BusinessObjects Consultant
*This is a 4-month contract position – Remote
Description:
BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports are used across the enterprise for reporting and are integrated with several web-based and legacy applications. The current environment runs BusinessObjects 4.2 and Crystal Reports 2016. BusinessObjects 4.2 is no longer supported, creating operational, security, compatibility, and maintainability risks.
This engagement requires strong BusinessObjects platform experience, Windows Server expertise, and demonstrated success modernizing systems that contain legacy reports, applications, integrations, and dependencies.
Scope of Work
The contractor will be expected to perform the following activities.
1. Current-State Assessment
- Inventory the existing BusinessObjects 4.2 and Crystal Reports 2016 environment, including servers, services, repositories, databases, applications, reports, universes, user accounts, security groups, schedules, publications, and integrations.
- Review current patch levels, licensing, configuration, system architecture, and supporting infrastructure.
- Identify connections to databases, file systems, email services, Active Directory, web servers, and other enterprise systems.
- Identify web-based and legacy applications that embed, invoke, schedule, distribute, or otherwise depend on BusinessObjects or Crystal Reports.
- Document unsupported components, compatibility concerns, technical debt, and migration risks.
- Evaluate the proposed phased migration path and determine whether additional intermediate steps or remediation activities are required.
- Establish a baseline of existing reports, schedules, security settings, integrations, and system performance.
Migration Planning and Architecture
- Validate the technical feasibility and vendor supportability of the tentative migration path:
- BusinessObjects 4.2 to BusinessObjects 4.3.
- Continued use of Crystal Reports 2016 during the initial BusinessObjects 4.3 phase.
- Migration from Crystal Reports 2016 to Crystal Reports 2020.
- Upgrade from BusinessObjects 4.3 to BusinessObjects 2025.
- Migration of the platform and supporting components to Windows Server 2022.
- Recommend adjustments to the sequence based on supported upgrade paths, compatibility requirements, system dependencies, and risk.
- Confirm compatibility among the proposed BusinessObjects releases, Crystal Reports versions, Windows Server 2022, databases, browsers, authentication services, application servers, reporting clients, and third-party components.
- Determine whether each phase should use an in-place upgrade, side-by-side migration, content migration, or another supported approach.
- Develop a detailed phased migration plan that minimizes operational disruption and provides a reliable rollback strategy for each phase.
- Define requirements for development, test, quality-assurance, disaster-recovery, and production environments, as applicable.
- Develop a plan for migrating BusinessObjects repositories, universes, reports, security settings, schedules, publications, and application integrations.
- Identify reports, integrations, drivers, runtime components, or custom code that must be remediated, converted, rebuilt, replaced, or retired.
- Provide effort estimates, dependencies, assumptions, risks, decision points, and a proposed implementation schedule for each migration phase.
BusinessObjects 4.3 Upgrade
- Install and configure the approved BusinessObjects 4.3 release and required supporting components.
- Apply required service packs, patches, and security updates.
- Configure the Central Management Server, File Repository Servers, processing servers, web and application components, auditing, monitoring, and other required services.
- Migrate BusinessObjects content and configuration from the existing BusinessObjects 4.2 environment.
- Maintain compatibility with Crystal Reports 2016 during this phase.
- Configure and validate integrations with Active Directory or other approved authentication systems.
- Configure and validate database connections, email delivery, scheduled reporting, file destinations, and other enterprise services.
- Update affected APIs, URLs, Software Development Kit components, embedded reports, and authentication workflows.
- Apply security hardening and configuration practices consistent with applicable organizational and state requirements.
Crystal Reports 2020 Migration
- Assess existing Crystal Reports 2016 reports, runtime components, viewers, libraries, database drivers, and application dependencies.
- Develop and execute a plan to migrate applicable content and integrations from Crystal Reports 2016 to Crystal Reports 2020.
- Identify and remediate reports that have compatibility, formatting, calculation, database connectivity, printing, exporting, scheduling, or performance issues.
- Update custom and legacy applications that depend on Crystal Reports 2016 runtimes, viewers, libraries, or interfaces.
- Validate that migrated reports produce accurate and consistent results.
- Document reports or integrations that cannot be migrated without redesign or replacement.
BusinessObjects 2025 Upgrade
- Confirm that the BusinessObjects 4.3 environment is stable and ready for the next upgrade phase.
- Install and configure BusinessObjects 2025 and its required supporting components.
- Migrate or upgrade BusinessObjects content, configuration, security, universes, reports, schedules, publications, and integrations.
- Validate compatibility with Crystal Reports 2020 and Windows Server 2022.
- Apply current supported patches and security updates.
- Remediate compatibility issues introduced by the platform upgrade.
- Confirm that all required enterprise integrations continue to function as intended.
Windows Server 2022 Migration
- Design and implement the migration of the BusinessObjects environment and applicable supporting components to Windows Server 2022.
- Identify and address operating-system dependencies, service accounts, permissions, certificates, network settings, database drivers, middleware, and third-party components.
- Coordinate with infrastructure, network, database, cybersecurity, and application teams.
- Apply required Windows Server security configuration and hardening standards.
- Verify system monitoring, logging, backups, restoration procedures, and disaster-recovery capabilities.
- Confirm that the final platform configuration is supported and compatible with all required systems.
Testing and Validation
- Develop a test plan and detailed acceptance criteria for each migration phase.
- Validate report output, parameters, prompts, database connectivity, scheduling, distribution, exports, printing, authentication, authorization, and application integrations.
- Compare representative reports between the source and target environments to identify differences in content, formatting, calculations, or performance.
- Coordinate user acceptance testing with technical teams and business users.
- Diagnose and resolve defects discovered during testing.
- Conduct performance and stability testing appropriate to expected workloads.
- Verify backup, restoration, disaster-recovery, and rollback procedures before each production implementation.
- Obtain approval before proceeding from one major migration phase to the next.
Production Implementation and Stabilization
- Prepare a detailed production cutover and rollback plan for each phase.
- Support production migrations during approved implementation windows, which may occur outside normal business hours.
- Validate services, reports, integrations, schedules, security, and system performance following each cutover.
- Provide stabilization and post-production support for an agreed period after each major implementation.
- Resolve migration-related incidents and document their causes and solutions.
- Assist with the orderly retirement or decommissioning of legacy environments after approval of the migrated platform.
Documentation and Knowledge Transfer
- Produce current-state, interim-state, and final target-state architecture documentation.
- Document the approved migration sequence and any changes from the tentative plan.
- Document installation, configuration, security, integrations, dependencies, service accounts, database connections, and operational procedures.
- Provide an inventory of migrated, remediated, retired, and unresolved reports and integrations.
- Document backup, recovery, monitoring, patching, troubleshooting, and routine maintenance procedures.
- Provide knowledge-transfer sessions for system administrators, developers, support staff, and other designated personnel.
- Deliver all scripts, configuration records, test results, migration logs, and other project materials created during the engagement.
Required Skills/Knowledge/Experience:
- Strong BusinessObjects platform experience, including upgrading 4.2 to 4.3 — Required: 3 years.
- Windows Server expertise, including migrating the platform and its supporting components to Windows Server 2022 — Required: 3 years.
- Demonstrated success modernizing systems that contain legacy reports, applications, integrations, and dependencies — Required: 5 years.
- Experience migrating Crystal Reports 2016 content and dependencies to Crystal Reports 2020 — Required: 3 years.
- Experience with the BusinessObjects platform from version 4.3 to BusinessObjects 2025 — Required: 2 years.
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