>>>>>
>>>>>I'll probably end up writing a front-end for the telerik designer and create the reports programmatically.
>>>
>>>Uh ... any thing cheaper than 10,000$?
>>
>>Haven't used it but Stonefield Query has been around for some time: http://stonefieldquery.com/
>
>Thanks but still way to expensive. The user license per user is 150.00 ... twice what the software sells for....

I several companies with SQL backends where users have generated hundreds of Crystal Reports on their own and they love it.
Now and then they'll ask me to do a particularly knotty SQL script or view, but otherwise they're self sufficient.
One of the users has also started using Excel as a reporting tool for simpler reports and loves it. This guy- and he happens to be the CEO of a good sized manufacturer- can figure out a way to get a report out of just about anything.

The user is a much more important variable than the tool.

I have a longer list of companies who have tried to use CR on their own, given up and paid me to do the reports.