So you’re about to start a BI project and have to choose between a specific tool. There are a few major players in the BI world, each of which has pro’s and con’s and depending on the customer, one may be better than the other. Business needs and flexible functionality should always be a top priority.

Choosing the dimension for publish is one of the most critical steps in the Generate Framework Manager model process. The dimension chosen for publish will be treated as the Fact table in the publish process. In addition, the Generate Framework Model admin extension will model the dimension chosen for publish as the fact table. More simply put, the dimension chosen for publish will be your measure dimension.

It is always important to consider any Business Intelligence requirements during the design of planning applications to ensure planned information is structured in such a way that it can be leveraged in Cognos BI. Anyone who has ever used planned information as a source for reporting will attest. That being said, it is not always possible to create a planning application that is both Planning and BI friendly. As a result, we have pioneered the concept of a reporting application to help bridge the gap between Planning and BI Requirements. I like to think of it as a mini data mart masked as a Cognos Planning application.

I have you thinking about another environment for testing, development, and patches which is separate from your production environment, now we can talk about the process of deploying to production from development. In Cognos, you can move content from one environment/server to another environment by using import and export within the Cognos Administration. You can schedule import or export entries from a deployment archive to a separate server….see the topic Schedule Management in Cognos Connection Help for more details.

Let me first start by saying this is not a how to or even necessarily the right way to do things… rather some options to explore learned from hours spent cursing at the computer trying to get the seemingly ‘simple’ things to work in crosstabs. You know, things like adding two columns together, calculate a variance, or filter out crosstab rows with no data. I run into these issues most when I’m building financial reports where we’re comparing multiple forecast/budget versions across specific spans of time.

I have a client that we began working with about a year ago. They previously used another firm that had lost a lot of people, some of whom become “independents”. One such person had written an interface for them and they wanted it modified. So they called the “independent “ in without our knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, we play well with others - but communication is the key! The “independent” for some reason decided to upgrade their Cognos Finance, knowing they had Cognos Planning integrated with CF, but not thinking about the ramifications on upgrading one piece at a time. Choo Choo Choo, do you hear the train coming down the track? Yes train wreck ahead! So I get the distress call!

“HELP!!!” As you suspected the “independent” killed access to the entire planning system and they were getting ready for a forecast.
So I asked, “Can I speak with him to see what happened in hopes that we can fix it faster?”
“No, he’s unavailable”.
“Is he in the bar drinking?” I asked.
“No he left,” they replied “What do you mean he left???”
“Ummm, he’s on a plane going home.”
Stunned, I asked, “Are you kidding me? Let me get this straight, he decided to upgrade a piece knowing there was integration with other moving parts, blew up the system and LEFT?”
“Yes, he said, “I don’t know how to fix it, call Lodestar” and left.”

Needless to say our technical team stepped in and working with the clients IT department, were able to get them up and running before their forecast was due.MORAL OF THE STORY! Independents typically work alone and can’t fix it if they screw up. You do not control them, so they can leave if they want.
MY QUESTION – Do you think the “independent” billed them for his time and travel?

Looking for a consulting partner? Finding and selecting the right partner can be the difference between a great and mutually beneficial marriage and a marriage fraught with bad communication, unmet expectations, and cheating. I liken selecting a consulting partner to marriage because I believe it carries the same weight and should not be entered into lightly.