Reports good for reports?

Greetings:

We're evaluating tools for use mainly in developing reports. We use Cognos' Impromptu for end-user queries, but some standard reports are just a bit too complicated to produce easily with this tool, so we are looking for alternatives. One of the options is Developer/2000 and the Reports component.

We want to produce reports with charts to about 350 physicians, along with other required reports to administration and other health agencies. The "develop once, deploy to either C/S or Web" is intriguing, since eventually we'd like to post info on our server, to be picked up if needed. In the meantime, we can kill some trees and produce the reports.

Now:

1. How good is Reports at creating report output? 
2. I've seen postings that it is a buggy product, quirky, etc. Is this true?
3. How hard is Reports to learn? To master? 
4. What other alternatives should I consider?
5. How much hot air is the "develop once, deploy wherever" mantra?

Any and all biased opinions welcomed! TIA,

John Dunn
The University Physicians
520-321-3508 Received on Tue Dec 31 1996 - 00:00:00 CET