Many of you have heard buzzwords such as “data science,” “big data,” or the “Internet of Things” before. You’re able to piece together that these fields relate to each other and deal with analyzing data in some way, but maybe you’re not so sure what these terms really mean. That’s what I’m here to help with. As a newer member of the data science field, I developed this short data science guide based on my experiences and perspectives in an effort to help those who are just starting out. Read more
Tag Archive for: Tips
Many organizations have adopted monthly or quarterly rolling forecasting as a primary tool for understanding their operational and financial performance. The rolling forecast is a process that includes the continuous evaluation of past results with future expectations across a set number of time periods to analyze trends and help the organization understand its current position. Read more
One thing all conferences have in common is that they’re overwhelming. There’s more to learn, see, and do than any one person can handle. Narrowing all those options down to what matters most for your role is tricky at best and frustrating at worst, especially when it comes to a multidisciplinary, multi-technology event like the Gartner BI & Analytics Summit. Some of our top experts and clients will be giving presentations at the Grapevine, TX Gartner Summit this March. This got us thinking: how can we use our experience to help other attendees get the most out of the event? 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
One of the most challenging aspects of establishing any enterprise business intelligence platform is the design and implementation of a security model that is flexible and extensible enough to meet the needs of your business while also remaining simple enough to administer and maintain. Every organization is unique in how they operate, so a structure that best suits one may not necessarily be appropriate for another. Because of these fundamental differences, there is unfortunately, no single archetype for business intelligence security. There are however a few proven guidelines which if followed, will help to ensure that whichever solution you arrive at will work in harmony with your IBM Cognos 8 environment. Read more
Page Breaking is a useful feature to offer report consumers. However, it’s often difficult to do this if the item you want to break on is dynamic. Here we show you how to do this with cascading, optional prompts while page breaking on the lowest level chosen.
One of the issues with using text box prompts is the possibility of receiving incorrect, misspelled, or non-existent entries. This allows the report to run and return unexpected data. Recognizing this, a user would have to return to the prompt page to re-enter values into the text box prompt. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to automatically validate entries against some specified rules while remaining on the prompt page? 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.