Helical Insight version 6.0 Document.docx

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1. Canned Reporting Introduction: Launch of Helical
Insight version 6.0 Open Source BI
Helical Insight is an open source BI product built on java and react with flexible deployment
options, support of embedding SSO and white labelling as well as support of lot of other
features.
We are product to announce the launch of version 6.0 of our product i.e. Helical Insight 6.0.
With this version we are introducing a new module — Canned Reporting, this module can
be used to create pixel perfect, multi pager document/form kind of reports with a lot of
formatting, things like header, footer, summary, page header, page footer, calculations,
images etc. This module can be used to create reports like invoices, bank statements, salary
slips, P&L statements etc.
These built canned reports are also having a lot of different kind of exporting options which
includes PDF, Excel, CSV, PPT, XML, HTML, JPG, PNG etc. These reports can also have
filter’s like single select filter, multi select filter, date picker, date range picker, slider, search,
input box etc. Further, there is proper data row level data security based on the session of the
user (name of the user, his role, his organization, his profile attributed and profile values etc).
Also, these canned reports can also be directly embedded within a client’s product (whether
is a webapp or mobile app etc) along with SSO. Hence a user can directly view these reports,
interact with them etc directly from the client’s product itself. A common use case also is
wherein these canned reports can also be email scheduled at a specific frequency to different
set of people. Read more about when to use canned reports here.

3. ?????? Canned Reporting Tools and Options:-
There have been some very popular and strong tools which could be used for creating canned
reports, however most of them have come to life.
(A)Crystal Reports: Crystal Reports is a long-standing business intelligence and reporting tool
used by organizations to design and generate canned reports from various data sources. It has
been widely adopted for its ability to create pixel-perfect, printable reports and integrate easily
with enterprise applications like SAP.
However, Crystal Reports support is coming to an end December’2025. The implications of that
means

4. After support ends, no more bug fixes, security patches, or vendor help will be

available, leaving you exposed to vulnerabilities.
Compatibility issues may arise with modern databases, operating systems, or

integration layers not tested against legacy Crystal versions.
Migration under time pressure risks disruption — converting existing reports,

retraining users, and verifying output consistency all require effort and careful
validation.
Licensing, infrastructure, and deployment of a new or upgraded reporting solution

must be negotiated and procured quickly to avoid gaps.
Parallel run and rollback strategies must be built in, because immediate cutover has

a high risk if not thoroughly tested.
Any delay beyond the end-of-support date multiplies exposure to operational,

regulatory, or security risk.
The newly launched canned reporting module of Helical Insight can act as a good alternative for
customers who are looking to migrate from crystal reports.
(B)Jasper Reports: Along with crystal reports, one of the most popular open source
reporting tool has been Jasper reports. Jasper reports allowed to create pixel perfect
canned reports kind of reports. Jaspersoft as a product has been popular for it’s canned
reports and was having very poor functionalities on the dashboards and charts.
There has been certain changes like
JasperReports has changed its licensing model, discontinuing support for the
community edition and making enterprise pricing very high.
The community edition download and support have been removed, and only the
commercial edition with a paid 30-day trial is available.
This has created a need among current JasperReports users to find alternative
solutions with better cost-effectiveness and ongoing support
(C)SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services): SSRS is yet another very popular reporting
tool provided by Microsoft. Microsoft has officially put SQL Server Reporting Services
(SSRS) into maintenance mode and will no longer ship it with new versions. There
would be no further features or functionalities or development on SSRS.
-Microsoft is directing SSRS customers to migrate reports to Power BI Report Server
or Microsoft Fabric. Power BI Report Server is intended as the on-premises
successor, but longer-term, the push is clear: adopt cloud solutions, modernize
reporting, and leverage Power BI’s and Fabric’s AI capabilities
-Moving from SSRS to PowerBI is also not automated and smooth, especially for pixel
perfect paginated reports and advanced customizations.
Concerns for customers
-PRICING: PowerBI with it’s per user pricing / capacity pricing, the cost can escalate
quite quickly for larger deployments and that cost will keep on increasing only for
every additional amount of data and users.
-Data Owernship: In many domains like Banking, Finance, Healthcare etc often there
is need to keep the data with themselves. With Microsoft push towards cloud, it is
going to be a concern to a lot of companies.

5. -Vendor lock in: Usage of PowerBI and Fabric works on Microsoft stack, thus
resulting in long term vendor lock and no flexibility.
How Helical Insight Addresses these concerns
Helical Insight can act as a very good alternative to customers who are
looking for alternative to Crystal report, or Jasper report, or SSRS. Helical
Insight can very easily address the concerns which are listed above like
Pricing: Helical Insight comes at flat price, which is not dependent on the number of
users, or data size, or features.
Flexible deployment: Helical Insight provides flexible deployment options i.e. you
can get the installer/docker file and you can deploy on-premise, cloud, private cloud
etc.
Data Ownership: As the installation and deployment happens on customers own
servers, hence customers have full control and ownership of the data.
Complete BI Suite: Unlike many of the other canned reporting tools which only and
only supports canned reports, Helical Insight offers a complete BI package. Helical
Insight is one of the only tool which can provide canned reports, drag drop based
charts/dashboards as well as AI/chat based analytics powered by LLMs.
oCanned Report: With version 6.0 support of pixel perfect document kind of
canned reports.
oDashboards: Tableau kind of dashboards with various visualizations and
support drill down, drill through, interactivity and lot of other options.
oAI Integration: Helical Insight is also working on AI integration across various
places, which can allow chat based analysis, prescriptive and descriptive
analysis etc. (NOTE: this is work under progress and should be released
shortly)
All these above features are supported by other modules like
oEmbedding & SSO: Support of white labelling, embedding and SSO, which is
useful for product based companies who would like to embed these analytics
directly within their product.
oExporting in various formats
oEmail scheduling
oRow level data security and user role management
oCaching, HA LB etc for performance enhancement
oDocker support
Examples of Canned Reports across sectors:
Canned reporting module can be useful across sectors and geographies, like mentioned below
Banking & Financial Institutions: Automatically generate Bank Statements,
Account Summaries, and Loan Reports in PDF or Excel formats. These can be sent
to clients or auditors without manual effort.
Finance Teams: Produce Profit & Loss Statements, Balance Sheets, and Expense
Reports in Excel for quick analysis or PDF for executive presentations.
HR & Payroll Departments: Generate Salary Slips and Employee Appraisal
Reports in bulk. Each report can be personalized and exported securely as PDFs.

6. Sales & Operations Teams: Produce Invoices, Purchase Orders, and Sales
Reports, exporting them as PDFs or PPT slides for client meetings or internal
reviews.
Education & Training Institutes: Create Certificates, Mark Sheets, or Training
Completion Letters, exported instantly as PDFs for distribution.
This multi-format export ensures reports are ready for analysis, sharing, or presentation
without extra work.
?????? Experience the Power of Helical Insight 6.0
The future of Business Intelligence is here. Don’t get stuck with outdated tools that are
expensive, restrictive, or unsupported.
Take control of your analytics with the most flexible, open-source BI platform available
today.
?????? Register for a Free Demo & Free POC: https://www.helicalinsight.com/register
?????? For inquiries: [email protected]