The Ironside Group and IBM are hosting a series of complimentary Lunch N’ Learn’s where we will discuss benefits that our customers are experiencing with Integrating Budgeting, Reporting, Consolidation and Forecasting using IBM Business Analytics Solutions. Read more
On Febuary 22, 2012 Ann Winblad, a Silicon Valley titan indicated that “data is the new oil” and “predictive analytics is the next big thing”
Today, most organizations use business intelligence to understand what and why things happened in the past. Business imperatives are increasingly driving organizations to look forward and use their data to improve decision accuracy. This is the promise of predictive analytics, yet many organizations believe heavy statistical skill sets are required before taking on this next phase of business analytics. Guided wizards and other SPSS usability advances make predictive analytics available to a much broader group of BUSINESS USERS TODAY than most realize. Gartner’s CIO study for the past 3 out of 5 years rates business intelligence and analytics as the #1 priority. Said another way, those with predictive analytics skill sets will be in high demand for many years to come. Read more
As the velocity of business increases, business users are less willing to wait for the IT department to create custom reports and analytics. In order for customer analytics to be truly effective, they must be made available to all customer-facing personnel and attain the status of supporting fact-based decision-making used by the entire enterprise. At the same time, BI teams would like to offload report and analytics creation duties to users and focus on morevalue-added activities. 
A new crop of self-service BI and analytics tools promises to empower users while liberating the BI team from ad hoc reporting tasks. To work, these tools must be easier to use than previous generations of BI tools, and give the BI team a measure of control over the semantic representation and use of back-end systems and oversight of the creation of standardized reports and dashboards for decision-making. Read more
Smarter business decisions and a large return on investment can be among the key benefits of a predictive analytics solution. But all solutions are not created equal.
That’s why it’s critical not to miss our complimentary IBM SPSS Data Mining Workshop hosted by the Ironside Group and IBM. You will get hands-on experience with Modeler software to help you better understand the distinctive value of its easy-to-use, rapid-prototyping, predictive modeling capabilities. Read more
The New England Cognos Users Group is an amazing opportunity to network and collaborate with other IBM Cognos Professionals in the Northeast Region. Each event is packed with informative talks and demonstrations from local organizations that highlight their own applied experiences with IBM Cognos software. Experts from the Ironside Group are always in attendance more than happy to answer your toughest questions or help you down the path to resolving your most bothersome issues. Attendance is always free and open to the public.
This quarter’s upcoming meeting includes two presentations from the Ironside Group. One of Ironside’s Senior Consultants, Greg Bonnette, will be presenting with Covidien’s Global Director of Data Warehousing and BI, Amarnath Gurivireddygari. In addition, Susan Ma who is also a Senior Consultant with the Ironside Group, will be presenting with Charlotte Ward from MA Generals Physician Organization.
When & Where
May 17, 2012 9:00AM to 3:00PM
Village by the Sea
US Route 1
1373 Post Road Wells, ME 04090
Agenda
“IBM Cognos 10 Upgrade”
Amarnath Gurivireddygari, Global Director of Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence – Covidien and Greg Bonnette, Senior Consultant – Ironside Group
“IBM Cognos Insight”
Curtis Looney – Lodestar Solutions
“Automating IBM Cognos BI Content”
Corey Tome, BI Developer – Mass General Physicians Group
“Primary Care Operations Improvement Dashboard”
Charlotte Ward – Mass General Physicians Organization and Susan MA, Senior Consultant – Ironside Group
“Ask The Experts” Round Table“
Moderated by Carl Richardson MassHousing and Andrew McEwan – Comcast Inc
Registration
Click here to Register for Free (Space is limited, so don’t delay).
IBM SPSS offers a variety of integration options with other enterprise solutions, i.e., enterprise data warehouses, file systems, and business intelligence applications. In this article, we specifically focus on the integration with the IBM Cognos BI environment. As most of you are aware, IBM SPSS leverages the power of predictive analytics by allowing the user to examine the current state of their business, while at the same time providing a view of the future using advanced analytics techniques. With the use of the IBM Cognos BI integration point, the results are immediately available for IBM Cognos reporting, allowing for easy distribution to broad user communities.
In our previous article, we described the general workflow on how to import and export IBM Cognos packages from IBM SPSS Modeler. In this article, we will provide a simple case study using the standard IBM Cognos sample set to further illustrate the above mentioned integration.
Note:
-The integration is only available in IBM SPSS Modeler version 14.1 or higher.
-The supported IBM Cognos environments are version 8.4 and higher.
Providing Data to IBM SPSS from IBM Cognos
The IBM Cognos BI source node enables data miners to read data directly from IBM Cognos Framework Manager, including relational, dimensionally-modeled relational (DMR), and OLAP sourced packages.
In this case study, we select the Go Sales (query) package from IBM Cognos samples and use the following items from the query subject as our source data:
Go Sales (query)
- Sales (query)
- Sales
- Revenue
- Time
- Year
- Month Key
- Month
- Date
- Sales
Before choosing a Framework Manager package to import the data, the user needs to establish a connection to the IBM Cognos server by providing the dispatcher URL and user credentials.
Conduct Data Mining Analysis in IBM SPSS Modeler
The source data we bring in from IBM Cognos contains revenue data for years 2004-2007. The objective of this study is to use advanced modeling techniques to discover trends behind the revenue data and predict future revenues. The following stream in IBM SPSS Modeler uses time series analysis to analyze the patterns in the monthly historical data and project those patterns to determine a range within which future values of the series are likely to fall.
In this example, we extend the forecast of the expected revenue to the next four time periods. The following output from IBM SPSS is a time series graph and shows the predicted (green line) vs. actual (blue line) revenue for each month between Jan, 2004 – Jul, 2007 and the projected revenue for Aug – Nov 2007.
Exporting IBM SPSS Predictive Results into IBM Cognos BI
The end results from an IBM SPSS Modeler stream can be exported back to the IBM Cognos BI environment, including both the transformed and scored data based on predictive modeling. In this case study, we will export the scored dataset of time series analysis into a database table called “Predicted_Sales” and generate an IBM Cognos package on the Cognos server reflecting the new database table.
Once the export is complete, we could use IBM Cognos Report Studio to create a visual report based on the exported data, including the predictions and confidence interval values for consumption by a broad user base.
Through this case study, we showcase how a user can combine the predictive analytic capabilities of IBM SPSS Modeler with business intelligence features of IBM Cognos BI. For any additional questions regarding the integration and its implementation, please contact us at the Ironside Group.
Active Reports are a new type of report in IBM Cognos 10 that combine data and layout into a single file. This file can be distributed and viewed offline, allowing reports to be reviewed “on the go”. Active Reports also contain a great deal of animation and display functionality, making them ideal for dashboards and other high-level reports where style and graphical sophistication are important.
The basic components of an Active Report are the same as any other Report Studio report – lists, crosstabs, charts, etc. However, the way these components communicate and interact with each other is completely new. Designing an Active Report requires an understanding of these interactions, and of how Active Reports are generated by the Cognos report service.
Active Report Variables
Active Report elements communicate using Active Report Variables. While there are many types of functionality that can be created, all active report interaction features are based on two types of communication:
–Set a variable when the user interacts with a control (select a drop down, click on a chart element, etc.)
–React to a variable being set (select a card, filter a list, enable a button)
IBM Cognos Insight
In March of 2012, IBM released IBM Cognos Insight to the public, a new approach to providing a solution that addresses data discovery from a personal analytics perspective. Before we go any further, let’s stop and clarify what exactly we’re talking about. This application is NOT to be confused with “IBM Cognos Business Insight” (IBM’s name for its Unified Workspace in IBM Cognos BI 10) or “Cognos Consumer Insight” (IBM’s name for its social media analytics solution to capture sentiment).
Cognos Insight Comments
Ironside actively participated in the beta rollout of this product and was one of the first business partners to bring awareness to the general community by hosting a roadshow in various Southeast cities. Customers that attended were unanimous in their positive feedback. A sample of some of the comments overheard:
- “One of the best 1.0 product releases I’ve seen IBM put out.”
- “Drag and drop of Excel file to create a dashboard in less than sixty seconds is impressive…do that again.”
- “The warning message when you try to bring in more than 10 dimensions is a bit harsh.” (My personal favorite)
One of the most commonly asked questions during this roadshow was “Why did IBM invest and release this solution” that quite frankly, has some overlapping BI capabilities with Cognos 10 BI? I believe the main reason was to allow access to BI information for anyone at any time. There are still plenty of companies we speak with that do not have a BI solution, and are still immersed in the Excel spreadsheet world. The IBM Cognos Insight solution provides a great initial foray into the BI arena and offers a solution that companies can grow into. The best part about IBM Cognos Insight is that it is priced right at only $500 per user license, and it is a desktop solution (think limited IT involvement, if any). Given the recent Nucleus study that concluded for every $1 invested in business analytics, it returns $10.66 on average, that’s a steal. The other main reason in my opinion was to address some of the niche vendor capabilities that IBM Cognos BI was not able to easily provide. With IBM Cognos Insight, IBM can now help BI power users who want more self-service and personal analytics capabilities, bypassing IT bottlenecks.
IBM Cognos Insight Feedback
As we’ve begun to introduce this application to the user community, several use cases have been mentioned by customers that would provide immediate value. Here are a few examples to get the wheels turning:
1) Data Discovery – IBM Cognos Insight can import multiple data sources from common databases, Cognos reports and Excel to help you explore, visualize and analyze your data. I think of it as helping you transform your data into useable information so your organization can take action to improve decision making, drive better results, etc. I believe this has a huge side benefit of increasing BI user adoption since business users will take greater ownership in creating BI.
2) What-if/Scenario Modeling – IBM Cognos Insight leverages IBM’s in-memory OLAP cube technology (TM1), on the back-end. This allows customers to easily create dimensions to slice and dice data in various ways, perform what-if analysis leveraging built in spread and allocation options, etc. Given the uncertain world we live in, companies that can easily plan multiple scenarios and quickly put different plans into action to respond to constant change will outperform its peers.
3) Budget, Planning, Forecasting and Financial reporting “Light” – Since TM1 is on the back-end, you can leverage its capabilities to perform these traditional finance functions. In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that in order to publish the cubes and reports for broader audience consumption outside of the IBM Cognos Insight tool, it will be necessary to purchase a TM1 IBM Cognos Analytic Server license.
My Parting Thoughts on IBM Cognos Insight
We understand that the release schedule of Cognos Insight will be more frequent than Cognos BI enterprise releases. Existing IBM Cognos BI Advanced Business Author (and higher) license roles and Cognos TM1 Contributor license roles are entitled to use IBM Cognos Insight, so download it and share your feedback. As far as my personal first impression, I’m blown away at the Insight Community portal IBM built to support this product. There is excellent information; from getting started guides, to advanced techniques and even business accelerators. Check it out at https://www.analyticszone.com/homepage/web/displayHomePage.action. Let us know what your thoughts are on the Cognos Insight product and as always don’t hesitate to ask us any questions.
Do you need a business analytics platform yesterday? Is your IT team overloaded? Do you want your business analytics environment built on best practices and managed by the best in the in the business? If so, allow Ironside to host and manage your business analytics environment. We will manage everything from the OS, to the database, to the IBM Cognos application based on your needs through our Managed Platform and Application Services.
Our Managed Platform Services (MPS) provide enterprise-level, secure, scalable provisioning of IT services to fit your requirements. Our MPS offering is hosted in a SAS 70/SSAE16 compliant data center, using industry leading technology. Our clients work with our dedicated managed services team to customize our offerings to fit your needs. In addition, we offer recommendations along the way to determine the optimal environment based on expected usage patterns.
Just some of the services we offer include:
- Dedicated Firewall
- Virtual Private Cloud
- A Shared Management Environment
- Patch Management
- Change Management
- System and Application Monitoring
- Disaster Recovery
All platform services utilize industry best practices to provide the most stable, scalable, and secure environment available.
Our Managed Application Services (MAS) leverage our expertise in business intelligence and the IBM Cognos platform to provide best-of-breed support for your solution. Some of the services we provide using Ironside’s best practices include:
- Cognos Installation and Configuration
- Cognos Security
- High Availability
- Data Warehousing
The Ironside MAS allows access to Ironside’s expert IBM Cognos architects, many of whom have over 10 years of experience implementing IBM Cognos solutions in some of the country’s largest companies.
Please contact us today for further information on how we can craft a solution that reduces your total cost of ownership and administration, while providing greater capability, performance, and flexibility.
Ironside is a data, analytics, and AI consulting and technology implementation company. We work with clients to understand their business objectives and day-to-day challenges, then employ our deep expertise in data strategy, architecture and engineering, integration, business intelligence, AI, and generative AI. We create technical solutions and practical approaches designed to drive smarter, data-driven decisions across a company and help it move further and faster toward its business goals.