Clients have been calling in with questions about the exciting next generation of the IBM Cognos business intelligence platform – Cognos Analytics. Besides wanting to know what is new, one of the common questions we hear is: Will my Cognos 10.x skills translate to the equivalent roles in Cognos Analytics?
The short answer is yes. Even though Cognos Analytics presents an entirely new user experience (UX), we have found that for existing users the transition from Cognos 10 can be a positive experience. We have created a reference chart about our findings on what skills will translate directly and which will not, followed by detailed notes on our findings and a quick preview of what’s brand new.
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DEVELOPERS
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Framework Manager
Transformer
Cube Designer
Metric Designer
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No changes.
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BUSINESS AUTHORS
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Query Studio
Analysis Studio
Event Studio
Metric Studio
Cognos Workspace
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No changes, but not fully integrated. Product end-of-life coming soon.
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PROFESSIONAL AUTHORS
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Report Studio
Cognos Workspace Advanced
Dimensional Authoring
OLAP Data Exploration
Active Reports
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A different UI, but core techniques learned in v10.2 will be easily and directly translatable to v11.
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CONSUMERS
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Static reports
Interactive reports
UX
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No changes.
Much more seamless consumption.
Entirely new UX; graduated capabilities means that users have a singular UI for consumption, enhancement, customization, self-service authoring and data discovery. No more hopping from studio to studio.
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Business authors
- Query Studio, Analysis Studio, Event Studio, Metric Studio and Cognos Workspace are not a part of the Cognos Analytics UX. However, each of these capabilities and objects created from them will migrate 1-to-1 into v11 and will run in their legacy UI in a separate browser tab or window. Objects created in these tools in v11 will also be saved as legacy objects – currently there is no migration path. IBM has announced end of life for these tools after this release.
- If you intend to continue using any of these studios after upgrading to Cognos Analytics, any current Cognos 10.2 training will be 100% relevant. Senturus recommends devising a strategy for migrating off of these solutions in the long-term. Contact us for more information.
Professional authors
- Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced do not exist as-is in Cognos Analytics UI/UX; however, all of their features and functionality are available in its new authoring piece. Experienced authors will not find migrating from 10.2 to 11 a major challenge. Core techniques learned in a Cognos 10.2 Report Studio or Cognos Workspace Advanced environment will be directly translatable to Cognos Analytics – the same goes for Dimensional Authoring, OLAP Data Exploration and Active Report authoring.
- Senturus offers a one-day v11 New Features for Experienced Authors course which will enable a seamless transition for Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced authors.
System administrators
The main administration user interface has NOT changed from v10 to v11, nor have the core configuration components. Architecturally this new version is basically the same as Cognos 10; however, there are some new installation and configuration options.
Consumers
- The most obvious change is to the user experience. However, consuming static reports does not change. Consuming interactive reports has become much more seamless in the new UX, basically making every report available to be enhanced by users similar to Cognos Workspace.
- Graduated capabilities means that users have a singular UI for consumption, enhancement, customization, self-service authoring and data discovery. No more hopping from studio to studio.
So, what about all the NEW stuff?
There are a lot of brand new, never before imagined, features in v11 such as data modules for self-service modeling and a new dashboarding capability. We are in the process of developing training materials to describe these new features. We regularly have offer free webinars covering many of these new features. Sign up to receive email notifications about our future free webinars. See the upcoming events for webinars currently scheduled.
Bottom line
With Cognos Analytics, users will be getting a two-fer: powerful new features along with a thoughtful transition between the legacy and new versions. Core skills developed in Cognos 10 will be either directly or easily applicable in Cognos Analytics. Users should continue to upgrade their skills to get the full value of their existing investment and can be confident that their skills will still be valid after upgrade.
See our selection of Cognos training options, including a robust schedule of instructor-led, online courses as well as private, on-site, self-paced and custom training.
