David P. Currie

Business Intelligence and Data Analytics

The New and Not So New in Cognos Analytics 11

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Studio News

A defining feature of Cognos 10 was the Studio concept, first introduced in Cognos ReportNet and later expanded in Cognos 8. A Studio is a user interface for a specific group of users. Cognos 11 Analytics departs from this paradigm and introduces a new UI. Many long time Cognos customers are wondering, what now? How will I transition users and migrate reports?  What should I be doing now in Cognos 10 in order to prepare for an eventual upgrade to Congos 11 Analytics?

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/humilde_design

Welcome to the studio. Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/humilde_design

Despite a previous announcement from IBM that 10.2.2 would be the last supported versions of Cognos Query and Analysis Studio, the studios are still present in Cognos 11. Query Studio and Analysis studio content is supported and each studio will open up in a new browser tab. Yet the underlying message from IBM is clear: it is time to stop using these studios and develop a plan to transition users to the new Cognos Analytics reporting interface.

Cognos 11 supports Event Studio, Metrics Studio and PowerPlay Studio but content developed in these studios will launch in the legacy UI in a new browser tab. No date has been announced for the deprecation of these studios but their future is limited. For new projects it would be wise to think about some alternatives. For OLAP functionality, consider using Dynamic Cubes. For Metrics Studio development, TM1 might be an option going forward. I would expect that the Event Studio will be replaced by an enhanced Notify Me functionality in a later release.
 
Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced have been merged into Report Authoring, the unified reporting tool. Any reports that were developed in these studios will open up in the new reporting interface. A feature in Cognos 11 is the choice of running reports in the full interactive or limited interactivity mode. The new interactive viewer adds functionality by default to reports (such as the ability to sort list reports) but it disables any embedded Javascript and the Prompt API. By default, reports developed in Cognos 11 Analytics run in the full interactive mode but reports migrated from Cognos 10 run in limited interactivity mode. This means that Cognos 10 reports will execute as designed.
 
Disconnecting Cognos Connection
 
The venerable Public Folders is now known as Team Content, and My Folders has become My Content. The interface is different, with sliding panels rather than the folder and breadcrumb navigation in Cognos Connection. The impact on existing content is that long names for folders and reports are truncated, depending on the size of the browser window and the screen resolution. Migrated portal tabs open up as new browser tabs and thus become somewhat disconnected from the rest of the interface. Users cannot create more portal tabs nor can they be set as the home page for a user. A convenient new feature with the Cognos 11 Analytics portal is that the built in search index: it no longer needs to be scheduled to run by the administrator so it will work out of the box on day one.
 
The full interactive mode, enabled by default for Cognos 11 reports, makes Cognos Workspace redundant. However, a workspace developed in Cognos 10 can be viewed as it was in that version, again, in a new browser tab.
 
Nothing to see here
 
A few areas have not changed. The modelling tools, once launched, are the same as they were in Cognos 10. This includes Framework Manager, Cube Designer, Transformer and Metrics Designer. The new Data Module allows some lightweight modelling but it does not replace Framework Manager. The Administration Console also remains the same, as does the security model. Active Reports will migrate and behave the same way as they do in Cognos 10.
 
As with any upgrade, moving to Cognos 11 Analytics is an opportune time for a content cleanup. Use auditing to see what reports and packages are being utilized and remove unused reports and workspaces. There is no value in migrating content that is no longer relevant to the business.
 
Careful preparation required.

Careful preparation required. Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@ehyleong

Cognos 11 Analytics offers an updated interface and many new features to meet requirements for data exploration and self-service capabilities. With proper preparation, any organization can move from Cognos 10 without skipping a beat. The key actions to take immediately are to stop developing in any studio that does not have a migration path (Cognos Query, Analysis Studio, PowerPlay, Metrics Studio and Event Studio) and to convert key reports and workspaces to Report Studio or Cognos Workspace Advanced.

Resources:

More about Cognos 11 Analytics.

IBM Functionality Mapping table – a translation of Cognos 10 BI functionality to Cognos 11 Analytics.

A webinar by Senturus giving an overview of Cognos 11 features and functionality.

Upgrade documentation from IBM.

Translating Cognos 10 BI skills sets to Cognos 11 Analytics.

Changes in how to use JavaScript in Cognos 11 Analytics.

Free cloud trial version of Cognos Analytics from IBM. 

 

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