In last month’s Tips and Tricks we discussed how to standardize a “skin” in each of your different Cognos 8 environments. This allowed all users to receive the same look and feel when interacting with Cognos Connection. We’re going to take it one step further and discuss the benefits of using a built-in tool called the Layout Component Reference to accomplish this at the individual report level.
If your house is anything like mine, then it would be called Google. You have to search to get anything you want. Even if your house is well organized, to find a book by title or author you have to sift through the bookcase. However, if you decide to count all of your books regardless of their location in your house, it is more of a daunting effort. To make things complicated, what if you wanted to also categorize them as fiction, non-fiction etc. Imagine the chaos if several people decided to count all of your books at the same time. This is what happens when analytical reporting is based on a transaction processing system. Read more
Many organizations utilize multiple Cognos environments as part of their development process, such as development, QA and production servers. It is not uncommon for users (especially system administrators and developers) to become confused about which server he/she is working on as all of the environments look the same. (logo, background, font etc). So how can you easily distinguish between these various environments? Read more
Almost every day I hear of cases where Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives in companies are achieving tremendous results (3,623% ROI in 1 case) or are dismal failures and are wasting money. In my experience, there are two very key elements which are present in every successful BI project, and without them the initiatives are almost guaranteed to underwhelm.
In last month’s newsletter I described the first of two major factors which have a major impact on the success or failure of Business Intelligence initiatives – having the correct metrics. And to paraphrase Mark Twain – The difference between almost the right metric and the right metric is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning. This month’s article focuses on the second of the two success factors – Executive Sponsorship. 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.
Two very different articles came across my desk this afternoon. One described an IBM Cognos implementation with 3,623% return on investment just in 11 days. The other described how some UK firms are spending millions on Business Intelligence (BI) and seeing little in return. Clearly organizations are investing in the technology, but there are just as many unproductive BI projects as successful implementations. Why is there such a disparity in the outcomes of BI initiatives? Read more
Just about two years ago, before Cognos was acquired by IBM, Cognos did some acquiring of its own. Cognos purchased Applix and its flagship product, TM1. With the subsequent news regarding Cognos’ acquisition, TM1 and its integration into the Cognos suite of products became a minor press release. That’s about to change. Read more
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