On June 11th, IBM announced the release of Cognos 10.2.1, billed as a refresh pack, but loaded to the brim with new features, enhancements and improvements. The Ironside Group participated in the 10.2.1 beta earlier this year and had the opportunity to fully vet these new and exciting features and we have been anxiously awaiting general availability of this release. Read more
Because a large number of IBM Cognos clients have upgraded to Cognos 10, IBM has announced Cognos 8.4 will reach End of Support (EOS) at the end of September 2013. To help clients manage this transition, the Ironside Group is offering a 2-day free assessment for any current Cognos 8.4 client looking for guidance on how to proceed with their Cognos environment. Read more
Previously in our “What’s New in IBM Cognos 10.2” article, we touched upon the new IBM Cognos OLAP capability known as Dynamic Cubes. In this article, we will discuss what it is, when it is useful, and how to put it into practice. Read more
Difficulty: Medium
Required Ingredients: Two or more crosstabs, Report Studio, report formatting
Scenario:
You have two or more crosstabs on a Report Studio report. All of the crosstabs should have the same report formatting, which differs from the Cognos default. Read more
TM1 version 9 introduced the concept of cell-level security, allowing users to secure individual cells without the need for a complicated matrix of element-level security cubes. Cell-level security can quickly become cumbersome, as each cell within a cube requires its own security setting. This article demonstrates how to use rules and a custom security cube to utilize this feature effectively. The IBM sample server GO_New_Stores will be used as an example. Read more
In a world of ever changing government and industry regulations, many organizations are having a challenging experience efficiently meeting compliance requirements. Additionally, as the economy continues to sputter, organizations are exploring new ways to reduce loss, improve decision making around resource allocation, and optimize their business processes. With the latest release of IBM’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) solutions, which includes: OpenPages and Algorithmics, meeting these requirements and beginning to improve processes internally can become seamless. The painful, long drawn out process of managing market, credit and liquidity risk can soon become an efficient exercise. Integrating your current reporting technologies (IBM or not) will help your organization gain greater risk visibility and be ready for any challenges. Read more
The popularity of IBM Cognos Active Report has been steadily gaining and as a result, the bar continues to be raised. Active Reports not only offer an incredible wow-factor because of their highly visual and stylized nature, they also offer powerful interactive capabilities that promise to take business analytics to a whole new level. In the past Ironside Group has written about overall Active Report best practices, but let’s assume you’ve already read those articles and still can’t figure out why your reports don’t look as professional as some of the samples you’ve seen. At the Ironside Group, we receive countless requests for assistance in shortening the learning curve to develop pixel perfect Active Reports. This article will walk through some best practices in getting started down the right path, in the hopes of reducing frustrating re-work. Read more
Set Dynamic Default Prompts Using the New JavaScript Prompt API in IBM Cognos 10.2
Continuing with our Report Studio Cookbook series, today we will look at the new Report Studio JavaScript prompt API available in IBM Cognos 10.2. Since the very first release of the web based Report Studio, report authors have been asked often to use JavaScript in a report to achieve some common web application functionality, such as dynamically show/hide certain objects on page based on a user’s selection or changing a page’s color theme by data values. Ironside has published several articles illustrating how to use JavaScript in Report Studio; however undocumented JavaScript APIs and difficulties in migrating JavaScript after a Cognos upgrade have prevented many report developers from exploring this area. Read more
The Ironside Group is pleased to announce some exciting additions to our training practice. After opening our Atlanta office in January 2012, and our continued growth in the Southeast, we are now offering IBM Cognos training in Florida. We have classes scheduled in Tampa, Miami and Boca Raton with more to come. Check out our training schedule for details. 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.