Microsoft will be releasing Management Reporter 2012 during the first half of 2012.
This next release will be a major release and will include some very HUGE improvements to the current release. Some, but not all, of the features are:
• Quick charts
• Comments
• Report scheduling
• Enhancements around report distribution (sharepoint, XPS, etc)
• Dynamics NAV integration
• Drill to Dynamics
Quick Charts and Comments in Microsoft Management Reporter:
Some of these enhancements were demo’ed at the Summit and Forum Users Conference in Vegas put on by Dynamics Communities in November 2011. The Quick Charts were shown in Management Reporter’s Report Viewer. The report had been generated already and the user looking at the report in Report Viewer could select specific data which would automatically create charts and graphs on top of the report being viewed. On this same report, comments were added to the right-hand side of the report itself. These comments were stored with the report but could also be copied from the current version of the report to future versions of the report – very nifty.
Generating Management Reporter Reports to SharePoint
The other items – Report Scheduling, Output Options (SharePoint) and Drill Back into Dynamics were discussed, but not demonstrated. All of these enhancements are highly anticipated and the crowds will be cheering. Currently, there are only three output options for ManagementReporter – Report Viewer, Excel or XBRL. The addition of SharePoint as an output option for reports will be fantastic!
Scheduling Reports in Management Reporter:
Currently in Management Reporter, reports can only be generated on demand. Reports cannot be scheduled to generate at a specific time and cannot be scheduled to recur on a regular schedule. FRx offered this feature through its Report Server option. This is a sure sign that the developers have not abandoned FRx features and are still working hard to incorporate these great FRx features into Management Reporter.
With all of these enhancements promised by Microsoft, my Christmas list has almost been checked off (I am still working on the yacht).