Tag Archive for: IBM Cognos 10

As Business Intelligence (BI) systems become more and more embedded into the critical, analytics-based DNA of corporate decision-making, it is more important than ever to keep the system up and running at the highest level of efficiency. This article discusses methods for providing real-time monitoring and historical trending information for your system in the form of performance metrics. Read more

The IBM Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine (RAVE) is a new tool introduced in Cognos 10.2.1. The engine can run on the server or the client, allowing for the dynamic creation of both static and active charts. Additionally, visualizations can be tweaked to allow for new charting options on the fly. IBM’s AnalyticsZone website provides a large number of downloadable visualizations, and one of the available options is Gantt charts. The standard Cognos 8/10 charting engine does not provide this type of chart, so this is a great opportunity to expand what Cognos can do. Read more

Using Cognos we can generate reports in Excel, Microsoft Word and Power Point. In this article we will see what components we need to produce these reports in Microsoft Office.

Required Components and Installations:

1. You need to have Cognos environment ready and useable for generating reports, as shown below.

Cognos Connection

2. You have to install Microsoft Office in all the destination systems or client machines where we are going to access Cognos reports using Microsoft Office components. Read more

This is the first in a series of articles for the Ironside Cognos Report Studio Cookbook. These are tips and tricks used by our professional report developers to meet the unique needs and requirements of our clients. While some of these techniques may be touched upon in a typical Report Studio training class, we will take a deep dive into these concepts to uncover how our professionals actually use them in the field every day. This month’s article will focus on how to make concise list reports by unlocking the report format. Read more

During the course of an IBM Cognos environment’s lifespan, there may be times when you will need to configure IBM Cognos to allow users to connect to more than one third party authentication source from the same Cognos portal. This can happen in several scenarios. Read more

For an updated version of this blog post using IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1.7, click here.

For users of IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced (formerly Business Insight Advanced), a popular request is to have the ability to highlight every other row in a list report. This technique has been demonstrated with IBM Cognos Report Studio using the running-count() and mod() functions. The issue is that IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced does not expose all functions that can be used in query calculations, so users think they are not available.

This article will demonstrate how to highlight every other row using IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced by entering a ‘non-exposed’ function in the expression editor (the twist!). Read more

Part 1 of Building Effective IBM Cognos Active Reports, described Active Report Variables, Connections, and how they work together to make dynamic content possible in IBM Cognos 10 Active Reports. When the user interacts with a report item, one or more Active Report variable values can be changed. These changes can trigger effects in the report (selecting data, filtering controls, etc.). This article discusses how to use static controls to make larger scale changes to what the report displays. Read more

Given recent innovations in the latest IBM Cognos toolset and the promise of business intelligence to provide a competitive advantage, more and more customers are critically evaluating their business intelligence strategy and roadmap, including customers who own earlier versions of Cognos and those looking to make an initial investment into the current version of the Cognos suite of solutions. There is a common requirement among both these customers: to make the most of their Cognos investment (existing or new) while also controlling software and project costs.

With over 13 years working with Cognos, the Ironside Group is uniquely suited to help your organization address these issues by providing guidance when architecting a comprehensive solution that includes training, services, and software that fits your organizational needs. In this article, we will focus on the software license cost.

There are two primary costs when considering purchasing software: the upfront purchase price (discussed here) and maintenance costs (which will be discussed in a future article). Read more

So you’ve likely heard about Cognos Insight, the new and exciting self-service, desktop dashboarding and analysis solution that has been making waves since its release in Q1 2012. This incredibly intuitive and easy-to-use tool enables rapid arrival at answers and simple what-if analysis by allowing users to drag-and-drop their way to a personal TM1 OLAP cube on their desktop. There are two versions of Cognos Insight, one is standalone that is intended for customers without an existing installation of IBM Cognos 10 BI, and the other is an add-on module for IBM Cognos 10 BI which provides a means for provisioning the desktop tool to your users via Cognos Connection. There has been a bit of confusion around the latter of those two, and the purpose of this guide is to clear the air on Cognos Insight for existing Cognos 10 customers. Read more

Overview

Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, BAO Inc. acts as a partner for sales and marketing teams in the high-tech industry, developing powerful, aggressive go-to-market strategies. BAO gives organizations the real-time insight, tools, and resources they need to transform their businesses – to drive new revenue while increasing the profitability of existing accounts; to optimize sales and marketing operations; to outcompete the competition; or all of the above. BAO has a proven track record for success – generating more than $10 million in pipeline for its clients every day. Read more