1. Metric Studio Charts are like crosstabs – I was given this little piece of advice and it has served me well.  In order to apply this little jewel, make sure you have a crosstab visible before you try to modify a chart. Normally when you try to troubleshoot a chart, you look at the tabular data -but that can be misleading because a chart shows the intersection of two points while tabular data is just a list.

2. Move to the top – sometimes when you add a new point on a chart, it doesn’t seem to show up. This can be so annoying because you can see the new data element on the crosstab and in the tabular data, but not on the stupid chart! It might sound strange, but just move the new point to the top of the chart. I know you might not want the element on the top, but once you can see it on the chart you can move it where ever you want.

3. Adjust the legend – ok … you have your new element, but you don’t see it in the legend. You have made the chart bigger, but still you don’t see it. All elements must appear on the legend in order for the chart to be correct. You might be thinking that this tip should go before two and in some cases you might be right, but at least you are getting the tip. Anyway, change the legend size so that you can see the new element on the chart.

4. Change the chart point size - if you have multiple values on a chart and two seem to have the exact same values, then it is possible you will only see one of them. By default all the elements on the chart are same size. The element that gets charted last is the one on top, which is often the last element on the chart axis. In order to see the see the other element, change the shape and its size to a larger point than the measure you can see.

All of these suggestions can be done in any order. I am pretty confident you will find at least one of them useful and I encourage you to pass on all the tips to another Metric Studio user.

With this licensing change, they are requiring all IBM Cognos Planning clients to be on the latest Cognos Planning Enterprise Licensing Model to download 8.4.1.   Clients who purchased Cognos Planning or Adaytum Planning prior to the IBM acquisition may be affected and be required to modify their IBM Cognos licensing.

For all older Planning clients, there are a lot of benefits to upgrading your licenses.

If you are currently on an older licensing model which would allow you to download 8.4.0 but not the latest 8.4.1 IBM Cognos Planning, you have two options:

Option 1: Stay on current license structure and upgrade to 8.4.0

Considerations:
• Job servers – Provided you are  on the old Adaytum licensing that restricted use to a single server, additional job servers can not be added to Cognos Planning
• Future patches and updates are being created for 8.4.1.  Currently with Planning  8.4.0,  neither Windows 7 or Internet Explorer 8 are listed as a supported platform. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27018542
• Planning Generation of Framework for BI is not included in the older licensing.
• Upgrading from Planning 8.4.0 to 8.4.1 is a complete uninstall and reinstall of the Planning software
• Planning Contributors will NOT receive an equivalent license for IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor.
• Non-Production Environment would require an additional license

Benefits: IBM Cognos Planning 8.4.0 provides a new and more robust users interface for the end users.  Other benefits depend on the current version you are utilizing.

Option 2: Trade up the licenses to Enterprise Planning Licensing Model
Benefits:
• Allows for the download and installation of Cognos 8.4.1 the latest release of Cognos Planning
• Job Servers-  The Enterprise licensing allows for a reasonable number of servers so multiple job servers can be added to Cognos Planning
• Future patches and updates are being created for 8.4.1. Planning   Currently Planning 8.4.1   Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 are supported.  http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27018542
• Contributor licenses include the Excel Add-in for Contributor
• Contributors will have rights to receive notifications and alerts from Event Studio
• EP Modelers(fka Analyst) will have rights to use Event Studio
• EP Modelers(fka Analyst) will have rights to model and access any source (both metadata and data) via Framework Manager, including underlying components and services
• Planning Generation of Framework for BI is included in the licensing.
• Planning Contributors will receive an equivalent license for IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor. However, purchase of the TM1 Analytic server and PM Model would be required.
• Most new licensing models are based on named users, therefore no additional licenses are required for a Non-Production environment.   The exception is a PVU licensing model.

Lodestar Solutions strongly recommends all Planning clients review their licensing and consider trading up to the new licensing model as there are many benefits. We would be happy to help.  For information contact us at 630-845-1505.

However the fine print is that:
ALL clients must be on the Cognos Planning Enterprise Licensing Model to download 8.4.1, (regardless if you are using TM1)

What is the Cognos Planning Enterprise Licensing Model?

General Guidelines:  The following License Model numbers are considered Enterprise Planning Licensing:  (Each contract is unique and the specific terms of the contract prevail.)

D077BLL   IBM COGNOS 8 ENTERPRISE PLANNING CONTRIBUTOR
AUTHORIZED USER LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS

D0772LL   IBM COGNOS 8 ENTERPRISE PLANNING MODELER AUTHORIZED USER LICENSE
+ SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS

(Look for the word Enterprise in the description)

If you purchased Planning when it was known as Adaytum or shortly after the Cognos acquisition of Adaytum, you will probably be affected by this when you try to upgrade to 8.4.1.

What if I don’t have the Enterprise Planning License Model?
When you go to upgrade to 8.4.1 Planning you will not be able to download the version.  You may be able to download 8.4.0; but not 8.4.1.

What do I need to do if I don’t have Enterprise Planning licenses?
Call Lodestar and we can help you trade-up your licenses to get you on the updated licensing model.

Why should I trade-up my licenses?
This depends on how old your licenses are, but as a whole you are given great capabilities with the new license.  Some of you may already be taking advantage of some of the functionality of Enterprise Planning Licensing but don’t realize your current licensing doesn’t allow it.  Remember, it is your responsibility as a client to make sure you are in compliance, the software may not stop you.  If you would like to discuss your specific situation, contact Lodestar Solutions and we can help.

FOR EXAMPLE:   Years ago, Adaytum sold Planning on a Server + User Model where clients purchased a Server Planning license plus Analyst and Contributor named users. This licensing is usually restricted to clients to a single server.  If they needed more than one server, they had to purchase additional server licenses.  Over the years, Cognos Planning added the ability to easily add job servers to increase the speed for GoTo Production and Reconciliation processes.   Many clients took advantage of this functionality without realizing their licensing did not give them the rights despite the software providing for it. Remember, Cognos is the honor system.  Clients under these older licensing models should trade up to the newer Enterprise Planning licensing model that allows for a “reasonable number of servers”.  This would allow you to add as many job servers as you need.

How do I trade up my licenses to get to the Enterprise Planning Licensing Model?
Call Lodestar Solutions at 630-845-1505.  We can help you trade-up your licenses at a discount to get you on the updated licensing model.

Final Word of Advice: If you trade up your licenses, make sure you audit your support renewal bill in subsequent years to make sure you are not accidentally charged for both the old and new licenses.  Also, if you ask IBM to co-terminate your support renewal bills (making it so you have one renewal date instead of multiple), make sure you don’t use a prorated support bill for your next year budget, you may end up short in funds.

DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE THE VIEWS OF LODESTAR AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF IBM

Scenario A – Process Support

• Sales Order Table holds sales order detail and is important to the production management process. When a sales order is created, a sales order number is automatically created but an order category must be manually entered. The order category is needed by production to prioritize inbound orders. The company cannot change their ERP because of cost and time, so customer service is responsible to enter the category.

The production department expects a report with all orders categorized.  If the orders are not categorized, they might get missed. Clearly we don’t want to risk missing an order, so how do we ensure all orders are categorized?

We create an event that looks at all open orders and find any which do not have a category. When we find one, we send an email to customer service with the order number so they can correct the order. We can schedule the event to run every five minutes or as often as required to make sure the production report is correct and no order is missed.

Scenario B – Data Warehouse

• You have a data warehouse which you use for reporting. Before your data is brought into the warehouse, it is staged for cleaning (transformation). Data that doesn’t pass certain business rules and will require human review are placed in a quarantined area within staging. The clean data is then loaded into the warehouse.  This means there will be a difference between the warehouse and the data source.

To settle the discrepancy, we can create an event that monitors the quarantined area to send an email with an attached report.  This report shows all of the records which did not make it into the warehouse along with the reason why.

This will allow the business to review and correct the data without having to ask IT why it data did not make it into the warehouse.

Event Studio can help you maintain clean data. Give it a try it might be just what your company needs!

The announcement from IBM stated: “IBM Cognos 8 Planning Version 8.4.1 includes an Enterprise Planning Licensing change. All customers under Enterprise Planning licensing will be granted equivalent Enterprise Planning TM1 Contributor rights when they purchase an IBM Cognos Analytic Server and at least one TM1 Modeler Role. Customers not on the Enterprise Planning licensing can trade up their licenses to the current version of Enterprise Planning licenses if they wish to participate in this expansion.”

Translation: Enterprise Planning clients can leverage their investment in Planning Contributor on both Enterprise Planning data and TM1 data after a minimal investment in TM1’s Analytic Server and a TM1 Modeler.

Why would you want to use TM1 with Enterprise Planning?  The latest release of the  powerful in memory TM1 9.5 modular handles very large models, allows for real-time reporting with Cognos 8, and enables end users to create on the fly sandbox for “what if” modeling.

In Lodestar’s opinion, TM1 9.5 satisfies the wish list of many Enterprise Planning Clients.  The new licensing allows existing Planning clients to leverage TM1 where it makes sense.  They would need to make a small investment but we believe you will find it’s well worth it.  Lodestar Solutions is a reselling partner, so we can help you get the best rate possible on the required licensing.  We also pride ourselves on leading the IBM Cognos Consulting world on how the pieces fit together.  Model design for an integrated deployment of Planning, TM1 and BI is important to make Cognos sing.  Contact Lodestar if you would like more information on how IBM Cognos is leaving the competition in the dust with its integrated technology.

WHAT IS INNOVATION: A new way of doing something.

Let’s look at a great example of innovation.   In 1968 at the Olympics in Mexico, a man named Dick Fosbury set an Olympic record with a move that others called “unorthodox”.  He began experimenting with alternative, unconventional methods of high jumping as a high school sophomore. Rejecting the straddling approach, which had been the standard for the prior forty years, he tweaked the old-fashioned scissor kick.  The result of his creativity and willingness to try something different, was a completely innovative method of high jumping called the “Fosbury Flop” that is still used today.

INNOVATION  is PERSONAL and what lead to the creation of amazing companies like Microsoft, and Apple. In the challenging business world we live in, it’s time for all of us to be innovative.  Maybe you don’t think you have the influence in your role to create major innovation.  Start small.  Look at where tasks are done repetitively or processes that seem disjointed and broken.  Create ideas on how you could improve the task or process. Talk to co-workers and get their ideas.  Create three options on how to solve the problem with pros and cons to each solution.  Calculate the return on the investment.  This should include man hours saved multiplied by an assumed rate, estimated opportunities it creates, expenses saved, less costs to implement.  Determine the best solution and pitch your idea.   When companies are looking to downsize and need to determine who to cut, employees that provide innovative ideas which save the company money or help the business find new opportunities are less likely to be on that list.

INNOVATION IN REPORTING:  For years we have leveraged tools like Excel to do our corporate reporting and budgeting processes.  It works, but can be painful when cells are overwritten, formulas change …    Or maybe your organization has 5+ reporting solutions depending on the system the data is coming from.   You may have “Business Intelligence” tools thinking you were innovative.   That’s just step one.   Start looking at ways you can INNOVATE within your BI environment.  IBM Cognos Event Manager can eliminate the manual distribution of reports by automatically triggering reports to be emailed to recipients on a specific date, or when specified data changes.  How about integrating your BI reports into Power Point for your monthly meetings?  This would allow you to simply refresh your Power Point monthly saving significant time in meeting prep.  Did you realize you can integrate IBM Cognos Planning with IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence?  If you own both, why don’t you leverage their integration?  So, if you are looking for INNOVATION in Reporting, check out some of our webinars for more ideas at this link.

INNOVATION IN BUDGETING: Are you still doing the annual budget in Excel and spending hours prepping hundreds of spreadsheets for departments to complete?  Only to wait for the users to send the mega files back to you where you get the fun task of consolidating them while praying that they didn’t add rows or columns.  It’s time to INNOVATE!  IBM Cognos provides solutions that allow you to use powerful OLAP technology leveraging your knowledge and the corporate familiarity with Excel.  Each user can complete their templates and data is automatically aggregated.   By simplifying the process with powerful tools, you can move away from the annual budget to a rolling forecast.  Start modeling your business with models that do true “What if” analysis.  And how excited would the CFO be if they had a process that took the forecast process all the way thru to the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and allowed you to Forecast Cash?   For more information on innovation in budgeting check out our events and webinars.

INSPIRING INNOVATION:

People are often inspired when there is a competition.  So I challenge your organization to create an internal challenge.  Have each department come up with one idea they submit with an innovative idea.  The idea could be a method for reducing DSO, increasing sales, revamping a product packaging to be more user friendly, anything.

SUBMISSIONS:

I recommend you educate the team members on how to present the idea.  I recently attend a Dale Carnegie course and loved their format for submitting innovations.  So I summarize below:

1. Background and state the issue
2. State three  proposed solutions each with  a).  Pros    b). Cons
3. State your recommended solution and why
4. State the Return on the Investment

For those of you utilizing IBM Cognos Planning it would be pretty easy to build a little planning model that they could submit their ideas.  IBM Cognos BI could be used to measure the performance of the innovation.

REWARD:

In discussing this with a client, he came up with the idea that you could reward the department team members a percentage of the savings/increased revenue that the company experienced as a result of implementing the innovation.  I really liked that idea, but make sure you pay on actual experience benefit not forecasted.

So, let’s get out there and INNOVATE!

For those of us who come from the Cognos world and were just getting the hang of how to find answers to the most cryptic error messages known to man, I have news for you.  Forget every trick you learned of navigating the Cognos Support system and welcome to the IBM Super Highway of Information a.k.a. IBM.com.

This is a much needed blog for two reasons:

1. To forewarn any IBM client; DO NOT WAIT on getting your IBM.com ID setup until you have a production down issue. This process takes about 5 business days to complete.

2. Provide you the quick and dirty steps to get setup painlessly and quickly (relatively speaking).

First, where do you start?  Here is a tip. This email address is the save all, end all.  This email address is who you contact if you don’t know what your Site ID is, who your primary user is and other somewhat pressing issues.  Keep this in a safe place. tsmail@us.ibm.com

This is what you will need:

1. Your IBM Customer Number (ICN)
2. The name of your primary account holder
3. Patience, my friend, patience

I don’t have my ICN  or IBM Customer Number, what do I do?
You can handle this two ways, you can send out smoke signals for your IBM rep or you can email tsmail@us.ibm.com.  I would suggest the latter.

I also have no idea who my primary account holder is!
This was the main person that was setup with Cognos support when you purchased the software.  In many cases, that person may have moved on to another position or company.  Again if you are unsure, email tsmail@us.ibm.com and inquire who this person may be.

With those three things in hand, you can now get started.

1. Login to many of the IBM pages and register for a new profile. Your ID has to be your email address.  Here is the link:

https://www.ibm.com/account/profile/us

You will setup your ID, which will be your email address.  The email address MUST be the primary account holder.  If that person is no longer with the company, you must update that information FIRST; otherwise all of this will be in vain.  Contact the tsmail@us.ibm.com email listed above to change the primary contact information.

Choose a password and secret security question.

Within 24 hours you should receive an email stating your ID has been activated.  Check your spam/junk email folder, sometimes IBM gets thrown in there.

Once you get that email, login with your new ID (Email) and confirm the Authorized User. You will have to do this the first time for the Authorized User.  After that, you can repeat this process for other contacts.  Also, if you work with a Business Partner that helps you out with Technical/Support related issues, I strongly suggest you grant them access as well.  For step by step instructions on how to complete this, please email kray@lodestarsolutions.com.

Once the Authorized User is confirmed, you will need to link your account as an AUTHORIZED USER to your ICN (IBM Customer Number – 9 digit account number) account. It takes about 2 days to link your ID to your ICN.  Once that is done, you should be good to go.

Your Mission: Complete the company presentation and merge data from 5 different places. And here’s the kicker, the numbers have to be CORRECT.

So, you put on your thinking cap, you fit more windows in your tiny computer screen than you can really read, and you begin the task you dread every month. You first make sure you have all the data that you need to compile. Check. Then you open last month’s presentation and start removing all the reports, graphs and data from last month. Check. You open your Excel spreadsheet that checks your numbers to make sure they are correct. Check. You are armed with the tools and ready to go to battle because that is really what this whole process is.

Your organization owns IBM Cognos and you know it is a tool that creates reports but you haven’t had the time to know much more than that. You have heard that you could make this process much simpler by creating reports to do what you need but who has time for that?! You know that the data comes from four different places and the thought of merging that in a reporting tool is a bit daunting. So, you continue to work since you have a proven method and process that works regardless of how painful it is. But is it really that painful? Would it take more time to create the reports than you spend compiling data each month for the same presentation?? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!

IBM Cognos Go! Office - you probably own it and aren’t using it. Go! Office was introduced with a few other extended BI capabilities in 2006. Go! Office is included with a BI Consumer license or above (original contracts need to be reviewed to confirm). Therefore every admin, every report author, every professional author may also own Go! Office. IBM Cognos 8 Go! Office eliminates the need to cut and paste or manually load data into spreadsheets or presentations. This saves time, prevents errors, and lets you focus on making decisions rather than data entry. In other words, first you create the reports you need to be included in the presentation in the IBM Cognos BI portal. Then, you can embed that same report in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. And the crowd roars!!!!

This would be your life using IBM Cognos Go! Office for your monthly company presentation.

Thursday, the day before your presentation:
2:00pm Open BI Portal, perform a quick check that the numbers are accurate
2:05pm Open the presentation refreshing it and validate the numbers have been updated.
2:10pm Send out a meeting reminder with the updated presentation attached.
3:00pm Make up for lost time on Thursdays and go hit a couple of balls on the range or get a mani/pedi, whichever is most needed

It is not as easy as a blink of an eye but this is a sampling of the efforts this would take.

Step 1:   Articulate what reports need to be included in the presentation or documents.
Step 2:   Work with your IT team to see if Go! Office is installed. If not, they can go to IBM.com and download their software. You can also call Lodestar Solutions and we can help you find it. There are Go! Office server and desktop components to be installed.
Step 3:   Once Go! Office is installed, work with the IBM Cognos Report Writer to create the reports you need. While they are building reports, look at who should receive the Office documents with reports embedded. Anyone can see the documents, however they can only update the data if they have a BI Consumer license or above. In some cases, companies have stopped distributing the documents and they simply ask their users to open the document thru the IBM Cognos Portal and update the data.
Step 4:   Once the reports have been created, you can now replace your manual charts, graphs and data, with the reports. Determine the best method of distribution and, your Thursdays are now yours again.

Just to recap, here are some of the benefits of Go! Office:
• Toolbar icons let users consume and save BI content, or create sophisticated desktop reports such as briefing books and dashboards.
• Users can refresh their MS Office documents with updated information on-demand.
• Users can modify and share IBM Cognos BI content using familiar applications and interfaces.
• Publish and share IBM Cognos-enabled files to the secure BI portal.

4. Support Renewal- Software Maintenance/Support renew fees are recurring, so when you negotiate your contract consider the support renewal. Software providers often state it’s a set percentage of the price. Remember that the savings you negotiate upfront on support/maintenance will result in savings every year.

Secret 5: Support Maintenance a percentage of the purchase price. Some companies make the support renewal a percentage of the list price. However, ask for it to be X% of the purchase price after the discount and make sure it’s written in the contract.

Secret 6: You can cap the increase of Support Maintenance. Put language in the contract that says the annual maintenance fees can not increase by more than Consumer Price Index + 3%. This will protect you years down the road if the software company is sold to a huge company that wants to jack the prices by 10%.

Secret 7: Often times the first year maintenance is bundled in the purchase price. So if they are charging you 20% of the purchase price for support, guess what - you are paying twice as much. If you bought it for X, this includes the license + 1st year Maintenance. In year two, you will receive a maintenance bill for 20% of X – this is equal to 20% of (License +1st year maintenance). You might not be able to get this changed, but just knowing it helps your negotiating power.

5. Lock in Pricing - When you negotiate a large purchase, you may underestimate the number of licenses. Yes, you can always buy more, but shelf-ware is expensive. In the initial purchase contract, ask for price protection for one year. They rarely go over a year or past their fiscal year end. By asking for language in the contract stating for one year you can buy licenses at X, you make sure you protect yourself when your project is successful and you need more licenses.

6. Put everything in the contract - I am surprised that people don’t request the descriptions of the licenses to be included in the contract. Software companies regularly change their license mix and pricing. So make sure the contract clearly states what functionality is included in the Administrator license. Years from now, when you can’t recall your license mix and the names have all changed, you will appreciate this detail in the contract.

7. You have what they need – Software sales representatives have needs too. Besides selling licenses, they need good references, presenters and clients willing to do press releases. While you are beating up your sales representative because now you are an educated consumer, offer him/her a bone. Instead, suggest that after a successfully completed project you would be willing to be a reference, do a press release or present at the annual user group in Vegas. Maybe you’ll even get a free trip out of it.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you or your company is about to make a major software purchase.