A leading American private business jets company with more than half a century of experience, operating over 750 aircraft of an ever-expanding global fleet decided to consolidate the reporting and analytical needs in Jaspersoft. Given the high expectations of the customer segment served by this company, its flight operations have to meet exacting standards of efficiency and accountability. Numerous teams need to work in tandem to service every flight request starting from matching aircraft to specific customer needs to creating itineraries and tracking weather patterns. The teams include owner services teams, flight attendants, flight coordinators, logistics teams, operational analysis experts, meteorology teams, dispatch teams, schedulers, maintenance crews, pilots, and international flight planners to name a few. Extensive coordination and tracking of thousands of suppliers providing goods and services like catering services, ground transportation, and maintenance are also involved.This requires an integrated BI system for tracking, reporting, dashboards, and transactional analytics to support over 6000 employees on a real-time basis. The company chose Jaspersoft as its BI solution to replace SAP Crystal reports which was going out of support. The customer expected the following additional benefits after transition to Jaspersoft –
• Seamless integration and embedding in 3rd party applications with data from multiple sources
• Enhanced data virtualization and pluggable custom visualizations
• Enhanced performance with in-memory analysis and multi-dimensional analytics
• Enhanced user self-service with the Jaspersoft drag-and-drop report designer

The customer chose DataTerrain to lead this transition due to its unique automation led approach to transition from SAP crystal reports to Jaspersoft.

DataTerrain’s seamless and automated transition approach
With experience gained over numerous successful transitions, DataTerrain has refined its methodology to emphasize Zero business disruption, Zero defects, and Zero unexpected outcomes for end-users. This robust framework was applied along with its well-defined phases for this project. The phases are summarized below –
1. Automated AS-IS mapping and detailed planning – DataTerrain’s proprietary tool created a detailed map of the AS-IS landscape in crystal reports. The inventory of existing reports included information on their unique features, complex queries and data structures, data source related nuances, run times, usage patterns, owners, etc. This was used to identify potential transition issues and proactively plan interventions. Recoding effort in embedded applications was evaluated and plans were made to keep recoding to a minimum. Specific considerations for charts and visualizations were also documented and solutions were designed to address specific user needs and priority customization. This information was fed into a detailed plan which was signed off by key stakeholders.
2. Automated transition and validation – DataTerrain’s tool was used to perform automated transition based on the detailed designs and action plans agreed for individual reports. Some of the major points handled through automation and subsequent interventions by DataTerrain SMEs include –
a. Transition of crystal reports .rpt to .jrxml. This included complex reports and sub-reports
b. Transition of reports using JSON reference as data source.
c. Review of reusable custom components, chart engines, and fonts in JasperSoft® Studio. HTML5 charting features were leveraged as a solution for specific customer charting needs.
d. Creation of common resource repository for components like images and controls to minimize redundancy and save time.
e. Mapping of functions, expressions, and calculation logics in crystal reports through JasperReports® variables
f. Reviewing and upgrading grouping and sort orders in JasperReports®
g. Display and update of dynamic queries creation using end-user selections and controls.
h. Reports scheduling and automatic delivery across a variety of output formats. Special emphasis was placed on pixel-perfect reports and any misalignment were corrected during the transition process
i. Creation of generic report templates to provide a uniform look and feel while saving time.
j. Deploying the converted reports to a third-party application
k. Automated validation of templates and data between source and target systems to assure the quality of outputs in Jaspersoft.
3. User acceptance and rollout – The validated reports were shared with users for acceptance in the pre-prod environment. User effort for testing and training was lower since they were involved at every major interim milestone and the deliverables were tuned to the exact needs signed-off by them. After acceptance, the reports were promoted to production.

DataTerrain Value adds
The customer noted the following feedback on value adds provided by DataTerrain during the successful on-time and on-budget completion of this project –
• Customization – DataTerrain used the features of Jaspersoft to deliver a prioritized set of long-pending customization wanted by users and this led to high user satisfaction and faster adoption.
• Resolution of complex technical issues – DataTerrain SMEs proactively identified and resolved existing complex technical issues.This resulted in easier integration with the third-party application and improved chart outputs after transition.
• Accelerated delivery using Global Delivery model – With a judicious mix of on-site and resource teams, DataTerrain managed close hand holding and coordination with end-users. Project execution continued round the clock from the global delivery center and this accelerated the pace of delivery.

DataTerrain seamlessly converted their reporting from Crystal reports, and provided suitable documentation.The customer organization has begun to leverage the features of Jaspersoftto drive the next level of business results.