Cognos 10.2 BI FP3 is now available

Cognos 10.2 BI FP3 is now available.

Here is the fix list : http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27027081#tab_102FP3

Cognos Audit Database cleanup tool

Here is an easy to use tool with which can cleanup the Cognos audit database. The tool can be used to purge the old audit database records regularly based on a timestamp.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24036642

Customizing / Re-branding IBM Cognos User Interface

Often an organization's need is to maintain the same look and feel for all the portals that they use. Hence, if they are using Cognos, they would like to modify the look and feel for Cognos too. This is often referred to as re-branding. Here are the links to the documents which cover this type of customization in detail:

1. Customizing the Cognos 8 UI
2. IBM Cognos Proven Practices: Customising the IBM Cognos 8.4.x UI
3. IBM Cognos Proven Practices: Customizing IBM Cognos 10 Login

Sample customization / re-branding using the above documents:

IMTC India 2012 is knocking at the door !!

One of the India's premier technical events, IMTC is to be held between 9-11 May, 2012 @ Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore. Information Management Technical Conference (IMTC) brings in 80 Information Management sessions on different IBM softwares. The Technical tracks include:

• Data Management
• Enterprise Content Management
• Information Platform and Solutions
• Business Analytics and Optimization
• Industry Solutions

The event also includes the Hands-on Labs to learn tricks and techniques to drive greater efficiency and technical value to the participants and their organizations. The participants can also take advantage of the free of charge Certification Testing Exams.

Click Here for more details.

IBM Cognos Proven Practices document on Dynamic Sorting for list reports

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/reporting/scripting_techniques/page515.html

An interesting read !!

Configuring DB2 as content store for IBM Cognos BI

Are you getting issues while configuring DB2 as content store for IBM Cognos BI?

The configuration is a little tricky, where you need to modify certain DB2 parameters for the content store database on DB2. The following document embodies all the required steps fpr configuration. The document had been authored for IBM Cognos 8.x, but the steps hold good for IBM Cognos 10 as well:

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/dw/dm/cognos/infrastructure/databases/blue_stack_-_setting_up_db2.pdf

IBM Cognos Mobile on Blackberry PlayBook and smartphone

Did you know that you can access your trusted IBM Cognos BI content using your Blacknerry PlayBook and smart phones? You can use a native application on your Blackberry smartphone or a web application in case of PlayBook to access Cognos reports. Its easy to use and the information you access is safe and protected by a combination of RIM and IBM Cognos platform security.

Here is a video on this seamless experience -

Take your BI reports home with IBM Cognos Mobile

IBM Cognos Mobile has been designed for the business users who need to access, analyze and share IBM Cognos Business Intelligence contents irrespective of their location. The business users can work with trusted BI content in a rich and visual experience whether offline or online for uninterrupted productivity.
IBM Cognos Mobile can leverage the existing BI content. A single administrative environment is used for Cognos BI and Cognos Mobile which helps the IT teams to keep up with the demands of users on varied devices.The product currently supports Apple iPhones, iPads and RIM Blackberry smart phones and playbooks. It terms of platforms, it supports Android 3, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones.

Why Mobile BI ?

• Mobile BI empowers the business users to access the Business Intelligence contents using mobile phones and tablets.
• Mobile BI lets the decision makers take their business decisions on the go.
• Mobile BI has been the game changer over the past few years and is one of the leading trends in the BI market today.
• With the increasing adoption of the tablets, Mobile Bi is getting more and more popular among the Business Users.

IBM Cognos Mobile is one of the market leading BI softwareswhich enables the users to consume their Business Intelligence reports from anywhere.

Take better business decisions using External / Personalized data in Cognos 10

Ever thought of supplementing enterprise data with your own or personal data file? This will allow you to create a report using an external file that contains data which is not a part of the enterprise data that your Business Intelligence tool regularly accesses. With IBM Cognos 10 BI you can link this type of scenario data with enterprise data and create a professional report easily.

The following types of files can be used:

• Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (.xls files)
• Tab-delemeted files (.txt files)
• Comma-separated files (.csv files)
• XML data (.xml files)

To work with external data the administrator should first grant the permission Allow External Data capability (under the Report Studio capability) to report authors considering the report authors can already access Report Studio and Business Insight Advanced (you cannot use external data in Business Insight).

Before importing external data, the report author should start with an existing Cognos package. Then, the report author will have to import the external data file and link the columns in the external data file to those of the enterprise data (this can be a relational or dimensional data source). As a next step, the report authors need to publish a new package that enables the users to create reports using both external data and enterprise data.

Here is a video that explains the process of using external data in IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio:

Rethink your future Business Intelligence strategy with IBM Cognos 10 and Collaborative BI

We are in the age where the softwares are changing the way organizations do their business. IBM Business Analytics softwares are changing the way organizations take their decisions, allocate their resources, anticipate and change future outcomes. IBM Cognos 10 expands the traditional business intelligence with planning, scenario modeling, real-time monitoring and predictive analysis which makes it possible to deliver business intelligence to a wider audience.

To meet the always changing business requirements, the organizations today cannot sustain without collaboration in each and every business decision. The requirement is to allow the key business users to engage in various conversations about the business information and in turn get more value out of their Business Intelligence software. IBM Cognos 10 addresses collaborative decision making with annotations and by integrating with Lotus connections. Annotations shared within reports and dashboards it help every business user to stay fully informed and in turn take better business decisions.  Lotus connections is a built-in collaboration and social networking tool to connect people so that they can share their insights and achive better business results. To know more, please check the demos from the following link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/cognos/cognos10/collaborative-bi.html

Latest Cognos Proven Practices document on Security

A good document to refer if you are planning to secure your Cognos environment. Covers all the authentication and authorization concepts that you need:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/security/cognos_bi_platform/page602.html

Also, here is the list of Top 10 Cognos Proven Practices documents for reference:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/top_10_bi_provenpractices.html

A webinar on Business Intelligence

If you are looking for a session on the basics of Business Intelligence, here is a webinar that you may want to attend:
http://www.techgig.com/webinar.php?webinar_id=75

Hot off the press - A new book on Report Studio

If you are looking for a comprehensive guide for IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio with loads of practical examples, this book from IBM Press is all you need:

IBM Cognos 10 Report Studio: Practical Examples

How to find the Java version that is being used by IBM Cognos?

While configuring IBM Cognos, using an incompatible Java version is a very common mistake. An incompatible Java version will not allow to IBM Cognos to function correctly. Most of the time the users are not sure what is the Java version that they are using:

Here are three ways with which you can find the versions of the Java that Cognos is using:

Method 1 - Using Command:

If you are aware of the Java home directory that is being used use the command "java -version" to find the exact version for Java.



Method 2 - From Cognos Configuration:
a. Open Cognos Configuration
b. Press Ctrl+F3



Method 3 - From Logs:

a. Open the file cbs_cnfgtest_run.log file under logs directory.
b. Look for the entries: java_vendor, java_version



Once you know the Java version you can always check if that version is supported by version of Cognos that you are using:

IBM Cognos 8.4.1 Supported Environments -
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27017522#java

IBM Cognos 10.1 Supported Environments -
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27019126#java_runtime

Two Cognos 10 Cookbooks that you cannot afford to miss

A deeper look at DQM:
IBM Cognos 10 Dynamic Query Cookbook -
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/infrastructure/cognos_specific/page529.html

A must read for Active Reports:
IBM Cognos Active Report 10.1.1 Cookbook -
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/reporting/active_report/page593.html?ca=drs-

Take your big Business Decisions with IBM Big Data

Everyday the amout of data that generated all over the world is simply huge. This data comes from everywhere - from the invoices of airline reservation to the data collected by switches used in telecommunication industry. This data is termed as big data.

Big Data is generally governed by 3 Vs.
1. Variety   - Structured and unstructured data, data of all varieties.
2. Velocity - Real-time, time-sensitive data
3. Volume - Large data: terabytes and petabytes of information

These three parameters make Big data a herculean task; it is an opportunity to find insight in new and emerging types of data, to make your business more agile, and to answer questions that, in the past, were beyond reach.

If you are keen on seeing industry leading solutions with Big data, attend the Big Data and Infosphere Streams - Are you future ready? session in IBM Software Universe 2011. Here are the details of the session: http://www-07.ibm.com/events/in/softwareuniverse/information_analytics.html

More on Big data: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/

Cognos 10 and FileNet integration

With the new release of Cognos 10.1.1, FileNet can now be integrated with Cognos 10. This was not supported in earlier versions.

There is nothing additional required other than having a suitable FileNet environment running.

The following documentation links contain the steps for integration:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/casemgmt/v5r0m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.casemgmt.installing.doc%2Facmcp017.htm

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/p8docs/v5r0m0/topic/com.ibm.p8.installingpa.doc/bpmia020.htm

To realize the full power of IBM Cognos 10 BI, attend the hands on demos on Cognos in IBM Software Universe 2011. For the details of the available sessions, please refer the following link:
http://www-07.ibm.com/events/in/softwareuniverse/information_analytics.html

IBM Cognos Mobile and iPad

With the recent release of IBM Cognos 10.1.1, IBM Cognos now supports Apple iPad as well. Cognos Mobile users can now access and interact with all of the rich reports and dashboards that they need to make the smartest and quickest business decisions, all on Apple iPad.

With this new feature, users can instantly access Cognos Business Intelligence on Apple iPads with either a native application that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or a web application (no installation necessary) - or on iPhone using a web application. Users can easily uncover meaningful insights using the same intuitive Apple multi-touch techniques used for everything so the end useers have virtually no learning curve. If users have Cognos Mobile on their iPads, they can even access content when they are disconnected.

The information/content is safe and protected with a combination of Apple and Cognos Business Intelligence security.

If you are keen on seeing industry leading solutions with Cognos Mobile, attend the BI on the Go session in IBM Software Universe 2011. Here are the details of the session: http://www-07.ibm.com/events/in/softwareuniverse/information_analytics.html

Few more articles on Cognos Mobile and iPad:
IBM Cognos Mobile
IBM Cognos 10 Mobile on the iPad
Mobile BI – Cognos 10 on the iPhone

IBM SWU 2011 - Where do you get the updates?

All the ongoing updates on IBM SWU 2011 can be found @ IBM Software Universe India blog.

If you are socially inclined, follow the Twitter ID : @ibmsoftware_in and tweet with the event hashtag: #ibmswuin.