Seconding Arnoldas that Power BI tends to be a popular option, especially for organizations that already use Office 365. It's extremely cheap (if not free based on the plans you're using) and you can make some pretty interesting dashboards in it. We also see quite a few still use the ODBC approach with Excel as well.
Power BI/Cognos (and probably ArcGIS Online dashboards based on the name) serve a different purpose than BIRT reporting in my opinion. Power BI/Cognos are all about analytics of your data (time to completion, number of records without proper failure codes recorded, etc.), whereas BIRT is geared more towards transactional reports (what was done on WO 1234). None of those other reporting frameworks can do transactional reporting well based on our experience.
I'll agree the aesthetics aren't the greatest, but BIRT in some ways is very similar to Maximo. The power and flexibility of what IBM has done with BIRT is impressive. For example, if you need to support multi-language there is a comprehensive process for doing that in BIRT where you can configure labels with a properties file so they're automatically translated into the user's language. You can choose to hide/display columns based on a variety of conditions, including the type of file being exported to. For example, in Excel the width isn't really an issue but in a PDF document that is going to be printed you're typically more constrained. Direct print is extremely powerful, from handling concepts such as duplex printing (including ensuring each record is on its own paper) to including specific attachments that are relevant for performing the work. And there is functionality to restrict reports to certain time windows, record limits, etc.
The learning curve is tough and it's not going to replace a dashboard like tool. But I wouldn't try to avoid BIRT. Use it for the transactional style reports (especially where out of the box examples exist that you can modify) and find an alternate for more analytical reporting.
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Steven Shull
Director of Development
Projetech Inc
Cincinnati OH
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Original Message:
Sent: Tue November 24, 2020 08:49 PM
From: User1971
Subject: Alternatives to BIRT?
For those of us who aren't totally satisfied with BIRT (performance, functionality, aesthetics, ease of development, error handling), what are our options for alternative reporting platforms?
A. Cognos
B. Ontrack's SQL SSRS Plugin / SRSS
C. MS Access/Excel via ODBC (a surprisingly appealing option)
D. ArcGIS Online dashboards, etc. (not just for maps)
E. Other?
It would be great to have a reporting platform that matches the strength of core Maximo (and sufficiently shows off our multi-million dollar investment).
Thanks
#AssetandFacilitiesManagement
#Maximo