Cubes (including Cognos PowerCubes and Dynamic Cubes, as well as other file-based cube technologies) are well-known, commonly used, and valuable data sources in reporting. As specially indexed binary files, report performance with cubes is generally robust, however when cube files grow very large (or there is high simultaneous demand reading from the cube), response time can and will decrease. That’s why it can sometimes be useful to show cube sizes on BI reports to let authors know when a cube’s size could be affecting performance. Read more
Tag Archive for: IBM Cognos Report Studio
The deep BI knowledge of Ironside’s Education Services department was showcased this year at IBM Insight 2015. Wayne Estrada, one of our most experienced Senior Technical Instructors, delivered an in-depth session on a topic that is often a chief concern for many IBM Cognos environments: report security. Using advanced techniques in Report Studio, Wayne showed participants how to create customized security protocols that exactly meet their environment’s security needs and fine-tune report responses based on security requirements. Read more
Guarding the security of and defining access to data is often a necessary business requirement. Not all users can or should have access to a total data set, so filter strategies need to be applied to restrict what appears to different users running reports. As Cognos developers, the first question we should ask when faced with this requirement is what filter strategies work best for our data and why? Read more
Synopsis
This article covers how to allow access to a report with a password challenge prompt, creating a password protected report.
Overview
Security in Cognos is extremely robust, letting you permit or deny access to data elements on a package, data source, or even row level in a Database. Normally, standard group permissions conveniently control report execution access for most situations, but certain business applications may require a select subset of users to run a report who may not all be in the same group. In lieu of adding a separate group and assigning those users to it, a report can start with a prompt page with a password challenge response that allows only users with a valid password to run the report. Read more
Synopsis
How to create, implement and use conditional blocks in Cognos reports.
Overview
Conditional blocks show different display results based on user interaction or parameters read in when a report is run. They provide a creative method for presenting either the same report data in various formats or executing several completely different reports from one prompt page. Read more
In September, Ironside public training classes will start being offered near Philadelphia and in Washington, D.C. as part of the firm’s expansion into the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
The move expands the reach of an IBM Cognos, SPSS and TM1 training practice that has earned rave reviews from customers at private classes across the country and at public training classes in cities such as Boston, Detroit, Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale.
Ironside public training in IBM Cognos has been available since the firm’s founding in 1999 in Massachusetts. We recently began offering SPSS and TM1 classes as well.
The expansion of Ironside public training offerings comes at a time when IBM is getting out of the training business and leaving the job of increasing adoption of IBM business analytics software to its top business partners.
Ironside is a full-service IBM Premier Business partner, offering software resale, training, and consulting across the full suite of IBM business analytics products, including SPSS, Cognos BI, and TM1.
The Mid-Atlantic training expansion begins with a September 9 IBM Cognos Active Report Class in King of Prussia, PA. Ironside will offer IBM Cognos Workspace and Workspace Advanced (2 days) and IBM Cognos Multidimensional Report Authoring (2 days) classes later in that same week.
During the week of September 23, Ironside is offering an IBM Cognos Report Studio Fundamentals (3 days) and/or Advanced (2 days) training class in Washington, D.C.
The week of September 30 features an IBM Cognos Framework Manager Fundamentals and/or advanced class in King of Prussia.
Additional classes have been scheduled through November. Visit the Ironside public training schedule for the full listing of all public classes in Washington, D.C., King of Prussia, and other cities in the eastern U.S.
At Ironside, we write our own full color training manuals. The curriculum is continually informed by the experiences of our 70 plus consultants and taught by our best in breed instructors, who all have experience as former IBM instructors.
For information about Ironside IBM Cognos, SPSS, or TM1 offerings, to request a particular class be held, or for pricing on private classes – contact Steven Kreytak at 781 860 -8840 x284 or at skreytak@ironsidegroup.com.
IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced and IBM Cognos Report Studio allow you to integrate external data directly into your reports. This allows you to create a report using an external source that contains data which is not part of your IBM Cognos Business Intelligence enterprise data. You can import your own data file and start reporting on it right away. After importing, your external data file is protected by the same IBM Cognos security as your enterprise data, thus allowing you to report on your data in a secure and private environment. Read more
Reporting should start with a “single source of truth” and end with a “single version of truth.” Delivery of accurate reporting information is paramount in the day-to-day operations of every organization. Some of the methods for maintaining data Integrity (within the data warehouse) would be to apply referential integrity and maintain primary keys on tables. In addition, associated ETL processes can utilize checksums, or record counts, when loading the warehouse. Once the data is in the warehouse, the next step would be to model the data for exposure to the end-users. Read more
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.