New Project - Should I use MS technology?

Wow, this is exciting. I've just got a new project request. It's for
building a statement processing system. Customer send us data, we merge the
data with an existing report layout, then we print and send back to the
customer for distibution.
Sounds simple enough right? Use Crystal or SQL Server Reporting to create
the reports, convert the data to a standardized dataset, merge with the
report and send to the printer. But wait (and this is the part that scares
me), how many statements are we talking about? As little as 50, but up to
150,000, and we're talking about 4-8 pages, with images and graphs.
I've worked with Crystal and SQL Reporting Services, but I just don't think
either of them can handle jobs of this magnatued. Anybody used either of
these for something of that scale? I'm thinking of telling the project
sponsor that it would be better to call our IBM Rep and get them to put us a
solution together. What do you think?
DaveHi posted a request for help in scaling RS a couple of days ago but as yet
no responses.
"David Young" <REMOVE_THIS.dmy75252@.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:OXvzfAdQFHA.3144@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Wow, this is exciting. I've just got a new project request. It's for
> building a statement processing system. Customer send us data, we merge
> the
> data with an existing report layout, then we print and send back to the
> customer for distibution.
> Sounds simple enough right? Use Crystal or SQL Server Reporting to create
> the reports, convert the data to a standardized dataset, merge with the
> report and send to the printer. But wait (and this is the part that
> scares
> me), how many statements are we talking about? As little as 50, but up to
> 150,000, and we're talking about 4-8 pages, with images and graphs.
> I've worked with Crystal and SQL Reporting Services, but I just don't
> think
> either of them can handle jobs of this magnatued. Anybody used either of
> these for something of that scale? I'm thinking of telling the project
> sponsor that it would be better to call our IBM Rep and get them to put us
> a
> solution together. What do you think?
> Dave
>
>|||>> sounds like a good project indeed !
>> I guess MSFT only can say whether RS can handle loads of this magnitude but in the meantime, have you looked at the data-driven subscription feature in RS ? --
>> RS can be installed in load-balanced farm -- you may have to write code to receive data from customers and then send it to a load-balanced reporting servers -
>> It is not easy to automatically send reports to the printer in SQL2000RS -- there is a printer delivery extension that you need to compile and install and make it work - instead you can setup a schedule to save the reports to a fileshare and email the reports to your customers
>>Also, before calling the IBM rep, you might want to take a look at BizTalk2004 server - just a quick-read thru its documentation may give you more ideas.
>> Another idea before calling the IBM rep - is to call someone like Hitachi Consulting and see if they can handle this project.
regards
ranga raghuram
"David Young" wrote:
> Wow, this is exciting. I've just got a new project request. It's for
> building a statement processing system. Customer send us data, we merge the
> data with an existing report layout, then we print and send back to the
> customer for distibution.
> Sounds simple enough right? Use Crystal or SQL Server Reporting to create
> the reports, convert the data to a standardized dataset, merge with the
> report and send to the printer. But wait (and this is the part that scares
> me), how many statements are we talking about? As little as 50, but up to
> 150,000, and we're talking about 4-8 pages, with images and graphs.
> I've worked with Crystal and SQL Reporting Services, but I just don't think
> either of them can handle jobs of this magnatued. Anybody used either of
> these for something of that scale? I'm thinking of telling the project
> sponsor that it would be better to call our IBM Rep and get them to put us a
> solution together. What do you think?
> Dave
>
>