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Ironside Tech Tip: Leveraging Time and Aggregate Functions in Dimensional Reporting to Create Low Maintenance Cognos Reports

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Over the years I have successfully used the ancestor(), parallelPeriods(), periodToDate(), aggregate(), and set() dimensional functions to develop robust and durable dimensional reporting solutions in IBM Cognos BI.

I had the opportunity to go to lunch the other day with one of my clients from a few years ago and they told me that the profit and loss reports that I wrote for them were still in use. These reports used no year or month members (directly) and required little if any maintenance over the last two years, despite daily refreshes of the source PowerCube. Read more

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Boosting the Power of SPSS Statistics with Python

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What Python Is and Why to Use It

Python is a powerful open source general-purpose programming language. Through an easy-to-use structure, it allows users to perform a huge variety of controlling tasks on a computer.

In the case of using the Python plug-in for SPSS, it enables one to control the program flow based on conditions, to execute different syntax dynamically and interactively according to intermediate results, to apply command extensions and unlimited Python modules for more complicated algorithms, etc. Read more

Ironside Webinar Series: Customer Analytics for the Informed Executive

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On June 17th, Ironside hosted a Customer Analytics for the Informed Executive webinar exploring how advanced analytics can help businesses attract and retain customers. This webinar reviews a variety of data science methods that can utilize extensive existing data to provide guidance on many functional areas within a company. Read more

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Ironside Webinar Series: Comparing TM1 Performance Modeler vs. Architect – Part 2

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As a follow-up to the TM1 Performance Modeler Webinar that we hosted on April 15th, Ironside presented an advanced version for more experienced users on June 10th . This webinar focused on some of the additional advanced new features in TM1 Performance Modeler. These exciting new features require more business knowledge than technical ability and can be performed by TM1 administrators at any technical level. Read more

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Ironside Tech Tip: Standardizing Prompt Names in Report Studio

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Synopsis

Define the technique behind and benefits of standardizing prompt conventions in Report Studio.

Overview

Report authors can easily create automatically generated prompt page prompts for data items in a report using the question mark syntax, as shown below: Read more

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An Overview of IBM Cognos ICM Version 8.1.0

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Version 8.1.0 of IBM Cognos ICM, formerly Varicent, was released on Friday May 16th. It has become common practice to have approximately two major releases each year and several smaller releases between them. Updates roll out as needed between releases. The most important fact to remember is that the product is continuously improving to meet client needs. Enhancements start from two primary sources: implementers and business users requesting a product enhancement. Read more

IBM Vision 2014 Insights

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IBM Vision 2014, the premier global conference for finance, risk management, and sales compensation professionals, took place in Orlando, Florida from May 18-21. There were over 1,500 Business Analytics users, clients, developers, and others in attendance. This was my first time at the conference, and there was excitement of all kinds in the atmosphere. Current and prospective clients learned how organizations and individuals solve their strategic and everyday problems using analytics. Technical sellers and implementers like me were excited to swap stories and learn what is in store for the amazing tools we use today and will use tomorrow. Sales people were glad to see their clients sharing their success stories and build new opportunities for customers. Read more

TM1 Stargate Views Explained

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There are various approaches available to enhance the performance of your TM1 application. One such approach is to leverage Stargate Views.

Stargate Views are different from traditional view objects and represent cached subsections of cubes that get created through user experience. As users browse cubes via the Cube Viewer or consume cube data via Cognos BI reports and analyses, these subsections get stored according to the current title elements/context and row and column subsets being requested. Read more

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IBM Cognos Solutions for the Self-Service Spectrum

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Due to the rapid pace of today’s business world, new strategies, products, projects, and tools are being introduced on a constant basis. This means that the speed of business often does not match the speed at which IT departments, which tend to have to follow rigorous testing and governance policies, can provide ways to measure the success of the given implementation. With tools like social media and Google at our fingertips to provide constant and immediate information at our every whim, the ability to get answers to business questions with the same deftness as we can in our personal lives becomes expected by BI end users. That’s why accounting for self-service options is essential. Read more

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Ironside Tech Tip: Best Practices for Documenting Report Studio Reports

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Synopsis:

Three methodologies for documenting Report Studio reports.

Overview:

Reporting tools like IBM Cognos Report Studio do not naturally provide a means of documenting and commenting procedures like traditional programming languages do. As a result, once a report has been created, it may be difficult to follow the logic and design of the original report, modify it, or reverse-engineer how it works. Additionally, the lack of documentation makes it difficult to determine how and why a report was built and what specific techniques were used to create it. Read more