ads- I couldn’t persuade Google to generate a similar ad. Next year, SAP will deliver SAP Crystal Reports 2013 alongside the upcoming SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.1 suite. SAP Crystal Reports 2013 will be a modest update- mostly bug fixes and updated database connectivity- as SAP continues to improve its successor, the Eclipse-based Crystal Reports for Enterprise.
Oh, and about those ABAP transports? You’ll find them in a folder within the Crystal Reports 2011 download. So sit down with your SAP Basis team over a cup of coffee and plan your installation.
I feel better knowing SAP cannot master its own product naming strategies. What about you?
