Is anyone else here tired of dealing with SSRS for Epicor reporting? Microsoft has all but said SSRS is dead, it is hard to modify, hard to use, hard to design there are better choices out there and like I said Microsoft hasn’t touched it for years
I’ve been exploring Stimulsoft, and I have to say, it looks like a fantastic replacement. It is cross platform, web ready, supports .NET, .NET Core, and Angular out of the box.
Has a super sleek web designer, it is actively and constantly updated, web first yada yada yada.
It doesn’t have to be this one, but Epicor should really find a better solution!
I appreciated how it lets you click through the UI without making an account. Way too few places let you do that.
It does look more modern from a tech stack point of view, but my first impression quickly looking through is it wouldn’t be any less technical to make a report in that than it is for SSRS.
Well I mean report writing is a fairly technical thing. But with a variety of data sources and a friendly (word like) interface, live preview it seems miles ahead of SSRS
I’m only played with it for a bit but I’m really impressed. Hey it has built in support for BARCODES!
And the designer works in the browser, unlike Report Builder. I’m guessing the main downside will be cost, at least for us working at price sensitive companies.
As much as I hate the SSRS report designer, and agree that Microsoft has abandoned it, I’m not sure I want to do yet another upgrade to all our reports with our Classic to Kinetic UI conversion project going on. Granted this one looks really slick and much easier than SSRS to use.
So they have a Power BI “Report” writer that is the exact same tool as the SSRS Designer. And while power BI is fine for interactive “BI” dashboards and repots. It is utter crap for Printable forms.
This is even more critical since it is impractical (I won’t say impossible, although it sure feels that way) to manage ssrs reports in the browser. On premise customers have other options like using VS/SSDT but cloud customers don’t. They also appear to be getting rid of design for ssrs which is the ONLY tool that made it somewhat bearable for cloud customers.
Replacing SSRS would break end user processes that work. Most end users don’t have the means or will to migrate all of their SSRS reporting to a new platform. Providing an alternative would support end users who have the means and will to migrate, without breaking the rest.
Any competent, remotely modern alternative will support HTTP data sources. I think Epicor is going to say, you can already use the alternative solution of your choice with the REST API. Honestly that’s what I’d say too. Give me the API and I’ll have the freedom to use anything. More likely, they’ll point to their existing alternative BI products - already exists.
but it isn’t baked in, I can’t easily without customization launch these reports, send data , create datasets etc.
Epicor could / should build the piping. And yes SSRS breaks existing user process but the tool is expired / dead / drying and not being maintained.
Epicor should find a new one, or go back to the old one (Crystal) but it should be a platform that is being actively developed or maintained. SSRS hasn’t been touched for years not because its perfect… it hasn’t been touched cause it has been abandoned
votes. You hit a nerve 
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already exists.