Business Analytics Resources: Cognos & Tableau Webinars, Blogs, Demos & Tips

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Welcome to our extensive, free library of past webinars, demos, whitepapers, presentations and helpful hints. Use the topic boxes to the right to filter through and easily locate content. We are constantly adding new materials, so please check back often to see our latest content. Enjoy!

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Restricting Access to Content by User in Tableau Four Methods to Secure & Filter Data by User Good news: Tableau provides ways to restrict, or filter, what data appears in visualizations based on the audience. Bad news: the mechanisms in Tableau for restricting access to sensitive content are not obvious. And to make it more challenging, Tableau’s default is to make all the data in a report visible to everyone looking at it! In this webinar recording learn the different ways for restricting access to content with Tableau. See step-by-step demos on how to control who sees what in your visualizations. The four methods covered are Using Tableau Server Groups and a workbook filter (requires Tableau Server or Tableau Online) Using Tableau’s built-in user filters (requires Tableau Server or Tableau Online) Joining to a security table Using database security to restrict access You may also be interested in these free Tableau resources The Perks and Pitfalls of Tableau Server -- webinar recording describing success strategies for expanding Tableau company wide Six Ways to Publish and Share Tableau Content -- blog with details on how to distribute your Tableau content TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau PRESENTER Monica Van Loon Analytics Consultant Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview – Types of Security in Tableau Four Methods to Implement Data Security in Tableau Tableau’s Built-in User Filters Tableau Server Groups and a Workbook filter Join to a Security Table Use Database Security Method 1: Tableau’s Built-in User Filters Navigate to the worksheet to which you want to apply a filter Server > Create User Filter Select the field you want to use for filtering (i.e. Region) In the User Filter dialog box, type a name for the set of rules you are creating (i.e. Regional Managers) In the list on the left, select User/Group On the right, under Members for:select what you want the selected users to see Do this for each Tableau Server/ Tableau Online user Method 1: Pros Easy to implement, user-friendly Build in feature of Tableau Server No Tableau Server or DBA assistance required Method 1: Cons Must be done for each worksheet or workbook: new worksheets may show unfiltered data High maintenance: if user base changes, you need to update the filter and republish Security can be tenuous: if users can download and edit workbook they can see ALL of the data Requires Tableau Server or Tableau Online Method 2: Tableau Server with a Worksheet Filter Create groups on Tableau server (i.e. ‘Central’, ‘East’ etc..) Connect to your data source Create a calculated field Publish the workbook to Tableau Server Note: when publishing to Tableau Server, ensure web-editing and download is set to “no” Method 2a: Tableau Server Groups with a Data Source Filter Create groups on Tableau server (i.e. ‘Central’, ‘East’ etc..) Connect to your data source Create your calculated field In the Data Source tab - add a data source filter using the calculated field and select ‘true’ Publish the data source - publishers can connect to the published data source and create dashboards with built-in security Note: with a data source filter you can allow “web edit" Method 2 and 2a: Pros Once Tableau Server groups are set up they can be used for multiple workbooks Built-in feature of Tableau Server No DBA assistance required Method 2 and 2a: Cons Must be implemented for each worksheet, workbook or data source Medium maintenance: groups must be maintained in Tableau Server as users are added deleted and move Security can be tenuous: if users can download and edit workbook they can potentially see ALL of the data New worksheets may show unfiltered data Requires Tableau Server or Tableau Online Method 3: Join to a Security Table Create a security table Join data source to security table Create a calculated field Note: the security table needs to have a one to one mapping with data table or you may get duplicate rows Option: Create a Published Data Source Advantages of a Published Data Source Shared business-friendly semantic layer Reusable Single source of the “truth” Secure with data source filter Note: you need a 1 to 1 mapping to security table to avoid row duplication Option: Use Subscriptions Tableau Server Subscriptions are a great way to distribute content Each subscribed user gets a user specific view with a thumbnail Method 4: Use Database Security Example: Security embedded in a database view: Create or replace view My_Employee_Details as select e.employee_id, e.first_name, e.last_name, e.salary, m.Last_name manager_name from HR.employees e, HR.employees m where e.manager_id = m.employee_id and upper(m.LAST_NAME) = user; Notes: this is one example there are many ways to accomplish this; the syntax is often database specific, for example: ‘user’ is Oracle specific; in Sql Server it would be current_user or session_user or current_user Method 4: Pros Security implemented in the database level can be shared by other reporting tools Security information can be extracted from other sources (i.e. HR systems like Workday and built into a database view or materialized view) Very flexible and hierarchies can be implemented (i.e. VP – Regional Manager – Department Manger …) Method 4: Cons Must be set-up prior to publishing workbook DBA assistance required Medium maintenance: DBA need to maintain database ID’s that map to security Secure Your Data - Functionality Matrix Good – Tableau Server with user filters Better – Tableau Server groups or a database security table Best – A fully integrated, automated and shared data security model Key Takeaways Multiple ways to secure and restrict data shown in Tableau Requirements, restrictions and maintenance vary by method Many combinations and variations for each method Contact Senturus if you need help	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Analytics: Dashboards or Reports? Matching Tools to Business Requirements With all the capabilities that have been added to the Cognos Analytics platform, it can be a bit unclear as to which is the right choice – dashboards or reports? In this webinar recording, we break down the benefits and differences in functionality between Cognos reports and dashboards so you can determine the best tool for your business requirements. We address these questions and more What is the difference between a dashboard and a dashboard-style report? Where is the best place for experimental data discovery? What are data modules and stories? You may also be interested in these free Cognos Analytics resources Our Favorite New Features in Cognos Analytics Release 10 – blog describing features such as dashboard drill-throughs, exporting dashboards to PDF, the return of the Job button and more Tips for Installing Cognos Analytics – webinar recording that reviews the latest steps for installing and upgrading your Cognos environment Cognos Analytics Release 7+ Authoring Improvements – webinar recording showing demos of new and reintroduced authoring features TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Albert has more than 17 years of experience in business intelligence education and technical training. In addition to founding and running the Senturus training division, Albert also serves in various roles in the company including senior consultant and solutions architect. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos. Albert is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. PRESENTATION OUTLINE IBM Cognos Analytics rapid releases – history Cognos Analytics releases – new dashboarding features What is a dashboard? From Stephen Few: “A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance.” Our basic understanding, dashboards typically have the following characteristics or features Multiple visual representations of data on a single screen Interactivity, allowing consumers to narrow focus and understand interdependencies of the data via visual gestures High-level measurements with access to underlying details via drill-down, drill-through or some other intuitive data exploration gesture Examples: IBM Cognos Analytics; Tableau; Microsoft Power BI What is a report? Information delivered in ANY format Excel workbooks – mostly tabular (row and column) format Easy to combine with graphical representations (visualizations) of same, similar or related data Mostly static (NOT interactive) snapshots of data Answer specific questions, meet detailed, well-defined specifications Can be highly formatted for the target consumer (internal business analyst, external customer, regulatory agency) Examples: IBM Cognos Analytics, Tableau Is a report a dashboard building block? Demo: use case for dashboarding Upload data, blend data, explore/visualize Data discovery and experimentation – don’t know exactly which question(s) to ask Little or very light data manipulation Multiple data sources (cannot be linked) All widgets interactive All widgets connect to one another by default (automatically) Use pinned items for reuse in dashboards and stories Designed for on-screen consumption, now able to export to PDF for printing (as of Release 10) No access to query model Simplified tabbed layout Widgets can be set to refresh automatically Can use ANY source, including uploaded files and data sets Tabular visualization available, very limited Automatic visual interpretation and recommendations, more modern visual features, limited control over individual properties Quasi-Natural Language Processing (NLP) search can recommend visualizations Easily create tabbed viewing experience Demo: use case for reporting Use existing metadata Highly-specific presentation requirements, like fixed-size, pixel-perfect layout and formatting Extensive data manipulation One source at a Time Limited consumer interactivity to what author allows Tedious inline filtering (prompting) Use layout component references for templatization/standardization Various delivery formats available (HTML, PDF, Excel, CSV, XML) Advanced query modeling (master/detail, joins, sets, etc.) Consolidate reports using report references Robust scheduling, subscription and bursting Requires data module or package (you can always create a data module on top of one or more of the various source types) Advanced crosstabs, statement-style reporting Tight control over visualization and chart properties 100% user-directed design Adding tabs to reports is labor-intensive	Tips & Tricks
Use Tableau to Get to the Gold Hidden in Salesforce Secrets to Unearthing Missing Valuable Indicators A wealth of sales insights is buried inside – and outside – of Salesforce. Learn how and where to unearth those gems and you can help your sales team make better time prioritizations and your execs to make better sales strategy decisions. Senturus President Greg Herrera reveals both quick wins and secret techniques for uncovering sales gold using Tableau and Salesforce. In this webinar recording learn how your sales team can Get reports that drill down to the Salesforce record Look at Tableau visualizations embedded directly into the Salesforce dashboard Pull in data from outside Salesforce to get key reports such as Clustering reports, multiple people engaging with marketing Web activity from people in their pipeline You’ll also learn how your sales management can track hard-to-get leading indicators, such as Components of pipeline growth Growth from new opportunities Changes to the value of existing opportunities Changes to the win-probability of existing opportunities You may also be interested in our webinar recording that shows how to Embed Tableau in Salesforce Dashboards using the free Salesforce Canvas and Tableau Sparkler adapters. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Salesforce PRESENTER Greg Herrera  President and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. Greg Herrera co-founded Senturus in 2001. He has been helping clients implement Salesforce analytic solutions since 2003, Marketo analytics since 2011 and Tableau visualizations and dashboards since 2014. PRESENTATION OUTLINE The different techniques for connecting Tableau to Salesforce data – and the pros and cons of each How to enable the capability to drill from a Tableau dashboard into the specific record within Salesforce How to embed Tableau dashboards directly inside the Salesforce screens your sales reps are already using How to use Tableau to make all relevant data available to your sales team from within Salesforce – including data that is not even in the Salesforce database How to prepare Salesforce and other demand generation data so that it’s organized the way Tableau prefers to use it How to organize your demand generation data so that all business people can easily understand and analyze it Pipeline growth analysis How much of our/my pipeline growth is coming from new opportunities? How much is coming from opportunities changing stage or probability? How much is coming from changes to the size of the deal? What’s the trend in all of these? Where do I need to focus my efforts? Marketing effectiveness Which marketing programs are creating the newest opportunities? Which marketing programs bring in the most greenfield prospects? Which marketing programs drive the most revenue and profit? What’s the trend in new leads? From where are the best new leads coming? Where do I find the Glengarry leads? Demand funnel analysis What are the conversion rates within our demand funnel (e.g., percent of leads that convert to wins)? Which marketing programs are best at improving conversion rates? Which sales activities improve conversions? Leading indicators, how are we trending with? Length of sales cycle Win rate Average deal size Pipeline growth Installed-base analysis Are we spending so much time chasing new accounts at the expense of existing? Which existing accounts are likely to lead to the most follow-on? Demonstrations of Tableau and Tableau’s integration with Salesforce	Business Strategy
Taming the Data Wildcat with the Senturus Analytics Connector Northwestern University Leverages Cognos Data in Tableau Visualizations Get a firsthand account of the value the Senturus Analytics Connector, our solution that ties Tableau to enterprise BI platforms like Cognos and MicroStrategy. Senturus client, Northwestern University, shows how the Senturus Connector allows them to derive the full value of their investment in Tableau Server by leveraging their extensive Cognos data marts. Valuable data in Cognos is available to a wide group of analysts and consumers and the quality of reporting data across school departments is greatly improved. Now, Northwestern is able to automatically generate interactive, at-a-glance Tableau dashboard reports, presenting summary analyses to senior leadership while giving departmental administrators access to the underlying data. In this webinar recording, you will see a demo of how the Connector works and how it enabled Northwestern to tie Tableau into the secure, governed data already existing in their Cognos data mart. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Analytics, Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, Program or Project Managers PRESENTERS Jeffrey Weiss, PhD Director for Research Analysis Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Jeffrey Weiss earned his PhD in Physiology from the University of Virginia in 1987 and completed his post-doctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He joined Northwestern University as an investigator in 1993 and is the author of 55 peer-reviewed publications in the field of endocrine signaling. He has held various secondary positions in information management since 1996 and assumed his current full time role in analytics in 2013. Kimberly Griffin Director for Electronic Research Administration Office for Sponsored Research Northwestern University Kimberly has been the Director for Electronic Research Administration since 2014. Prior to that, she worked at The University of Chicago for 15 years, including 10 years in Business Intelligence as a Senior Business Analyst. Kimberly holds a M.S. in computer science from The University of Chicago, an M.S. in public services management from DePaul University and a B.S. in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP). Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. Michael heads up the Tableau Practice at Senturus. Michael comes to us from Oracle, IBM and SAP, where he spent over 20 years in different roles acquiring a wealth of hands-on, practical BI and Big Data experience. Michael’s team is also responsible for the development of the Senturus Business Analytics Connector for Tableau to Cognos, which lets Tableau use Cognos as a data source. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview of the Senturus Analytics Connector Huge value in existing BI models Tableau users circumvent them Why you shouldn’t (re)-create metadata The solution? The Senturus Analytics Connector! Instant access to quality data sets Don’t sacrifice integrity for agility The Senturus Analytics Connector gives you Faster, more accurate reporting Change management reductions Trust in the data Improved security Superior Tableau performance New Senturus Analytics Connector features Local cache for Cognos package metadata – improves performance Support for Cognos 10.2.0 and 11.0.6 Support for multiple dispatchers and fail over by specifying multiple dispatcher URLs in dataSoruces.xml. 32 bit ODBC driver on Windows 64 bit OS Automatically install documentation with Connector DSN modification via Windows ODBC Administrator Improved troubleshooting via new batch script (diagnosis.bat) Configuration GUI Simplify installation process - no need to copy Cognos SDK jar and Tableau .dll post-installation Support silent installation Support IIS/Windows authentication Increased the length limit of character data types, from 254 to 8000 for char, from 4000 to 32765 fro varchar, 127 to 4000 for nchar and from 2000 to 16383 for nvarchar Support sort on min/max value of PowerCube and Dynamic Cube levels Support Top N in filter SiteMinder SSO Northwestern -- Before the Analytics Connector Run Cognos queries and export to Excel Merge with local data from other sources using elaborate templates Merge data sources for Tableau visualizations Manually update data at defined intervals (weekly/monthly/quarterly) Senturus @ Northwestern -- After the Analytics Connector Tableau reports query data directly from Cognos Joins with local data done in Tableau; no more staging in Excel Time to update reports cut drastically Business Value Senior leadership has direct access to performance metrics Department administrators have access to the underlying data used to track their activity and progress Different administrative units (e.g. OSR and FSM) can base analyses on common data sets, increasing consistency in reporting Technical Benefits Cognos security is maintained automatically, no additional work for the Tableau authors Cognos package updates flow through without additional Tableau work Complicated business logic does not need to be reproduced in Tableau, just pulled from existing verified Cognos packages Demo Summary Frequently asked questions ROI for the Senturus Analytics Connector Take a Connector test drive	Features
Embedding Tableau in Salesforce Dashboards A How-To Primer with Demos Turbocharge Salesforce – and your sales team – by inserting Tableau analytics directly into Salesforce dashboards. Our brains process visual data (think Tableau) better and faster than text-based data (think Salesforce). By integrating the two tools, sales gets an at-a-glance overview of their accounts and opportunities instead of being forced to scroll through text. And it saves time: no need to go outside SFDC to run a Tableau report. In this webinar recording we show you how to embed Tableau into Salesforce using the free SFDC Canvas and Tableau Sparkler adapters. Using https encryption, Canvas allows parameters to be securely passed back and forth so that Tableau vizzes are automatically customized to each account or opportunity. And the icing on the cake: these adapters are free! During this hour-long recording, you’ll get A demo of a Tableau dashboard embedded in SFDC How vizzes are created and refreshed automatically for any account How easy it is for users to interact with a Tableau visualization from a dashboard, clicking through to opportunities and different accounts Instructions of what it takes to make this integration happen using Salesforce Canvas and Tableau Sparkler Tips on where it gets tricky and what to avoid You may also be interested in our webinar recording to Learn how to Use Tableau to Get to the Gold Hidden in Salesforce. It shows how to use buried leading indicators to help your sales team make better time prioritizations and your execs to make better sales strategy decisions. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Salesforce PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. Michael Weinhauer heads up the Tableau Practice at Senturus. Michael comes to us from Oracle, IBM and SAP, where he spent over 20 years in different roles acquiring a wealth of hands-on, practical BI and big data experience. Michael’s team is also responsible for the development of the Senturus Analytics Connector for Tableau, which lets Tableau use Cognos or MicroStrategy as a data source. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Accessing Salesforce Data Use Salesforce integrated reporting (no Tableau) Manually extract data from Salesforce into flat files, pull into Tableau Utilize Tableau’s direct connections to Salesforce cloud Connect Tableau to a replica database of Salesforce data that you control Connect Tableau to an integrated database that you control Drill from a Tableau dashboard directly into the relevant Salesforce screen Configure a Tableau URL action that combines your Salesforce domain with the relevant Salesforce record ID Technique Capabilities Matrix What If You Want Both? Enter Sparkler! Analytics in the flow of the business process, at the point of impact! Why Sparkler? Security Context Top Level Sales View – Opportunities Dashboard Accounts Dashboard Opportunities Dashboard Demo What Is Tableau Sparkler? Canvas is a Force.com framework for integrating 3^rd party applications into the Salesforce platform Sparkler is a Tableau created and supported Java adapter that enables embedded dashboards via Canvas Free download from Tableau Includes Sparkler adapter Sample Tableau workbooks Sample Visualforce pages Tableau Sparkler Architecture Do I Need Tableau Sparkler? IF you use SAML authentication, AND both Tableau and SFDC use the SAME SAML authentication provider, you don’t have to set up Sparkler In this case, just use the Visualforce pages and content; the applications will trust each other automatically Installation Skills Required Java CLI Keytool used to create self-signed SSL certificates Sparkler Apache Tomcat install and configuration (or other web app server) OpenSSL If creating RSA keys for Tableau Salesforce administration/Visualforce application configuration Tableau Desktop Tableau Server configuration and administration Linux Install Components Java Sparkler is a Java application Used to create self-signed SSL certificates Apache Tomcat Open source application server You can use any application server Sparkler (Salesforce Canvas) Runs as a Java application within Tomcat OpenSSL Used to create RSA keys for Tableau Enable SSL on Tomcat Get/create certificate using Java keytool utility Warning: do not COPY text, it will fail! Critical: CN MUST MATCH fully qualified machine name g. request URL=https://tableau.mycompany.com CN=tableau.mycompany.com Enable SSL in configuration (conf\server.xml) Uncomment SSL section, set ports, location of keystore and keystore password Tomcat Self-Signed SSL Certificate Test Tomcat SSL Enable SSL on Tableau Server Get/create Certificate using openSSL If creating self-signed, refer to this guide Add certificate to Java keystore Install certificate Enable SSL in Tableau Server configuration Use Configure External SSL on Tableau Server help Tableau Self-Signed SSL Certificate Configure SSL in Tableau Must be done via TABADMIN (don’t edit text file)! “tabadmin set wgserver.trusted_hosts “MWEINHAUER, localhost”” Test Tableau SSL Configure Tableau Workbooks Included with download from Tableau Accounts Opportunities Account Dashboard Fix data fields Other tweaks Publish Tableau Workbooks to Server/Online Create extract Set refresh schedule Tableau Sparkler Architecture Deploy Sparkler on Tomcat Copy .war file into Tomcat webapp directory Tomcat will see the file and automatically deploy the application using the name of the file Configure Sparkler (sparkler.xml Debug level Sparkler status page Test Sparkler Adapter Salesforce Configuration Create Visualforce connected app in Salesforce Create Visualforce pages and/or use provided samples Setup > App Setup > Develop > Visualforce Pages Create Visualforce pages or use provided samples Create Tab pages (Tabs contain Visualforce pages) Setup > App Setup > Create > Tabs >Visualforce Tabs Create page layouts embedding content Clone existing pages and modify Setup > App Setup > Customize > %PAGENAME% > Page Layouts Create page layouts embedding content Visualforce pages section – drag and drop into layout Create page layouts embedding content Assign to role(s) Challenges/Caveats Clustered environments Auth providers - SAML/Online/Trusted Tickets Proxies/VPN Needed for remote access to Tableau Mapping Tableau/SFDC users Certificates Canvas apps must be both secure and trusted Any browser warnings will result in failure to render Visualforce pages Parameters Customizing Tableau content Fields must be mapped correctly Linux Support Limited to Tableau and Sparkler Adapter Limited knowledge of Sparkler by support team Won’t help with routing, network, firewalls, load balancing Won’t help with Java, app server or browser Won’t help with Salesforce Summary There are many ways to access Salesforce data from Tableau, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Tableau Sparkler enables leveraging the power of Tableau visualizations directly in Salesforce, providing analytics within the flow of the business process, at the point of impact! Using Tableau with a combined data source allows organization to truly unlock the power of both applications! Installation of Sparkler is not straightforward or easy, but the benefits are significant!	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos Analytics Release 7+ Authoring Improvements Demos of New and Reintroduced Features For report writers, it was hard not to be bummed by the first several releases of Cognos Analytics. Some of the go-to features and functionality that we relied on in previous generations of Cognos reports seemed to either go away, or change unexpectedly. For instance, in R5 there were issues with synchronized drill-down (behavior changed). Bookmarks, Tables of Content and Report References just didn’t work the way we had hoped. Our hopes have been restored starting in Release 7. It’s time to get fired up again about using Cognos to build reports! In this webinar recording, we share all our cool reporting discoveries along with tips and demos. We cover How to use these newly refreshed features to add interactivity to your reports with OLAP data. Simple techniques for creating briefing book-style reports based on existing reports using report references and tables of contents (really cool!). How to use the report pages framework to combine various presentations of data into a single report, complete with hyperlinked tables of contents and bookmarks. Tips to increase efficiency in report building. You may also be interested in viewing our Cognos Analytics Release 8 Enhancements webinar recording, which focuses on time saving efficiencies and making visualizations easier to understand. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Albert is the Vice President of Learning Solutions at Senturus. He has more than 17 years of experience in business intelligence education and technical training. In addition to founding and running the Senturus training division, Albert also serves in various roles in the company including senior consultant and solutions architect. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos. Albert is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. PRESENTATION OUTLINE The IBM Cognos Analytics Rapid Releases – History The IBM Cognos Analytics Rapid Releases - Future March 2018: R10 – significant enhancements June 2018: R11 – major enhancements Demo #1: Synchronized OLAP Behavior is Back by Default Demo #2: Authoring Productivity Hints: Explore Data, Save Tim and Combine Reports Demo #3: Briefing Book Reports with Enhanced Navigation: Using Table of Contents and Bookmarks The IBM Cognos Author – The Path Forward Keep building skills Invest in training – Cognos 10 skills and content (Report Studio and Workspace Advanced) will not become obsolete Check out what’s new V11 New Features training Experienced Authors training – training to transition Senturus Resources YouTube Take advantage of new features Data modules and dashboarding Want a quick overview of the entire new environment?	Tips & Tricks
Tips for Installing Cognos Analytics Configuring and Installing the Server We review the latest steps for installing and upgrading your Cognos environment. Our Cognos installation and upgrade expert, Todd Schuman, describes the installation and configuration steps on the server side of Cognos Analytics. Among the highlights: Install options Gateway and IIS setup Database drivers Release upgrade strategy Schedule migration tips Learn more about Cognos Analytics from the IBM product team who is responsible for v11 updates in this webinar recording, Cognos Analytics Release 8 Enhancements. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Analytics RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, Program or Project Managers PRESENTER Todd Schuman Practice Lead – Installations, Upgrades and Performance Tuning Senturus Todd has over 16 years of business analytics experience across multiple industries. Todd also regularly connects with the IBM product development team and has been in the forefront of the Cognos Analytics upgrade and installation process since it debuted in late 2015. Plus he presented, Considerations When Upgrading to IBM Cognos Analytics, alongside IBM product managers at the 2016 World of Watson conference. You might also be interested in reading Todd's blog Windows vs Linux: What’s Best with Cognos Analytics? in which he discusses the pros and cons of each to help you assess the best fit for your organization. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Installation options Cognos Analytics – server software Cognos tools – lifecycle manager Easy vs custom First install vs connect and install Selecting components Content repository Application services Optional? gateway Samples Multi server environments Adding Servers Need at least one running content repository Namespace Need an account with system admin rights Need content manager URI Gateway/webserver configuration IIS steps Stay on top of documentation – frequent changes ARR 3.0 Application request routing URL rewrite App pools MIME types Rewrite rules Server farms SSO ISS cheat code Automate everything with a command line, batch file! Plug in: IIS website name (Default) App pool name (ICAPool) Alias (ibmcognos) Install path Dispatcher list (0-X) Enable SSO Web farm name Updated frequently – 1.9.18 most recent Apache As of 11.0.5+ Included as part of install gateway_component_install_location/cgi-bin/templates Database drivers JDBC drivers – must have fro Cognos Analytics [install Dir]\drivers and dashboard Data modules require JDBC Install DB software on servers that require database access App tier/dispatchers Content repository SQL native client Oracle client JDBC – SQL Server JDBC – Oracle Releases upgrade strategy Preserve custom folders New releases overwrite all folders Always backup before [Install Dir]\analytics\configuration\preserve – preserve.txt # specify files or folders to preserve – [folder name] and [folder name]\image.jpg Preserve Images/logos JS files WAR files Certs Installing releases On top installation Backup/archive content store before Export Cognos configuration to external location Check supported software and prerequisites Download and install new samples Schedule migration tips Prevent schedules from running Batch, delivery, job services Separate Enabled/Disabled Schedules Most schedules default to priority 3 Find a priority number with nothing set to it (#1 or #5) Filter on all enabled schedules Select all and set priority to number from step #2 Disable all schedules Schedule migration You can now turn batch, job, delivery services back on to test capabilities without accidently sending emails When you are ready to go-live, filter on the priority you used to isolate, select all and enable the schedules to restore back to current production	Tips & Tricks
Advanced Analytics in Tableau: Use the Force! Built-In Functions and 3rd Party Tools for Deeper Data Insights Tableau users have become data Jedi masters, pushing beyond BI into advanced analytics. Not only can advanced analytics find insights more quickly, but when used in the right manner they can also reveal the "why" behind past performance or behavior. Tableau includes built-in capabilities for performing straight forward advanced analytics such as clustering and forecasting. For more complex analytics, Tableau allows for easy integration with data science tools like Python and R. When combined with the statistical horsepower of these third-party tools, Tableau’s visualizations allow analysts to awaken the Force within and conduct deep analysis. In this recorded webinar, you’ll learn the pros and cons and hear real use case studies of doing advanced analytics in Tableau using various methods including Tableau’s built-in capabilities Tableau’s integration with Python and R Stand-alone analytical programming languages Python and R Enterprise software platforms such as Alteryx You may also be interested in reading these related blogs Get instructions to help you install, configure and start a R server to allow Tableau integration See a matrix that includes functionality ratings and discussion on the options for performing advanced analytics in Tableau TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau PRESENTER Arik T. Killion Advanced Analytics Architect Senturus, Inc. Arik has 16-years of experience in advanced and predictive analytics. Before joining Senturus, Arik was a consultant working at IBM as a data scientist/ technical professional for the North American Analytics Channel Development Team, Prior to IBM, Arik was the director of analytics at a large national marketing agency. Arik has developed deep experience using a variety of methodologies from simple quantitative statistics to predictive modeling techniques and text/sentiment analysis to produce actionable insights, guide strategic management decisions and acquire meaningful business intelligence. He has created solutions for clients such as Chrysler Group, Kraft Foods, Allergan, Lowe’s, Verizon Wireless, JD Power, Nielsen Ratings Group, Sony Entertainment and many others. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Advanced Analytics Options within Tableau The Analytics Maturity Curve Tableau’s Built-In Analytics Using 3rd Party Analytics with Tableau – integrated and stand-alone architecture Open Source Analytic Programming Languages R Users primarily have been from academia and research, but is expanding into the enterprise Steep learning curve, but quite user friendly and easy to move into more advanced things once this is achieved Many packages available to perform various advanced analytics tests and models Most common IDE is RStudio Python Users primarily have been programmers crossing over into advanced data analysis Gradual learning curve due to code readability and simplicity Came a little later to the analytics game, but has many libraries available that are comparable in R Various IDEs available, but most common for data science work is Spyder or Rodeo Tableau Integration with R & Python Requires a server to handle and process requests coming from Tableau: R uses Rserve and Python uses TabPy Configuration on Tableau is as easy as telling it where the server is and what port address – found under Help > Settings Both server apps can run on a local machine for personal use or in a multi-user environment on an actual server The Rserve server for R for can only accommodate a single user when it is being run on Windows OS Built-In Analytics: Clustering Demo Clustering with Tableau From Built-In Analytics to Advanced Forecasting in R: Time Series Demo Demand Forecast – Built-In Function Demand Forecast Using R – Monthly Seasonality Demand Forecast Using R – with Holiday Variable A/B Marketing Test Models: Using Alteryx A/B Test for Offer Response Evaluating Options for Using Advanced Analytics with Tableau The (Functionality) Matrix Benefits of Using Advanced Analytics Greater insights and visualization capability More powerful clustering and forecasting capabilities over the built-in functions Allows the analytics to find insights that may not be readily apparent Flexibility to use any available analytic applications, such as: Extracting sentiment from text Outlier & anomaly detection Geocoding & spatial analytics Identify & measure risk Prediction models for attrition or conversion Association & sequence analysis Optimize & prioritize Root-cause analysis	Business Strategy
Cognos Analytics November 2017 Enhancements 11.0.8 Demos and Q&A with IBM Product Team Release 11.0.8 focuses on time saving efficiencies and making visualizations easier to understand. Plus, it includes many features in response to user requests for enhancements (RFE). In this webinar recording, Nicolas Leduc from the IBM product team demonstrates and discusses the November 2017 release. Learn how R8 allows for: Faster and more precise dashboard and report creation, including the addition of latitude and longitude layer in reporting Customization, such as uploading custom images Faster data preparation with capabilities such as faster data set creation Better visibility and control of the BI and analytics environment Easy tracking of dashboard use with support for auditing You may also be interested in these webinar recordings about Cognos Analytics Configuring and installing the server in Tips for Installing Cognos Analytics Reporting discoveries, tips and demos in Cognos Analytics Release 7+ Authoring Improvements TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Nicolas Leduc IBM Cognos Analytics Offering Management Nic is part of the Product Management team for IBM Cognos Analytics. His main responsibilities are focused around dashboarding and mobile capabilities. PRESENTATION OUTLINE PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview of IBM Cognos Analytics Releases Continuous delivery for on premise and on the Cloud Contains defect fixes and enhancements Installs on top, it preserves your settings and configuration R3 – July 2016 Dashboard calculations and filters Multiple packages in reporting Interactivity in modeling UI R4 – September 2016 Dashboard conditional highlighting Refresh timer for widgets Portal theming and extensibility Storytelling R5 – November 2016 FM packages in dashboards Mapping and new visualizations Infographics and nav model Embed and share content Portal customizations R6 – March 2017 OLAP support in Dashboards Dashboard widget connectivity Mapping enhancements Storytelling enhancements Shortcuts and report views R7 – August 2017 New UI for portal, dashboard and modules Filter enhancements in dashboards and reporting Additional visualizations New logging framework R8 – November 2017 Default Run As Ambiguous connections for dashboards and modules Image library in reporting Latitude/longitude support in reports Kiosk mode in storytelling Highlights – R8 Make the old new Default run action per report Access to my schedules and activities Ambiguous data source connections and sign-ons support in dashboards and modules Ability to output a report as XML Auditing of dashboards and stories Easier & easier to use Design mode in data set editor Make it your own Image library extension Communicate findings through storytelling Apply selection highlights on timeline Kiosk mode for storytelling - autoplay + loop See things clearly with viz enhancements Latitude/longitude support in reporting Closed 10 RFEs (Requests for Enhancements) Content and Administration Default run action per report Auditing of dashboards and stories Monitor my schedules and activities Reporting Ability to save and output a report as XML format Latitude/longitude support Design mode in data set editor Access to the image library Dashboarding Support for ambiguous connections Increased cap on data points Tables and crosstabs: 10K Maps: 30K Widget title is consistent across all vizzes Usability improvements Change viz icon now shows the currently selected viz Data point exclusions now stack and are tracked independently Auditing of dashboard use User, asset name, source names, execution time New audit sample report Audit example Storytelling Apply selection highlights on timeline Kiosk mode for storytelling - autoplay + loop Modeling Modeling diagram improvements Ambiguous connections support New Data Server Technology Amazon Athena Spark SQL Thrift Server Azure SQL Data Warehouse MongoDB BI Connector 2.2 Useful Links Main Cognos Analytics page + Free Trial http://www.ibm.biz/cognosanalytics Community https://www.ibm.com/communities/analytics/cognos-analytics/ Documentation http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.0.0/ Upgrade Central https://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/cognos/customercenter/upgrade.html Request for Enhancements (RFE) https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/	Features
Aero Precision Creates Tableau Vizzes Against Live Cognos Data Using the Senturus Analytics Connector Senturus client Aero Precision gave a before-and-after look at how the Senturus Analytics Connector radically improved its supply chain OEM performance reporting. Aero Precision account managers no longer spend painful hours scanning static rows and columns of data each month only to deliver incomplete reports. They now automatically generate interactive, at-a-glance Tableau dashboard reports that include critical markers and historical trending they could not previously report on. Watch the demo of how the Analytics Connector enabled Aero Precision to tie Tableau into the secure, governed data already existing in its enterprise BI platform. Aero Precision now benefits from the best of Tableau and the best of Cognos: accurate numbers, self-service visualizations, standardized and interactive reporting, secure data, plus its manual reporting processes have disappeared. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos, Tableau, Senturus Analytics Connector RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Tableau users PRESENTERS David Clausen Business Intelligence Architect Aero Precision Industries Dave Clausen is a Business Intelligence Architect for Aero Precision Industries. With more than four decades as a technologist specializing in application integration and development, Dave has worked with CEOs and executives in developing analytical software solutions designed to meet corporate reporting requirements. With Dave’s 10 years of Cognos design experience, he has implemented a robust BI platform at Aero Precision. Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. Michael Weinhauer heads up the Tableau Practice at Senturus. Michael comes to us from Oracle, IBM and SAP, where he spent over 20 years in different roles acquiring a wealth of hands-on, practical BI and big data experience. Michael’s team is also responsible for the development of the Senturus Analytics Connector. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview of the Senturus Analytics Connector Huge value in existing BI models Organizations have invested heavily in existing models that provide governed, secure, business-friendly, performant results Tableau users circumvent them Using BI tools as ETL and/or recreating models in Tableau’s data prep pane wastes time and compromises integrity Why you shouldn’t (re)-create metadata Time consuming Compromises data integrity Compromises data security Creates data silos The solution? The Senturus Analytics Connector Tableau users can connect directly to the BI modeling layer, giving them instant access to high quality data Instant access to quality data sets Don’t sacrifice integrity for agility Benefits of the Senturus Analytics Connector Faster, more accurate reporting Reduces change management Trust in the data Improves security Superior Tableau performance What’s new MicroStrategy connectivity TM1 connectivity Local cache for metadata – improves performance Support for Cognos 10.2.0 and 11.0.6 Support for multiple dispatchers and fail over by specifying multiple dispatcher URLs in dataSoruces.xml. 32 bit ODBC driver on Windows 64 bit OS Automatically install documentation with Connector DSN modification via Windows ODBC administrator Improved troubleshooting via new batch script (diagnosis.bat) Configuration GUI Simplified installation process for Tableau Server – no post-installation file copying required Support silent installation Support IIS/Windows authentication Increased the length limit of character data types, from 254 to 8000 for char, from 4000 to 32765 for varchar, 127 to 4000 for nchar, and from 2000 to 16383 for nvarchar. Support sort on min/max value of PowerCube and Dynamic Cube levels. Support Top N in filter Support for SiteMinder SSO Support for custom joins between query subjects (Cognos only, i joins only) Support for TM1 cubes! Aero Precision – Improving Supply Chain Visibility Past state Static Cognos report used for monthly/quarterly reviews Not visual Not interactive No trending Manual creation effort for each account manager (3 hours/month) Using Excel extracts was not an option Excellent OEM relationships cornerstone of Aero Precision’s business Current State Use the Analytics Connector to create data source Worked around complex Cognos model challenges Create Tableau visualizations directly against curated data Automated, consistent and interactive Future state Leverage Analytics Connector against other packages to greatly improve efficiency and effectiveness of other business areas Migrate scorecards and KPIs to Tableau to improve sales, business development, customer service, warehousing and shipping Business value Improved communications with OEM and vendor managers Senior management can see trends and anomalies and can respond more quickly Saves 80 hours of time PER MONTH across team, which equals $100,000 annual savings Technical benefits With the use of a flattened Framework model consisting of three data sources, we designed and implemented the ideal solution for management With the Analytics Connector in place, creating each monthly supply chain report is effortless and automatic Demonstration	Features
Securing and Filtering Data by User in Tableau A Primer with How-To Instructions Similar to parental controls on your TV, Tableau provides ways to restrict, or filter, what data appears in visualizations based on the audience. However, the mechanisms for restricting access are not obvious and Tableau’s default is to make all the data in a report visible to everyone looking at it. In this whitepaper, we discuss four common methods that can be used in Tableau for securing and filtering data by user, along with associated requirements and step-by-step instructions for each.	Tips & Tricks
Is OLAP Dead? Can Next Gen Tools Take Over? Poor ol’ OLAP. Like the snazzy flip phone when the iPhone was introduced, OLAP is being passed over for what’s sexy and new. Next generation visualization tools and fast technologies like columnar and in-memory databases are causing people to question the relevancy of the OLAP cube. But is OLAP really dead? This webinar recording explores various facets of OLAP to answer this question and discusses real-life client scenarios for a pragmatic perspective. We look at Traditional OLAP and its role and limitations in modern BI The pros and cons of the big three current OLAP technologies — IBM Cognos Dynamic and Transformer Cubes and Microsoft SSAS – as well as TMI and Hyperion Essbase OLAP vs new generation visualization tools such as Tableau, Qlik, Cognos Analytics (v11) OLAP vs columnar and in-memory databases Vendors and open source solutions that are creating new scalable OLAP for big data TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Transformer, IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes, Microsoft SSAS, TM1, Hyperion Essbase, Tableau, Qlik, Cognos Analytics (v11) PRESENTER Pedro Ining Senior BI Architect Senturus, Inc. Pedro Ining joined Senturus in 2010 and brings over 20 years of BI and data warehousing experience to his role. Before joining Senturus, Pedro held technical roles in data and BI architecture as well as leadership management roles in companies such as Visa Inc., LeapFrog Toys, Chevron Inc., AT&T and the University of California at Berkeley. Pedro has been instrumental in implementing data warehousing systems from scratch and has experienced the evolution of the BI industry through several iterations of BI products like Cognos, MicroStrategy and Tableau. PRESENTATION OUTLINE OLAP, OLTP, DWH Defined OLTP – Online Transaction Processing Core data repository of data flowing into business systems (ERP) Optimized for quick data entry and relational integrity Not optimized for reporting and data analysis Typically very complex schema design with many normalized tables that facilitate high volume throughput of transactions DWH - Data Warehouse Central repository of multiple ERP systems or other data sources The data warehouse (DWH) is a database system separate from the OLTP Architected in an optimized fashion for easy reporting and analysis Organizes and hides the complexity of the OLTP systems OLAP – Online Analytical Processing Edgar F. Codd father of relational database coined the term OLAP, Arbor/Essbase went on to market the term The data warehouse plus a central repository that defines the relationships between tables (facts/dimensions) and stores complex business rules/calculations (e.g. YTD, YTD LY, Margins, Inventory Turns, etc.) Allows for high performing interactive analysis Generally referred to as cubes for efficient, timely and accurate reporting Modern BI Architecture Typical Best Practices BI System with OLAP Layer Why OLAP Historically, size and speed limitations of databases limited query performance Central repository for relationships and complex business calculations Buffers the business user from complex native database structures and sensitive calculation logic Cubes generally have higher performance vs. relational queries Fast, simple, drag-and-drop ad-hoc analysis and reporting Self-service with guardrails Visual exploration Multi-dimensional view of data Drill-down on hierarchies Many business users love the interface and are used to querying by governed data dimensions and measures that are prebuilt for them OLAP Familiar Interfaces Why Not OLAP Massive increase in data volumes Latency – large cubes increase cube build times, impacting SLAs Large cardinality dimensions and many dimensions Real-time updates are difficult if not impossible Movement of data into another proprietary structure Upfront investment in cube modeling Measures, dimensions, hierarchies all defined upfront Not a flexible agile BI environment New cube builds and designs are required as the business changes Continued developer maintenance and administration CPU power, memory and powerful servers are very affordable – do we still need the OLAP layer The Current State of OLAP Architecture Traditional OLAP Architectures MOLAP – Multi Dimension OLAP Most traditional OLAP design Data is stored in the multidimensional cube Data is moved from the relational database to the cube Data is pre-aggregated and allows for very fast analysis ROLAP – Relational OLAP Modeled on top of the relational star schema database Data storage is kept in the relational database Utilizes SQL to query the DB in an OLAP manner May use proprietary in-memory caching techniques HOLAP – Hybrid OLAP Combines the advantages of MOLAP and ROLAP Stores summary data in MOLAP structure Can drill-through to relational database for more detail Top OLAP Products For Dimensional BI Uses IBM Cognos Transformer Cubes (MOLAP) Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Dimensional and Tabular (MOLAP/HOLAP) IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes (ROLAP) MicroStrategy (ROLAP) Typically For Finance Use IBM Cognos TM1 (writeback) Hyperion Essbase (writeback) Cognos PowerPlay (Transformer) Advantages Performance (vs. relational) Easy to use and develop ETL-like capabilities (limited) – i.e. no star schema needed Can act as meta-data layer Great relative-time calc capabilities (YTD, Rolling 13 months) Less intensive hardware requirement Challenges Significant cube size limitations Limited categories per dimension level Cube builds take time and cubes exist as separate files (.mdc) Lacks capabilities now available in other OLAP tools Row-level (dimensional) security is very challenging to maintain Unclear product support going forward Only works in the IBM Cognos stack IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes was added to the Cognos 10.2 BI suite as an in-memory relational OLAP product that could address the challenge of high-performance/low latency interactive analysis against terabytes of data The last significant update to Dynamic Cubes occurred in version 10.2.2; IBM has since focused most development efforts on the Cognos Analytics v11 release No current plans for IBM to enhance the Dynamic Cubes product Advantages Scalability – limited only by database and RAM cache sizing Handles large dimensions well, allows dimension attributes Built-in relative time calcs on par with Transformer MDX scripting – can set up just about any type of calculation Dynamic security – can set up dimensional filtering so that all security is derived from SQL tables Aggregate aware – can dynamically select database aggregate tables or in-memory aggregates for fast results Challenges Requires star or snowflake schema as data source Cache needs to be warmed for decent performance Requires 64-bit application server and may require significant memory footprint for large cubes (e.g. 64-128GB) Report authors require dimensional reporting experience CAN ONLY BE USED BY COGNOS BI STACK (Senturus has developed the Analytics Connector to access Tableau) Dynamic Cubes in Play Large Health Insurance Provider Deployed Dynamic Cubes Finance project used IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes to replace legacy Cognos Transformer cubes, went into production Q1 2017 Large number of reports were converted or created on top of the Dynamic Cube to provide a guided set of highly formatted reports that allowed drill-down Many complex business calculations were developed and stored in the cube, report writers can leverage a central set of calculations without having to write them in the report Major American Clothing Company Re-architected an older Oracle based data warehouse to a SQL Server User community already very familiar with cube technologies Wanted to use SSAS OLAP cubes for their advanced relative time calcs Ability to create complicated advanced inventory calcs and on the fly currency conversions Ability to set defaults for certain dimensions such as currency type SSAS fits into their corporate strategy for multiple tools SSAS Tabular was chosen for performance and flexibility Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) Tabular Model Introduced in SQL Server 2012 Model paradigm = tables and relationships Data stored in-memory Uses a different engine (xVelocity) and uses a columnar DB structure Combines the functionality of MOLAP cubes and relational DBs Advantages Simpler data development model, faster to develop Generally much faster than MOLAP DAX learning curve is easier than MDX Fast COUNT DISTINCT queries Challenges Dependent on server memory footprint (DirectQuery mode available in 2016) Some multidimensional features are not available (e.g. many-to-many) Complex calculations may be difficult to implement Large datasets New Generation Visualization Tools Over the last few years desktop visualization tools have sprouted on desktops throughout the enterprise IBM Cognos Analytics v11 allows similar functionality over a web interface Rich visualizations are easily created by business users without the help of IT Decentralized model of data governance No waiting on developers to create next iteration of an OLAP cube Allows users to integrate data on the desktop/web Creation of desktop micromodels (Tableau data extracts) Can use OLAP data sources, but works best with non-OLAP sources Can begin to have performance issues when creating large data extracts or going against large data sources Tableau Data Extracts TDE is a compressed snapshot of data stored on disk and loaded into memory as required Data engine can be described as its own “in-memory analytic database” Stores data in a columnar store structure Dramatically reduces the input/output time required to access and aggregate values New in upcoming 10.5 – hyper data engine Reasons to Use TDEs Better performance vs. connected data sources Reduced load on connected data sources Portability – can be bundled in a packaged workbook for easy sharing Pre-aggregation – option to aggregate data for visible dimensions “aggregated extract” Tableau and Cubes Leverages One version of the truth Complex calcs that are already created in the cube Billions of rows response time across pre-aggregated calcs - faster Tableau will work if you stay within the structure of the cube Functional differences No cube extracts (10.4 supports BW cubes) No user-defined hierarchies Aggregations controlled in the cube Supports Oracle Hyperion Essbase Teradata OLAP Microsoft Analysis Services (SSAS) SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Microsoft PowerPivot Analytical Views in SAP Hana IBM Cognos Analytics v11 Cognos Analytics v11 architecture adds data modules which represent a major shift in the central metadata layer (framework) paradigm Data modules allows end users to quickly add new data sources and model new data subjects without having to wait for DWH changes Uploaded files and data sources can be stored as ‘snapshots’ on the server’s file system using the Apache Parquet columnar file storage mechanism Allows for fast query response times Fast Columnar and In-Memory Databases Columnar Databases Traditional databases store data by each row Columnar databases store data in columns rather than in rows This storage architecture can result in high-performing queries especially aggregation queries Example DBS: Sybase IQ IBM DB2 with BLU Acceleration A capability built into DB2, not a separate install component Focus on analytics Dynamic in-memory, does not require all data to be in-memory Columnar and traditional row-based tables SQL Server 2014/16 Columnar store indexes In-memory OLTP tables But If Remove the OLAP Layer Raw queries will be fast, but what about the semantic layer? You could use relational models with some level of metadata and calculations But complex calcs, dimensions, drill downs would be missing The Current State of OLAP Architecture Big OLAP on Big Data Several new vendors and open source solutions are creating new scalable OLAP on Hadoop products: Kyvos Insights, At Scale, Apache Kylin, Druid Slow performing queries on big data implementations are driving new OLAP technologies Classic OLAP technologies on big data necessitated movement of Hadoop data into traditional relational data warehouses further increasing latency New OLAP technologies are architected to be part of the Hadoop stack and allow queries across Hadoop with no additional movement of data Summary Is OLAP Dead? The concepts of OLAP – dimensions, measures, hierarchies, drill-down are still alive and well but the technology that surfaces those concepts are changing Business users will always want a high performing BI layer that is easy to use and allows for interactive BI Some will want a central repository that contains all the relationships, hierarchies and complex business rules already developed Other users like data scientists and advanced business analysts will want a more agile free form solution with have high performance	Business Strategy
Unlocking Salesforce and Marketo Value with Tableau Five Pragmatic, Quick-Win Techniques Do you ever have the feeling that you are right on the edge of a breakthrough, but just can’t crack it? Where you’ve done everything right, but that last hurdle feels like a wall? That’s the feeling we hear from marketing and sales executives who have invested in Marketo, Salesforce and Tableau. They know Tableau has the power to provide unique insights, that Marketo and Salesforce are teeming with valuable customer behavior data and that the combination should result in breakthrough marketing and accelerated revenue growth, but the promise remains unfulfilled. In this webinar recording Greg Herrera, Senturus President, guides you through a roadmap of pragmatic, quick-win tips and tricks you can use to achieve the elusive breakthrough. He prescribes a series of self-funding projects you can implement to get the biggest bang for the buck, including: Leveraging the existing Tableau connectors for Salesforce and Marketo Adding the ability to measure pipeline growth over time Adding visibility into the components of pipeline growth (new deals, changes in deal size, changes in deal stage) Leveraging the existing integration between Marketo and Salesforce to improve analysis by combining marketing data with sales pipeline data Combining Marketo and Salesforce data into a single database that is optimized for Tableau consumption Adding the ability to measure conversion rates and lead velocity across the entire demand funnel – including both the Marketo and Salesforce portions of the funnel Helping your sales team prioritize leads by enhancing Salesforce with behavior and scoring data Organizing your marketing and sales data for advanced analytics TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Salesforce, Marketo PRESENTER Greg Herrera  President and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. Greg Herrera co-founded Senturus in 2001. He has been helping clients implement Salesforce analytic solutions since 2003, Marketo analytics since 2011 and Tableau visualizations and dashboards since 2014. PRESENTATION OUTLINE The Demand Funnel Prospect Engaged Marketing qualifiied Sales accepted Sales qualified Sales cycle Closed on Questions to be Answered During the Webinar Which of our marketing programs are truly effective? Are there early indicators that tell us which engaged prospects are likely to become high-value customers? How do we increase our conversion rates with them? BTW, what are our conversion rates with them? Which programs are great at generating new leads? Which programs are great at progressing deals? Are we getting better? Trend of lead velocity? Trend of conversion rates? What should we stop doing? Techniques for Unlocking the Value Integrate Tableau content into Salesforce screens Utilize Tableau’s direct connections to Salesforce cloud and Marketo cloud Connect Tableau to a replica database of Salesforce data that you control Connect Tableau to a replica database of Marketo data that you control Connect Tableau to a database with integrated Salesforce and Marketo data that you control Technique Capabilities Matrix Drill from Tableau to SFDC Screen Display Tableau Dashboards in SFDC (with context) Basic Visualizations Blended Data Pipeline Growth Trend Components of Pipeline Growth Marketo-Sourced Behavior Score Growth Trend Marketo-Sourced Updates to SFDC Campaign Members SFDC Pipeline Analysis SFDC Marketing and Pipeline Activity Marketo Activity Combined Marketo and SFDC Activity Velocity Through Entire Funnel Conversion Rates Through Entire Funnel Marketing Effectiveness Full History of all Marketing and Sales Engagements Advanced Analytics Integrate Tableau Content into SFDC Screens Enable fact-based decisions across the sales team Leverages existing infrastructure Low cost Very quick win Drill from a Tableau dashboard directly into the relevant Salesforce screen How to: configure a Tableau URL action that combines your Salesforce domain with the relevant Salesforce record ID Distribute Tableau Content via SFDC Screens Use Tableau Canvas to embed context-aware Tableau visualizations into your Salesforce screens Utilize Tableau’s Direct Connections to Salesforce Cloud and Marketo Cloud Quick win – immediate access to the cloud data Many basic visualizations are possible SFDC and Marketo data can be blended in Tableau Limitations are the storyline Tableau Direct Connections to Cloud Data – Limitations Marketo Limitations Marketo purges key activity history data after 90 days Visits web page, click link, change data value, change score Each type of activity history is in a separate table (60) and requires a separate Tableau data source Salesforce Limitations All or nothing, downloads entire history table even if you only need to look at data for yesterday Limitations of both Marketo: 75 minutes to read 1M records SFDC: 16 minutes to read 500k records Tableau Server can perform data refresh on a nightly schedule Connect Tableau to a Replica Database of Salesforce Data that You Control Quick win – setup within 1-2 days Advanced visualizations very achievable Derived data becomes available to Tableau Derived time stamps become available to Tableau Can leverage the existing integration between Marketo and SFDC, Marketo data synced to SFDC can be surfaced in Tableau (e.g., behavior score, funnel stage) Time Stamps are Key to Trending Tableau is outstanding at visualizing trends Time stamps in your data records that capture the date and time that a metric changed are the foundation Tableau uses for trending Having a database replica enables analysts to derive time-stamped transactions that are not maintained as such in SFDC, local databases enable insights not available in SFDC cloud reporting Example: Pipeline Growth Trend SFDC does not have a table that provides time-stamped records of pipeline growth SFDC does have tables from which time-stamped records of pipeline growth can be derived Tableau provides unique insights when visualizing these derived records Leverage the Existing Integration Between Marketo and SFDC Instant win – it already exists Just click a “Track History” setting in SFDC Example: Surface Marketo Behavior Score Trend via SFDC Automated program in Marketo calculates behavior scores for each digital interaction History tracking functionality in SFDC provides time-stamped history of each change in Behavior Score Tableau visualizes it Connect Tableau to a Replica Database of Marketo Data that You Control Fairly quick win – setup within 1 day, initial history loads take 4+ weeks due to Marketo API limits Advanced visualizations very achievable Makes all Marketo activity history available Saves copies of records Marketo purges at 90 days Visits web page, Click link, Change Data Value, Change Score Saves copies of activity history for deleted persons Be prepared for data preparation activities Combine with SFDC replica to see full demand funnel activities Connect Tableau to an Integrated Database of Combined Marketo and SFDC Data Complete analytical power Fulfills the vision Connect Tableau to Combined Marketo and SFDC Database (II) Initial implementation phase 2-3 months Determine business rules that define conditions for each funnel stage Build funnel history based on the business rules to enable trending and predictive analysis Connect Tableau to Combined Marketo and SFDC Database (III) Populate table with demand funnel record for each lead Capture all movements of the person through the funnel Date Entered, Date Exited, Driving Engagement, etc. for each funnel stage Create calculations in Tableau for Conversion Rates of each stage, Velocity through each stage, Lead Growth Trends Connect Tableau to Combined Marketo and SFDC Database (IV) New analytical capabilities drive need for groupings that were not previously apparent Develop new analytical groupings of marketing programs/engagements G., Group by message, group by topic Summary Deliver analytics as a series of self-funding projects Deliver high-impact value, build on it, repeat Integrating Tableau content into SFDC screens delivers big bang for the buck Direct connections to cloud data provide quick wins but limited headroom Local databases expand Tableau capabilities dramatically and remove the ceiling Highest value comes from the combined database delivering all metrics Expand on data preparation capabilities when needed Get advice/build roadmap to avoid painting into corner Don’t stop at just Marketo and SFDC Customer behavior data exists in several systems including order entry and customer support	Business Strategy
Cognos Analytics Performance Tuning Tips & Tricks to Rev Performance Cognos Analytics has literally hundreds of configurations and settings options. Knowing their capabilities will ensure your Cognos environment is tuned for best performance and stability. For example, the latest release includes an Interactive Performance Assistant (IPA) to view query and rendered performance on report objects. In this webinar recording, our in-house Cognos expert and practice lead, Todd Schuman tells you how to use the IPA feature and shares lots of other tips and tricks to improve the performance of your Cognos environment. Topics covered in this high-performance webinar included Hardware and server specifics Failover and high availability High and low affinity requests Overview of services Java heap settings IIS configurations Non-Cognos related tuning You may also be interested in learning steps for installing and upgrading your Cognos environment in our Tips for Installing Cognos Analytics webinar recording. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, Cognos BI RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Todd Schuman Practice Lead - Installations, Upgrades and Performance Tuning Senturus, Inc. Todd heads up the Installation, Upgrade and Performance Tuning practice at Senturus, bringing more than 16 years of Cognos and Tableau experience to his role. Since his early days in BI working with Cognos Enterprise Planning and Cognos Impromptu to today, Todd has worked extensively on developing and designing enterprise systems and reports. In addition to managing and performing multiple architecture engagements at Senturus, Todd works closely with the IBM Cognos product development team to stay abreast the latest enhancements and changes. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Hardware and Server Specifics Use the following processor settings as a starting point and adjust them based on the use of your system Content manager – 4 CPU Dispatcher - 8 CPU Server can have multiple sockets Each socket can house a CPU CPU can have 1-48 cores Logical processors <> cores Hyper threading RAM Use the following memory settings as a starting point and adjust them based on the memory use of your system 4 GB for the base operating system and accompanying software, such as antivirus, back up and enterprise management software 4 GB for a 64-bit content manager JVM 4 GB for a 64-bit application tier JVM 1 GB for the Cognos graphics service JVM 8 GB for the query service (Dynamic Query Mode) JVM 1.5 GB for each batch/interactive report service Architecture – Distributed Environments Basic distributed environment Dedicated: Gateway Dispatchers Content manager Distributed environment with failover Active/standby content manager Both pointed to same content store First CM to start becomes active Standby always checking for active up status Will become active when primary becomes unresponsive High availability (HA) No single point of failure At least 2 of each Cognos component (gateway, dispatcher, CM) Load balancer for gateways Tuning High affinity activities Report viewer links Run again Return HTML report navigation Top page Page up Page down Bottom page Delivery options Save Save As Print Email Viewing Low affinity activities Report querying Reporting Report processing Report authoring Metadata retrieval Query validation Administrative Testing data source connections Adding objects (folders, jobs, schedules, etc.) Refreshing portal page Cognos services Running reports Batch – running in the background Jobs Schedules Emails Saved output Triggers Report – interactive, user actively involved and watching screen Peak vs non-peak 24 hour clock Defaults 7 (am) start 18 (6 pm) end Recommended Give report service priority during peak Give batch server priority during non peak Concurrent users 100:10:1 rule 100 named users 10 active Users 1 concurrent user 4000 named users = 40 concurrent users Putting it all together Affinity + Cognos service + peak/non peak Be aware Each connection is multiplied by the number of processes 16 low affinity (82) 4 high affinity (22) 20 total connections # of CPU * (2-4) = # of connections 5 GB RAM * # of connections Report status Server monitoring Virtual Servers Traditional vs virtual VM recommendations Dedicated resources Enterprise level host hardware 5-10% overhead Report Specific Tuning Data Explosion Data Queries/SQL SQL execution plan Joins/modeling Star Schema/data warehouse Indexes Summary tables Cubes (Transformer PowerCubes/Dynamic Cubes) Interactive Performance Assistance (IPA) New with R7 HTML only Enable Run option dropdown Show run options Include performance details Output Execution time (in milliseconds) Rendering time (hover) Query time (hover)	Features
Enhancing BI with Predictive Analytics Real World Applications Predictive analytics is no longer a fictional technology best suited for sci-fi movies. What was formerly only potential is now possible. But with the proliferation of technology companies selling space-age, overly complicated solutions, organizations are often challenged about where to sensibly start. It turns out that most (or all) of the data for making meaningful predictions more than likely exists in your organization. And getting to ROI is easier than you might think. In this webinar recording, you’ll take a journey into the attainable. We walk you through an actual client use case study to show how using predictive modeling saved them over $1million in their first quarter alone. And we talk about different applications for predictive analytics and what’s needed to start your own project. You may also be interested in learning how to use built-in functions and third-party tools to gain deeper insights in this Advanced Analytics in Tableau webinar recording. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Predictive Analytics PRESENTER Arik T. Killion Advanced Analytics Architect Senturus, Inc. Arik has 16-years of experience in advanced and predictive analytics. Before joining Senturus, Erik was a consultant working at IBM as a data scientist/ technical professional for the North American Analytics Channel Development Team, Prior to IBM, Arik was the director of analytics at a large national marketing agency. Arik has developed deep experience using a variety of methodologies from simple quantitative statistics to predictive modeling techniques and text/sentiment analysis to produce actionable insights, guide strategic management decisions and acquire meaningful business intelligence. He has created solutions for clients such as Chrysler Group, Kraft Foods, Allergan, Lowe’s, Verizon Wireless, JD Power, Nielsen Ratings Group, Sony Entertainment and many others. PRESENTATION OUTLINE If This Is The Future, Where’s My Jetpack? The relevancy problem with predictive analytics Advances in technology seems to have made things more difficult Marketing Case Study – The $1Million BI Column The Company Major flooring manufacturer in the U.S. $8.1 billion in revenue (2015) Distribute to ~18,000 independent retailers in North America The Problem Floor samples units were a major investment 1 factory plant to produce year round ~$3k-$4k per unit (materials, labor, shipping, setup) Placement guided by relationships with company sales personnel $12 million/year marketing line-item The Solution Compile historical sales, RFM Analysis on prior unit placement sites Compile profile data for each store Gather demographics for each store Outcome bands: Green = Exceeded margin cost of unit in 1 year for the related products Yellow = Broke even or came close Orange = Fell short Red = Didn’t even look like they tried Created predictive models for each band within 3 brands (12 models) Automated scoring of every retailer on a monthly basis with a voting mechanism to select the best outcome prediction The Outcome BI report for ordering sample unit placements Column for likely predicted margin outcome Saved $1.1million in the first quarter of use Your Jetpack! How to start Start in a problem area that will have great impact Realize you probably already have all the data you need Find a trusted adviser to help navigate Most predictive project ROIs are between 3 & 8 months (particularly in marketing) Understand systems can be automated Marketing is the tip of the iceberg Employee growth and satisfaction Accurate forecasts, demand planning, assortment planning Root cause analysis	Business Strategy
Tool Comparison: Enterprise BI vs. Self-Service Analytics Choosing the Best Tool for the Job If your organization is like most, you have multiple self-service and enterprise BI tools at your disposal. And that’s a good thing because there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all tool. By design or by nature, certain tools are better at performing certain tasks than others. How do you know which tool is the best suited for the task at hand? In this recorded webinar, our experts take you through the high-level benefits and drawbacks of these disparate platforms. We’ll share a comparison matrix we developed using our real-life experience working with both types of solutions. With it, you’ll be able to better determine which approach to take. Click here to see the original version of this webinar in which we highlight client use cases, looking at real life considerations that drive the choice of tool. [caption id="attachment_7288" align="alignnone" width="480"] Our poll shows most organizations are using numerous BI tools.[/caption] RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert is the Vice President of Learning Solutions at Senturus. He has more than 17 years of experience in business intelligence education and technical training. In addition to founding and running the Senturus training division, Albert also serves in various roles in the company including senior consultant and solutions architect. Albert has overseen the growth of the Senturus training practice from a few Cognos authoring classes to dozens of courses covering the breadth of Cognos Analytics and Tableau.	Business Strategy
Rolling Out Tableau to the Enterprise 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Beforehand Scaling Tableau beyond departmental boundaries introduces significant new challenges and risks around performance, data integrity, maintainability, security and training. Relying on Tableau for enterprise-wide reporting and analytics requires a very different approach (and mindset) than using it as a desktop analysis tool. In this webinar recording, the Tableau gurus at Senturus discuss the things they wished they had known before rolling out Tableau to the enterprise. The presentation included these topics and more: A demonstration of best practices for designing shared dashboards Which tasks to keep in Tableau and which to offload The consequences of data prep vs data blending The changing role of IT Avoiding performance issues TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTERS John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Kyle Biehle Tableau Solutions Architect Kyle has 20 years of experience in data analytics and 10 years working with Tableau. Kyle is focused on helping clients use Tableau in novel and efficient ways by helping them see and interact with their data in ways they hadn’t before. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Things that change when crossing the departmental boundary: Analyst role Skills required Audience Environmental control Training Role of IT Security/access control Source of data Data refresh Data validity Data control Updates/maintenance Single source of the truth Ten pitfalls to avoid when rolling out Tableau to the enterprise: Tableau can’t do everything – play to its strengths and offload other tasks Analysts need training to become Tableau authors – roles change when you go wide Less is more – broad use magnifies confusion and maintainability issues Data preparation is critical – just because Tableau can do it, doesn’t mean it should Tableau Server will become a dumping ground – freedom can sometimes become a curse Single source of truth still matters – data governance is king Shared environments will effect user experience – separate the sandbox from the board room You will need IT – stealth mode does not scale Monitor and control – “post and go” won’t work Stakeholder engagement is critical – “if you build it, they will come” fails	Tips & Tricks
Tableau Dashboard Design: Best Practices 10 Tips with Demonstrations The goal of good dashboard design is to provide a single actionable insight, not multiple. Achieving good dashboard design requires clarity: about your business audience; about the business function and about how the layout helps bring about insights. But it’s one thing to read about effective design theory and another to put it into practice. Working directly in Tableau, this webinar recording demonstrates Tableau design principles and best practices. We show you tangible instances of the good, the bad…and the downright ugly. After viewing this presentation, you will: Understand how aspects like text, color, font size and page placement can help…or hinder…your audience Choose better approaches for creating user interfaces Have solid understanding of what dashboards work best for your goals Know what things to (almost) never do TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Tableau Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE 10 Best Practices for Tableau Dashboard Design How to design a dashboard with a goal in mind How the overall dashboard layout impacts effectiveness How to design for best performance Which chart type work best, for specific goals How to use the three-color types effectively How to get the most impact from text How to minimize dashboard object while maximizing actionable insights When to use any of the three basic types of navigation Some things to (almost) never do The two fundamental, guiding principles, for all dashboards	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Analytics August 2017 Enhancements 11.0.7 Demos and Q&A with IBM Product Team In this webinar recording, Nic Leduc, IBM product manager joined us to discuss and demo the new features and some important enhancements in Cognos Analytics Release 7. Topics included: A cleaner, more intuitive user experience with improved navigation Updated features and better functionality for homepage, dashboards and modules Filtering enhancements across dashboards and reports New visualizations and properties in dashboards and reports Support for PowerPlay11 upgrade TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Nic Leduc IBM Cognos Analytics Offering Management Nic is part of the Product Management team for IBM Cognos Analytics. His main responsibilities are focused around dashboarding and mobile capabilities.	Features
Connecting Tableau to Cognos & Microstrategy Easily Access the Governed Data in Your Enterprise Analytics Platform Some organizations running enterprise analytics have hesitated to widely deploy Tableau – with understandable reason. Because Tableau can’t connect to the Cognos and MicroStrategy environments, Tableau users bypass the secure, governed and business friendly data that lives there. Instead, they work directly with raw source data, going through a labor-intensive process of re-remodeling data. Aside from wasting valuable time, this method compromises data integrity, security and reporting accuracy. View a show-and-tell of the Senturus Analytics Connector, our simple, elegant solution that ties Tableau to Cognos and MicroStrategy as data sources. By increasing data accuracy and eliminating time consuming redundancies in report creation, the Analytics Connector provides significant benefits to both IT and Tableau users. This demo shows how the Senturus Analytics Connector easily enables: Faster report building in Tableau Reduced change management Improved security with appropriate guardrails around data access Increased data accuracy Better overall Tableau performance TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos, Tableau, Senturus Analytics Connector, MicroStrategy RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Tableau users PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. Michael Weinhauer heads up the Tableau Practice at Senturus. Michael comes to us from Oracle, IBM and SAP, where he spent over 20 years in different roles acquiring a wealth of hands-on, practical BI and Big Data experience. Michael’s team is also responsible for the development of the Senturus Business Analytics Connector for Tableau to Cognos, which lets Tableau use Cognos as a data source. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview of the Senturus Analytics Connector Huge value in existing BI models Tableau users circumvent them Why you shouldn’t (re)-create metadata The solution? The Senturus Analytics Connector! Instant access to quality data sets Don’t sacrifice integrity for agility The Senturus Analytics Connector gives you Faster, more accurate reporting Change management reductions Trust in the data Improved security Superior Tableau performance New Senturus Analytics Connector features Local cache for Cognos package metadata – improves performance Support for Cognos 10.2.0 and 11.0.6 Support for multiple dispatchers and fail over by specifying multiple dispatcher URLs in dataSoruces.xml. 32 bit ODBC driver on Windows 64 bit OS Automatically install documentation with Connector DSN modification via Windows ODBC Administrator Improved troubleshooting via new batch script (diagnosis.bat) Configuration GUI Simplify installation process - no need to copy Cognos SDK jar and Tableau .dll post-installation Support silent installation Support IIS/Windows authentication Increased the length limit of character data types, from 254 to 8000 for char, from 4000 to 32765 fro varchar, 127 to 4000 for nchar and from 2000 to 16383 for nvarchar Support sort on min/max value of PowerCube and Dynamic Cube levels Support Top N in filter SiteMinder SSO Demonstration Summary Frequently asked questions ROI for the Senturus Analytics Connector Take a Connector test drive	Features
Choosing the Right Microsoft BI Tool for the Job Microsoft BI Past and Present The Microsoft front end tools for business analytics are rich and varied and have changed over the years, making it difficult to determine which tool is most appropriate for business scenarios. In this webinar recording we examine each of the Microsoft front end BI tools, from Power BI to Excel, SQL Server 2016, and SSRS to give you a confident grasp of the tools at your disposal. We discuss each tool’s strengths and weaknesses, understand when it’s better to use one tool rather than another, and how they integrate together to form a complete BI framework. Among the benefits discussed: What is new in SQL Server 2016, especially in SSRS (spoiler: a lot!) What is Power BI, and how it is related to the rest of the Microsoft BI framework How SQL Server 2016, generally available June 1, contributes new features towards that framework When it is appropriate to present data via Power BI vs Excel vs Reporting Services (SSRS) vs some other tool How Azure factors into Microsoft BI Microsoft's roadmap for BI TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Microsoft, Power BI, Excel, SSRS, Azure, SQL Server 2016 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Shawn Alpay BI Developer Senturus Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Gartner: A Technology Research Company Gartner’s definition of bi-modal IT 2016 Magic Quadrant places stronger focus on mode 2 Based on criteria change, Microsoft BI is now What Is BI? Microsoft’s BI Offerings, Circa 2006-2010 Microsoft’s BI Offerings, Circa 2011-2014 Microsoft’s BI Offerings, Circa 2015-2016 What is Power BI Demonstration of Power BI	Features
The New Reporting Experience in IBM Cognos Analytics Demos of Our Favorite New Features Report authoring in IBM Cognos Analytics v11 delivers a radical new user experience. Authors will be able to master this new interface – and take advantage of some cool new features – with a little training. In this webinar recording, see a series of step-by-step demos of the new reporting interface. We show you how authoring works in Cognos Analytics and how it contrasts to Cognos BI v10. We go deep on various aspects of report creation including: New vs. legacy templates Adding new report data Creating calculations New data discovery features New OLAP features TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business analytics and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. During his tenure at Senturus, Albert has served in the roles of Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education. PRESENTATION OUTLINE A brief history of report authoring with Cognos Analytics Demo #1: Our favorite new features in Cognos Analytics Demo #2: Authoring and data exploration in Cognos Analytics The IBM Cognos author – the path forward	Tips & Tricks
Leveraging the Cloud for BI Infrastructure With Focus on and Demos of Microsoft Azure During this webinar, we get beyond the buzzwords and give you a better understanding of the Cloud options for your business intelligence infrastructure. After explaining the Cloud and its pros and cons, we dive deeper into Microsoft Azure and its broad collection of cloud services. View the webinar recording to get insight into: The Cloud in general and its relationship with business analytics Types of Cloud offerings including infrastructure, platform and software Cloud vs on-premise solutions: the pros and cons and total cost of ownership (TCO) between the two Microsoft's implementation of cloud services offered under the Azure brand Demonstration of spinning up an Azure instance TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Microsoft Azure PRESENTERS Shawn Alpay BI Architect Senturus Inc. Shawn is well-versed across the entire Microsoft BI stack and its wide range of offerings, having built ETL, data warehouse, reporting and analysis solutions from the ground up. In his various development and architecture roles, he often serves as the project manager and business analyst, partnering directly with the business to gather requirements and deliver insight. Jim Pelichowski Senturus, Inc. Jim has over 25 years of experience delivering business analytics solutions for organizations of all sizes and business models. He recently developed an Azure solution for survey analytics for a start-up company in San Francisco using Tableau and Azure SQL Server. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Azure and Business Intelligence, What Does the Pairing Mean? Before what is Azure?: what is the Cloud? Types of cloud offerings Why bother with the Cloud for BI? Scalability of on-premises vs the Cloud Sounds magical, why not use the Cloud? How can I get my hands on the Cloud? Let’s talk Microsoft Azure Azure SQL database scalability Cloud vs on-prem vs hybrid example: SQL Server Azure Demo	Business Strategy
Cognos Analytics: March 2017 Enhancements 11.0.6 Demos and Q&A with IBM Product Team Cognos Analytics Release 6 went live on March 17, 2017. This webinar recording walks through the following enhancements: PORTAL: allows more flexibility to convert C10 portal pages, create report views, shortcuts and more DASHBOARD: enhanced mapping plus now supports direct access to OLAP packages REPORTING: allows access to queries from data modules in addition to the many enhancements to the interactive viewer If you’ve been holding out on upgrading, watch this recording to learn how you’ll be able to leverage all the new features and capabilities of Cognos Analytics with your existing content. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Nic Leduc IBM Cognos Analytics Offering Management Nic is part of the Product Management team for IBM Cognos Analytics. His main responsibilities are focused around dashboarding and mobile capabilities. PRESENTATION OUTLINE IBM Cognos Analytics: What’s New in R6 Factors shaping the future Cognos Analytics releases Highlights of R6 Dashboarding Mapping Storytelling Reporting Core app Platform Data access Useful links	Features
IBM Planning Analytics 2.0: New Capabilities for TM1 Users TM1 Cubes New Features for Cognos Analytics The release of IBM Planning Analytics 2.0 brings many new capabilities for TM1 users and Cognos Analytics authors. With this release, IBM adds an on-premise offering to the initial cloud version, allowing users to leverage the latest TM1 capabilities within their local environment. Planning Analytics Workspace delivers a friendly web-based interface that allows users to organize, analyze and present TM1 content from a variety of sources. Workspace provides self-service interactive dashboards, visualizations and report books for web and mobile. Integration with Cognos Analytics allows authors to leverage their Cognos BI knowledge with TM1 cube data sources. In this webinar recording, we look at new features in Planning Analytics 2.0 and demo key concepts. Topics covered: Planning Analytics Workspace – authoring of interactive dashboards, chat feature for collaboration and seamless integration with Excel to reduce reliance on IT Hierarchies – the ability to create virtual dimensions and multiple hierarchies to extend analytical and reporting capabilities without structural and code changes to the TM1 cube Integration with Cognos Analytics – advantages to using TM1 as an OLAP data source for Cognos Analytics TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Financial Planners, Financial Analysts, Finance Managers, Finance Executives (Controllers, CFO), Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors, Program or Project Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Ken O’Boyle Senior Planning Architect Ken has more than 20 years of hands-on experience architecting, implementing and delivering training for enterprise planning, business intelligence and data warehousing solutions. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview of IBM Planning Analytics What is it? Major new features Demonstrations Workspace Hierarchies Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) Cognos Analytics Integration	Features
Under the Hood with Cognos Analytics R5 Say Hello to Portal Tabs Replacement Cognos Analytics 11 Release 5 was released in November 2016 and contains great new features - including (finally!) administrator controlled user group customizations that can help you migrate off Cognos BI 8/10 Portal Tabs. In this webinar recording we get hands-on with some of the best features in Release 5 and discuss what to expect in Release 6. Topics covered: Role customizations – bridge the Portals Tab gap to make the leap from Cognos BI 10 to Cognos Analytics Geospatial mapping – today and tomorrow Navigation paths – break free of traditional dimensional modeling TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, Cognos BI 8, Cognos BI 10, Portal Tabs RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Todd Schuman Cognos Architect Senturus, Inc. Todd has over 15 years of Cognos experience and heads up the Senturus install, upgrade and optimization practice. Todd presented alongside IBM product managers at the 2016 World of Watson conference Considerations When Upgrading to IBM Cognos Analytics. View his webinar on the same topic. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Portal Tabs in Cognos BI 8/10 Search Websites/intranet Report/dashboard viewer/landing page Security – limit access Remove public folder Cognos Analytics Search Vastly superior to Cognos BI 10 No need to run index jobs Auto complete Save searches Recent Every report you run Cognos Analytics Landing Page Users can set as home Report or dashboard Run report or dashboard, click ellipsis to set My preferences, home page, reset to default to revert back Administrators can set as home Cognos groups only Available in R5 Manage -> accounts Cognos Analytics Customizations Cognos Analytics Sample JSON Cognos Analytics Customize Accounts Administrators can now control Home page Features Themes Create Cognos groups Add in AD groups/users Assign home page, UI features Set priorities Extensions can be enabled/disabled Grant/restrict access to folders Restrict access to team content Restrict new content creation Demonstration Navigation Paths Create with data modules Access with dashboard Special context icon Break free from dimensional modeling Geospatial Mapping Today Visualizations Dynamic map (older) MapBox (one with pin) Dashboard only State level shape coloring Tomorrow City and zip code color boundary Available in reporting MapBox customizations Custom shapes – building interiors Cognos Analytics Release 6 Update March expected release date BlueID SSO Additional mapping capabilities Planning analytics Dashboard PowerCubes	Features
Keys to Success in Business Analytics Proven, Practical Strategies that Work The value of data-driven decision making has never been greater, and the tools with which to deliver it have never been more powerful. Furthermore, the demand from business users for useful information continues to grow as organizations realize that good analytics enable them to outperform competitors by wide margins. So why is it that study after study shows that 60-90% of the time business intelligence and analytics projects fail? One hint: it is not the tool and technologies that dictate a successful outcome. What can be done to dramatically improve your organization's chances of success when undertaking these high-value – and typically high-profile – projects? Senturus President, John Peterson, reveals the keys to business analytics success. Drawing on real-life experience with more than 1000 customers and thousands of projects, John distills the top actionable steps to help dramatically improve the outcomes of your BI and analytics initiatives. Among the critical strategies discussed: How to better scope out and manage projects Why you shouldn’t trust anyone who says data staging isn’t important Tips on how to better deliver what users really need Ways to increase user adoption How to deliver more value, more quickly while using fewer resources Technologies Covered Business Analytics, Business Intelligence Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Operational and Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Presenters John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Keys to Success in Business Intelligence Find your executive leadership/sponsor Don’t build what they ask for, build what they need Seek Relevance at all costs Seek Forward Visibility & Accountability There is ALWAYS Much More than Expected Offer up a buffet – self-service is the new norm Don’t try to boil the ocean Become a Pareto disciple Shoot early and often Scope it out and manage it Don’t build castles on sand – choosing the right architecture & foundation is critical Rally a team – strong business-IT partnership with cross-functional involvement is critical Worry about the data Remember everything is relative – good decision-making requires context Get the ball all the way across the goal line – focus on user adoption and provide information that is: Relevant Trustworthy Timely Comprehensive Explorable Well-understood Contextual Extra: Shout it from the rooftops – perception of BI Value is crucial	Business Strategy
Connect Tableau to Cognos: Ixia Shows How Demo of Analytics Connector Some organizations running Cognos have hesitated to widely deploy Tableau – with understandable reason. Because Tableau can’t connect to the Cognos environment, Tableau users bypass the secure, governed and business friendly data that lives there. Instead, they work directly with raw source data, going through a labor-intensive process of re-remodeling data. Aside from wasting valuable time, this method compromises data integrity, security and reporting accuracy. View a show-and-tell of the Senturus Analytics Connector, our simple, elegant solution that ties Cognos to Tableau as a data source. You’ll also hear from one of our customers, Ixia, and learn how they are you using the Connector. At Ixia, the Connector has replaced rerunning calculations in Excel for their weekly, monthly and quarterly reports saving many hours of labor per month. The biggest benefit Ixia appreciates is knowing the data is trustworthy and not subject to human errors associated with Excel manipulations. Designed to help both IT and Tableau users, this demo shows how the Analytics Connector enables: Faster report building in Tableau Reduced change management Improved security with appropriate guardrails around data access Increased data accuracy Better overall Tableau performance Learn how your organization can enjoy the self-service visualizations of Tableau while preserving the benefits of your Cognos model. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos, Tableau, Senturus Analytics Connector RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Tableau users PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. Michael Weinhauer heads up the Tableau Practice at Senturus. Michael comes to us from Oracle, IBM and SAP, where he spent over 20 years in different roles acquiring a wealth of hands-on, practical BI and Big Data experience. Michael’s team is also responsible for the development of the Senturus Business Analytics Connector for Tableau to Cognos, which lets Tableau use Cognos as a data source. Rajat Sharma Financial Planning and Business Intelligence Specialist Ixia Rajat has over 10 years of experience as a Financial Planning and Business Intelligence Analyst. He is a motivated self-starter who is committed to looking for ways to improve processes and exceed expectations of customers. Rajat manages multiple priorities and is always adjusting in the fast-paced environment in which he works. He continually strives to understand the data and present analysis in an engaging delivery. Steven Kiser Senior Manager, Financial Systems Ixia Steven has over 25 years of experience in FP&A, Business Intelligence, and Process Improvement. He has implemented numerous Business Intelligence and budgeting systems for financial institutions and High Tech firms. His mantra is “if you can’t find the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?” PRESENTATION OUTLINE Huge Value in Existing BI Models Tableau’s Data Prep Pane Wastes Time and Compromises Integrity Some Challenges with (Re)-Creating Metadata The Solution? The Senturus Analytics Connector Instant Access to Quality Data Sets Don’t Sacrifice Integrity for Agility Senturus Analytics Connector Demo Summary (Re)-creation of Metadata is Slow, Challenging and Risky The Senturus Analytics Connector Gives Agility and Integrity Spend Time Doing Analysis, Not Prepping Data that’s Already Curated Elsewhere	Features
Case Studies: Enterprise BI vs. Self-Service Tools Real-Life Considerations When Choosing a BI Tool There’s a tug-of-war going on between self-service analytics tools and enterprise BI. With the ensuing confusion – and downright FUD – in the marketplace, organizations struggle to determine which of the two types to use. The answer is… it depends on the task at hand. Each has its drawbacks and benefits. In this recorded webinar, our experts cover real-life client use cases and the factors playing into the choice of tool. You’ll get practical input on guiding considerations when selecting an approach: governance, accessibility, functionality, time to decision (agility). Among the use cases under discussion: A large health care organization using enterprise BI centralized data An online e-tailer using self-service analytics A capital equipment manufacturer using a hybrid solution of Tableau self-service analytics and Cognos enterprise BI Because Senturus works across the spectrum of enterprise BI and self-service tools, we can clear the FUD and shed some much needed light on where each type of tool is best suited. See an updated version of this webinar in which we delve deep into the comparison of features matrix. RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Mangers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTERS John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert is the Vice President of Learning Solutions at Senturus. He has more than 17 years of experience in business intelligence education and technical training. In addition to founding and running the Senturus training division, Albert also serves in various roles in the company including senior consultant and solutions architect. Albert has overseen the growth of the Senturus training practice from a few Cognos authoring classes to dozens of courses covering the breadth of Cognos Analytics and Tableau.	Business Strategy
UPGRADING TO COGNOS ANALYTICS R4: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Release 4: Installation, Configuration & Architectural Considerations Senturus’ Todd Schuman describes installation, configuration and architectural considerations that you need to know when upgrading to Cognos Analytics Release 4. Learn what has changed since the last release. Topics include: Updated prerequisites New installation options Changes to the configuration Changes to the gateway Latest news on legacy studios Odds and ends TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, IBM Cognos BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES System Administrators, BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers PRESENTER Todd Schuman Practice Lead- Installations, Upgrades and Performance Tuning Senturus, Inc. Todd heads up the Installation, Upgrade and Performance Tuning practice at Senturus, bringing more than 16 years of Cognos and Tableau experience to his role. Since his early days in BI working with Cognos Enterprise Planning and Cognos Impromptu to today, Todd has worked extensively on developing and designing enterprise systems and reports. In addition to managing and performing multiple architecture engagements at Senturus, Todd works closely with the IBM Cognos product development team to stay abreast the latest enhancements and changes . This was Todd's presentation topic at the IBM 2016 World of Watson conference. You may also be interested in viewing Todd’s webinar recording Preparing for Cognos Analytics V11: Prep Now to Ensure a Smooth Upgrade Later, in which he explains a fast way to convert Query Studio reports now before you upgrade. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Prerequisites Supported software Operating systems Content server databases Data source databases Browsers Installation Options Easy install Custom Smarter Cognos configurations Centralized configurations Gateway/Web Server Configurations Optional gateway IIS/IHS redirects/rules Reverse proxy Companion/Legacy Tools Report Studio, Workspace Advanced viewer Query Studio Analysis Studio Cognos Workspace Event Studio Metric Studio Cognos for MS Office Cognos Connection Odds and Ends JDBC drivers Uploaded files, data sets Unique install paths – no more 64 or 32 bit file paths Releases vs. Fix Packs No more fix packs Releases are full builds, available on Passport Run on existing install directory Goal is quarterly releases From the Labs Release 5 New features?	Tips & Tricks
The Perks and Pitfalls of Tableau Server Success Strategies for Expanding Tableau Company Wide You have been creating dashboards and insightful analysis with Tableau Desktop. But now you want to share your work with others and allow them to interact with your worksheets. How do you do it? What should you avoid? How do you manage your costs? The solution is Tableau Server. It’s secure, powerful – and equally important – easy-to-use from both the end user and IT perspectives. This recorded webinar reveals the perks of Tableau Server and reviews the top 11 avoidable pitfalls that impact performance, scale and user adoption. Learn valuable Tableau Server insights including: How Tableau Server allows users to share their work, with anyone, via any browser, in a secure environment How Tableau Server enables self-service analytics over the web and via mobile devices How Tableau Server can help control your Tableau spend Tips that can significantly improve Server performance What preparation is required when adding Server to your environment Security considerations The #1 barrier to entry and user adoption TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Michael heads up the Tableau Practice at Senturus. Michael comes to us from Oracle, IBM and SAP, where he spent over 20 years in different roles acquiring a wealth of hands-on, practical BI and big data experience. Michael’s team is also responsible for the development of the Senturus Business Analytics Connector for Tableau and Cognos. PRESENTATION OUTLINE If your Tableau environment is like this… Then maybe it’s time for Tableau Server Achieving the Holy Grail of Self Service View and interact – (almost) anywhere on any device Create your own views Enable ad-hoc and data discovery Support collaboration Server can be more cost effective – license views provide visibility into desktop usage All users don’t need desktop license Consider Cloud options Consider Tableau Reader Tableau Server versions & licensing costs Mobile apps Pitfalls #1 Underpowered hardware #2 Just install with defaults and go #3 Insufficient care and feeding #4 Lack of governance #5 Out of date Tableau versions #6 Just upgrade to the latest version #7 Inadequate data prep #8 Winging it with security #9 Always consider end users #10 Insufficient training #11 Rip and replace legacy BI Summary and conclusions – Tableau Server is powerful, but… Plan ahead for installation Support its care and feeding Prepare your data Establish governance Plan for security Get and provide training Never forget the end user/business use case	Features
Death of the Data Warehouse? 29+ Reasons Why You Still Need to Properly Stage Your Data Data warehouses. Who needs them anymore…right? Today’s self-service analytics tools such as Tableau and Cognos Analytics V11 have put tremendous power in the hands of the departmental business user. And gone are the days of 65,000 row limits in Microsoft Excel. Business managers can directly tap large information sources throughout the organization to create insight-rich visualizations and dashboards, often without the need to wait for IT resources to deliver data. Vendors of new technologies such as Hadoop often tout large cost savings by doing away with traditional ETL tools and data warehouse environments. So why would an organization still want to invest the time and energy (and dollars) to create a centralized repository of data? And what processing and transformations are still prudent, if not mandatory, to do in a centralized fashion? In this recorded webinar, Senturus CEO John Peterson discusses the modern data warehouse with 29+ reasons why you still need to properly pre-process and stage your data. He touches on topics ranging from security to performance to universal definitions to blending data sources to snap-shots and more. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Data warehouses PRESENTER John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Analytics Critical Success Factors Architectures and data transformation BI tools Methodologies and techniques People and processes Goals of Business Analytics Help monitor, analyze, plan and predict Support and improve decision-making throughout the organization Drive competitive advantage Business Intelligence Drives Competitive Advantage Universal BI System Requirements Deliver a stable and user-friendly data structure Provide fast performance Handle multiple sources of data Deliver high quality, validated data Maintain historical data in a common format Provide additional ways to “roll-up” data Provide field, table and measure names that make sense to business users Enable pre-calculations for commonly used measures Provide user- and role-based security Technical Solution Separate intensive query and reporting tasks from servers and disks used by transaction processing (OLTP) systems Create data models and technologies optimized for query and reporting that are NOT appropriate for transaction processing Transform data and embed knowledge, roll-ups and business logic into the data structures so that non-IT users can perform self-service BI Create a single location where information from multiple source systems can be accessed and combined for reporting purposes Provide a validated repository of data that has been cleaned of inaccurate or spurious data quality issues Maintain a repository of historical data gathered from prior and legacy sources and data that would otherwise be purged from the current transaction processing system(s) Allow for secured access to data for analytics without opening up access to systems where data might inadvertently be modified or transaction processing performance hindered Provide a stable platform on which end-users can build customized reports, dashboards and analytics The Complete Solutions Properly staged data Good tools to consume and use the information Create a Data Warehouse Definition: Data Warehouse What We Will Not Cover Data warehouses and business analytics systems can be built with a dizzying array of technologies and tools … And they are changing daily The variety of technical options has exploded (as value of data increases) No fancy new paradigms to shift No logical, physical, virtual mumbo-jumbo Data Warehouses are not Universal Panaceas 29+ Specific, Pragmatic Reasons Why Consolidates multiple sources of data Retains history when changing/upgrading systems Captures snapshots and realigns data Consolidates data from cloud and on-premise Provides persistent storage of critical data Increases efficiency by storing data only once Cleanses data Handles and fixes NULL values Applies universal, one-time filters Improves performance (end-user reports) Eliminates expensive and incorrect joins Transforms complex source data into usable facts Captures strategic business-centric metrics Consolidates and simplifies disparate attribute data Adds mandatory business dimensional richness Simplifies complex data relationships Applies logic to complete and align data Facilitates allocation and attribution Provides insulating layer from source systems Eliminates complex logic needed in BA layer(s) Allows for slow-changing dimensions Captures slow-changing facts Eliminates live connections to source data Eliminates spreadmarts and local databases Reduces risk of trained person(s) leaving Eliminates incorrect calculations by end-users Provides security and controlled access Helps reduce software license fees Enables consolidated dashboards and aligned metrics Enables better dashboards thru context Takeaways To make data truly usable and valuable, it needs to be transformed and enriched Transformation needs to take place somewhere between the raw source and the final report/analysis Question of where and how you handle that transformation Not addressing this simply forces business end-users to tackle it themselves Which leads to: Excel hell Access aggravation and complex, slow and inaccurate self-service dashboards and reports A properly architected data warehouse has its place… and can help Benefits of Properly Staged Data Better decisions Faster actions Unified strategic direction – what gets measured, gets managed Greater efficiency – less time in Excel hell Less redundancy and waste Fewer errors – some can cost millions of dollars Happier business users Greater user adoption Competitive advantage and higher ROIC	Business Strategy
Data Acquisition & Storytelling in Cognos Analytics How-To Demos: Data Modules, Data Sets & Data Servers Learn self-service reporting features in Cognos Analytics: data modules, data sets and data servers. In this demo-packed session, we review the differences – and benefits – of each feature and provide how-to guidance for data acquisition and storytelling with these powerful visualization features. This wall-to-wall Cognos Analytics demo bonanza teaches you how to: Upload your personal data Connect to centralized data assets like SQL Server Link data sources using lightweight modeling tools Use existing packages to tell stories using dashboards and intuitive visualizations This 45-minute session is 100% demos: no PowerPoint. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, Dashboarding, Data Modules, Data Sets, Data Servers RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors, Business Analysts PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice-President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business analytics and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Albert has served as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus.	Tips & Tricks
Surface Better Insight from Your Sales Pipeline Data Capture, Calculate and Track Hard-To-Find Key Leading Indicators Effective executives rely on leading indicators of sales revenue — such as pipeline growth and win rates — to keep their fingers on the pulse of company performance. Many firms have invested in sales pipeline tracking systems such as Salesforce and visualization tools such as Tableau to surface leading indicators to their executives. However, if you are connecting your visualizations directly to your CRM system, you are missing some of the valuable indicators. The solution is a “staging database”—an intermediary between the two systems that transforms the data and surfaces all the information organizations need for early, high powered performance visibility. Senturus explains how to capture, calculate and track the hard-to-get leading indicators, such as: The components of pipeline growth: Growth from new opportunities Changes to the value of existing opportunities Changes to the win-probability of existing opportunities Conversion rates for each stage of the sales cycle The marketing metrics that lead to new pipeline Individual lead score trend Marketing engagement trend This information is most valuable to B2B organizations, those having sales teams entering and tracking multi-stage sales cycles in an opportunity database. The “how to” examples feature Tableau and Salesforce, but we explain how the techniques are useful even if you use other tools. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Salesforce, CRM RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES Executives who want to ensure all the sales indicators are being surfaced Business analysts interested in expanding their data capture and transformation techniques Members of the business analytics teams who are tasked with providing forward visibility Technologists who want to increase the business value of their systems PRESENTER Greg Herrera  President and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. Greg founded Senturus in 2001 and today leads the demand creation side of the company. Under his leadership, the company has been on Inc. Magazine’s annual list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies for three years running. In addition, Senturus was inducted into the San Francisco Business Times "Fast 100" Hall of Fame. Greg has 13 years of hands-on experience with Salesforce and the application's underlying tables. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Leading Indicators Measure performance that has already happened Financial statements: revenue, gross margin, profit Leading Indicators Indicate the direction of in-course performance Lounging Indicators “… will be leaving the company to spend more time with family” Leading Indicators – What’s Missing? Leading Indicators of Revenue 4 Ways Companies can Increase Revenue Increase the number or value of deals in the pipeline (pipeline growth) Improve their rate of success (win rate) Close bigger deals (average deal size) Increase the velocity of the deals moving through the pipeline, such as shorten the sales cycle (time to close) Pipeline Growth in 3 Ways New deals entering the pipeline (new deal) Existing pipeline deals changing size (value change) Existing deals changing stage (stage change) Contextual Attributes – What’s Missing? Leading Indicators Have Leading Indicators The conversion rate (probability) for each stage should be calculated from empirical data contained in historical pipeline snapshots and historical wins Marketing automation systems (Pardot, Marketo) track interactions with behavior scores Integrates to CRM systems, such as Salesforce, that update contact’s records with behavior score -- more interactions lead to more new deals entering the pipeline Sales Pipelines are Current Snapshots In Salesforce and most other CRM systems, sales pipeline tracked in an opportunity table, which maintains only the current values Win rate, average deal size and time to close are calculations of closed deals (date and value of the transaction is known) The date and value of pipeline growth transactions is not known from this table Contrast: Pipeline Balances Monthly Snapshot Contrast: Pipeline Growth from Same Pipeline! 1-Derive Transactions from Snapshot Differences 2-Derive Transactions from SFDC Opp History 3-Derive Transactions from SFDC Opportunity Field History Use Similar Techniques for Interaction Trends Marketing automation systems (e.g. Marketo) integrate with CRM Systems (Salesforce) and push Behavior Score balances several times per day Derivation technique 1 can work with any combination of marketing and CRM systems to derive Behavior Score transactions Derivation technique 3 can be configured in Salesforce Behavior Clusters as Leading Indicators of Purchase Dashboard and Analysis Tips Good dashboard practice says to use auto-refresh relative time periods instead of having to specify date ranges Leading indicators enable in-course corrections, so frequent (daily) updates are valuable Many sales organizations experience quarter-based seasonality in their pipeline growth For these organizations, look at pipeline growth across 91-day periods (quarter of a year) Considerations when Averaging Pipe Growth (1) Considerations when Averaging Pipe Growth (2) Considerations when Averaging Pipe Growth (3) Demo Using Tableau Takeaways Ideally pull your CRM pipeline data into the data warehouse or sales data mart Next best interim situation is to pull it into a staging database In these databases you will be able to do the transformations and contortions that surface the missing leading indicators Pipeline growth transactions provide much better visibility than pipeline balance snapshots Need to know not just where you are, but how you got there Valuable marketing interactions which lead the leading indicators can be surfaced by similar techniques	Business Strategy
WHAT’S NEW IN COGNOS ANALYTICS 11.0.5 Demos and Q&A with the IBM Product Team Cognos Analytics Release 5 was introduced on November 25, 2016, and has some significant new visualization and analysis features. In this webinar recording, our guest IBM Cognos Analytics Product Manager Nic Leduc, demonstrates this new release and answers audience questions. Nic showed: New dashboard enhancements around visualizations, navigation paths, accessing Framework Manager packages and the new maps Data modules and reporting features around linking, updated prompt controls and much more Enhancements around content embedding and portal theme control, extensions and buttons on a per-user basis TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Business Analysts PRESENTER Nic Leduc Product Manager Cognos Analytics Nic is part of the Product Management team for IBM Cognos Analytics. His main responsibilities are around the dashboarding and mobile capabilities. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Introducing Cognos Analytics Empowers users to make analytics part of their daily actions Improves personal productivity, eliminates IT backlog Cognos Analytics Releases Continuous delivery for on-prem and Cloud Contains defect fixes and enhancements Installs on top, it preserves your settings and config What’s New in 11.0.5 (R5) Storytelling Dashboarding Modeling Reporting Embedding and customizations Customizations per user or group Mapping R5 FAQ Common FAQ Other notables in R5 Useful links	Features
A PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO SALES FORECASTING Using Salesforce, ERP Systems, Tableau & R Salesforce and integrated ERP systems collect tons of valuable information, but the challenge is figuring out how to use that data to predict future sales. Predictive modeling has promised to deliver tomorrow’s numbers, but remains under-used due to complexity or inaccuracy. In this webinar recording, we share effective, pragmatic sales forecasting approaches. We describe best practices for organizing and preparing your Salesforce and ERP systems for predictive modeling, and reveal how to best use Tableau and R to visualize the future. Effective methods for sales forecasting discussed include: How to best organize, prepare and integrate your sales pipeline and ERP data for predictive modeling Data preparation techniques specific to Salesforce Three of the R-based algorithms available for sales forecasting How to setup a continuous feedback framework so that your algorithms will improve as data volume grows When it makes sense to use simple algorithms with less accuracy instead of complex ones that are more accurate How to leverage the built-in integration between Tableau and R to visualize your historical, forecasted, and confidence-level data How the techniques can be applied to environments that do not include Salesforce or Tableau TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Salesforce, ERP Systems, R PRESENTERS Asa Levi Senior Consultant Senturus, Inc. Asa joins Senturus with over 10 years of experience in business intelligence and predictive analytics, having spent most of his career at Pearson Education. While there, Asa used multiple ERP and CRM systems to unify insight across all platforms to gain more understanding of issues, such as cost-to-serve and pricing model selection. He also led development of a combined SSRS/Tableau/Salesforce BI solution to allow CRM, ERP, customer support, and product master data be used in a unified environment to allow for simpler access to data and enable more thorough, complex analyses. Asa began his career in the Microsoft BI stack, working with SQL Server and SSRS on ROI analysis for product customization. Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. Greg founded Senturus in 2001 and today leads the demand creation side of the company. Under his leadership, the company has been on Inc. Magazine’s annual list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies for three years running. In addition, Senturus was inducted into the San Francisco Business Times "Fast 100" Hall of Fame. Greg has 13 years of hands-on experience with Salesforce.com and the application's underlying tables. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Predictive Modeling Methodology Sales Forecast Algorithms Require Historical Snapshots Sales Pipelines are Current Snapshots Techniques for Maintaining Historical Pipeline Salesforce Opportunity History Table Salesforce Tracks History Functionality Goal: Merge Predictions for Actionable Insights Quantitative vs. Qualitative How to Measure Accuracy Regression KPIs Custom KPIs The Common Refrain: Why can I predict that our net sales will be within 5% of last year, but we are 30% off at the product level The Central Limit Theorem Granularity Up, Accuracy Down Accuracy By Industry Choosing a Model Investigating Predictor Relationships Removing Outliers Setting Up A Regression Occam’s Razor Applies Results Learn and Iterate Insights Clustering to Find Insight Conclusion	Business Strategy
Cognos Analytics V11: A Closer Look New Report Authoring, Dashboarding and Modeling Tools Up until now, demos of Cognos Analytics have been more about look and feel than its implications to users. In this show-and-tell, Nic Leduc, Product Manager of Cognos Analytics shows demos and covers topics that satisfy your curiosities: IBM’s intent behind the radical new design How Cognos Analytics solves the riddle of providing enterprise level analytics and governance while still being friendly for line-of-business users How Cognos Analytics has made authoring easier while maintaining the robustness Data discovery: how users can directly access data sources See a demo of the new dashboarding, self-service modeling and simplified authoring TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI: Cognos Workspace, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Cognos Dynamic Cubes, Cognos Transformer, Cognos Query Studio, Cognos Analysis Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Program or Project Managers PRESENTER Nic Leduc Product Manager Cognos Analytics Nic is part of the Product Management team for IBM Cognos Analytics. His main responsibilities are around the dashboarding and mobile capabilities. PRESENTATION OUTLINE IBM Cognos Business Intelligence in Review General availability of IBM Cognos BI v10.2.2 on Cloud – March 27, 2015 Announced IBM Cognos Analytics – October 26, 2015 General availability Cognos Analytics – December 23, 2015 Cognos Analytics on Cloud Cloud computing expertise delivers a highly secure BI SaaS offering Managed by IBM, with no need to move your data or security to the cloud Choose from three editions starting at 25 users, full user flexibility Factors Shaping the Future of Business Intelligence Self-serve analytics Data governance Smarter, more embeddable analytics Cognos Analytics v11 Delivers Ease of Use for the Business Without Compromising IT Functionality Completely re-designed experience – dramatically increase productivity for departmental and enterprise reporting Cognos Analytics Demo Interact Intuitive and interactive Personalization On-demand toolbars and menus Create Easy access to corporate or uploaded data Easily combinable data modules Intent-driven modeling and authoring Creators, Simple Dashboards, and Reports Select data source and get started Guided experience Design and layout Drag and drop content Recommended visualization Progressive interface Create dashboard on a tablet Creators, Power Users Intent-driven modeling process based on the selected data Search for fields Join multiple sources Automated model generation Improve data quality – data cleansing Visualize the model Updating to Cognos Analytics v11 Cognos Analytics is an upgrade to Cognos Business Intelligence (v8, v10) All your existing content will be brought forward Traditional 10.2.2 studios are available (now called Companion Applications) No license changes (free to download from Passport Adv for existing customers) Life cycle manager is planned to ship in Q1, 2017 Simplification of the Studios We’ve reduced the number of interfaces for simplicity: Report Dashboard Data module IBM recommends to create new content using the new tools Where are the Old Studios in Cognos Analtyics? Companion applications are still available for existing customers Cognos v10 studios My Inbox Drill-Through definitions My Watch items Cognos Workspace in Cognos Analytics Currently Still available in Cognos Analytics, opens in a new browser tab Removed certain capabilities such as the Do More Announced for deprecation What we are looking at: Reusable parts in the new dashboards and reporting Multiple packages in reporting (vote on RFE 68073) Master filtering across multiple sources / widgets / pages Auto-refresh of widgets in dashboards Portal Pages and Tabs in Cognos Analytics Currently Portal pages open in a different browser tab Portal tabs are no longer accessible Recommendations Users can set a report or dashboard as their home page (not portal pages) Recently used list provides a quick way for users to get to their content Search has been greatly enhanced to find content they need What we are looking at: Ability for admins to set their user’s home pages based on users and groups Vote on RFE 84915 Infrastructure, Installation Installation options Ready to run! Provides a quick way to get up and running in minutes without any additional configuration or third party software Custom: same as previous version of Cognos Gateway component is optional, meaning no dependency on a web server Only required for advanced options such as SSO or third party portal integration Items to consider Size of snapshots and uploaded content Potential additional load on the servers as users interact with their content Mobile Experience iOS Safari for connected experience Native apps for disconnected Interface only shows the capabilities that are supported on mobile devices On-demand toolbar menus are touch friendly Report prompts are converted to native controls Embedded Items Models, OLAP, Query Engines Useful Links Main Cognos Analytics page – http://www.ibm.biz/cognosanalytics Videos and demos – https://www.youtube.com/user/Analyticszone/videos Free trial – http://www.analyticszone.com Documentation – http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.0.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.cbi.doc/welcome.html?lang=en FAQ installation steps – http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21974153	Features
Meet Tableau 10 Overview of New Features Tableau 10 is here! This overview describes the exciting new features and capabilities, including: Design: A fresh look and feel, beautiful visualization defaults and new formatting control Mobile: Quickly design, customize and publish a single dashboard with optimized views for tablets and phones Data integration: Join across databases plus new Google Sheets and Quickbooks connectors Answers through analytics: Make custom territories, filter across data sources and highlight important data with new visual analytics capabilities Web: Dashboard authoring Support for enterprise deployments: Mobile device management, governance features like Desktop license management and more extensibility TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Quickbooks, Google Sheets PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. Michael leads the Senturus Tableau practice, oversees the development of the Senturus Enterprise BI Connector for Tableau, and teaches Tableau training workshops. He has worked with 100s of clients in a variety of industries providing him insight into the business requirements as well as the technology. He has experience in predictive analytics, in-memory technologies, and enterprise BI platforms having worked at SAP, IBM, and Cognos. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Beautiful by Design Themes Answers Through Analytics Custom territories Data highlighter Cross data source filters Clustering	Features
Using Query Explorer in Cognos Analytics Report Authoring in Cognos v11 Working with the Query Model in IBM Cognos Analytics can be a tricky transitional skill, even for advanced report authors. The learning curve is made even more daunting by the shift to the new, significantly different user interface. However, many fundamental analyses can only be addressed using a multi-query approach. Therefore, designing reports that use query joins and sets, such as unions, is an important skill for all professional authors. In this recorded webinar, we demonstrate Cognos Analytics v11 Query Explorer and teach techniques that help create sophisticated reports that are based on multiple queries. Techniques and takeaways include: Best practices for interacting with the Query Explorer Understanding the differences between the versions Using Query Explorer in the context of common business challenges such as basket analysis TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, IBM Cognos BI, Cognos Report Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff) PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice-President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business analytics and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Albert has served as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect, and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE What is the Query Model? Changes from Cognos BI v10 to Cognos Analytics v11 Query References Query Sets Query Joins Custom SQL/MDX Set Operations: Unions, Intersections, Exceptions Set Operation Rules Business Scenario Demonstration of Report Authoring in Cognos	Tips & Tricks
DATA INTEGRATION TOOL FOR BOTH BUSINESS AND IT USERS Informatica Cloud Demo The rapid growth in self-service business analytics has created tremendous value for organizations, but in many cases has created tension between technical and business users. Technical teams have spent years building solid data warehouses filled with trusted data from source systems such as sales, finance and operations. Business teams are gaining insights using new data discovery tools such as Cognos, Business Objects, Tableau and Power BI. But, the insights create the desire for new data sources – and the data warehouse teams can’t keep up. Informatica Cloud provides a solution that both business and IT users will appreciate. This demonstration shows a best-of-both-worlds solution that combines data integration for both business and IT users. We show: How IT is able to incorporate the business analyst’s data integration routines into the core, trusted data warehouse The user experience for business analysts doing data integration from both cloud-based and on-premise data sources How the business analyst’s wizard-driven tool seamlessly uses the industrial-strength data integration engine that IT teams have loved for years Out-of-the-box integration for apps such as Salesforce, NetSuite, Workday, Amazon Redshift, Microsoft Azure, Marketo, SAP, Oracle and SQL Server TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Informatica, Salesforce, NetSuite, Workday, Amazon Redshift, Microsoft Azure, Marketo, SAP, Oracle, SQL Server, Cognos, Business Objects, Tableau, Power BI, Cloud PRESENTERS Grady Drago Principal Cloud Sales Consultant Informatica John Stimson Cloud Alliances Director Informatica PRESENTATION OUTLINE Informatica Overview Full Data Management Platform Leverage A Single Unified Platform: an example of how you can use INFA platform as business and IT initiatives change… Informatica Is Only About Data Management Informatica Cloud Overview Cloud Data Integration Demo Scenario: Cloud Data Warehousing Hundreds of Connectors for Every App Informatica Rev: Self-Service Cloud Data Profiling, Cleansing and Preparation Cloud Data Integration Informatica Cloud Designer: Developer Productivity: Drag & Drop Palette Data Integration and Management is Key to Success The Informatica Cloud Solution Enable business user self-service and IT collaboration Demo Get Started with a Free Trial	Business Strategy
Transitioning to Cognos Analytics V11 Tips for Developers and Administrators This recorded webinar helps Cognos developers and system administrators make the transition from v10 to Cognos Analytics (v11). Blending demos and discussions, we explain dashboarding, data modules, and administration in Cognos Analytics. The informational benefits of this webinar include: Data Modules How to setup data servers The data module tool and how to blend data How to publish and verify the results Dashboards How quickly you can create stunning dashboards The limitations around metadata sources Administration The gaps moving from Portal tabs to the new interface How the Motio PI Pro Tool can be essential to efficient migrations How to limit external data uploads and data server access TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics v11, IBM Cognos BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES System Administrators, BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Todd Schuman Cognos Architect Senturus Todd has over 15 years of Cognos experience and heads up the Senturus install, upgrade and optimization practice. You may also be interested in reading Todd's blog post that describes Cognos Analytics Release 3 Known Issues and their work arounds. Want to learn more about data modules? If so, view our step-by-step demo on how to Create Data Modules in Cognos Analytics. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Dashboards Still limited to file uploads and/or data modules Drag and drop visualizations and filters Multiple sources Create engaging and visually stunning dashboards quickly Data Modules Set up data servers Module creation process Intent Custom groups Calculations Joins “Try it” Administration Control limit file upload size Restrict access to data servers Manage schedules and batch jobs Portal tab migration plan Motio PI Pro Request for enhancement website Motio PI Pro – Batch Set Interactive Mode Request for Enhancement (RFE)	Tips & Tricks
CASE STUDY: VISUALIZING COMPLEX DATA IN TABLEAU How to Achieve on a Budget Some data is more difficult to get at and analyze than others. Data coming from social media, emails and surveys is extremely hard to analyze owing to its complex, irregular structure and often times heavy use of text fields. Adding to the challenge is the high cost of an industrial strength database with the horsepower for these kinds of complex analyses. There is a cost-effective solution. In this webinar recording we show you how to Prepare complex data such as survey data for use in Tableau Get the power of an industrial strength database on a budget Stop Meeting Like This (SMLT) share its success maximizing the impact of client survey responses (SurveyMonkey, Zoho, Google Forms) using the Microsoft Azure cloud environment, data preparation and the creation of Tableau visualizations. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft SQL Server RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), IT Managers, Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Start-up companies PRESENTERS Jim Pelichowski, Senturus Inc. Alia Santini, Stop Meeting Like This PRESENTATION OUTLINE Getting Tableau to Work with Challenging Data Big Data on a Budget An Introduction to: Stop Meeting Like This Tableau Visualization – Likert Survey Questions Getting There: A Closer Look at Survey Data Challenges Using Unstructured Data Tableau Works Much Better with Data Like This What About Unstructured Data? Solution – Data and Physical Architecture	Tips & Tricks
Which Chart or Bar Graph is Right for You? Best Practice Recommendations for 13 Chart Types This handy, straightforward guide from Tableau helps you easily determine the best chart to use for the data you have and the questions you want to answer -- or the story you want to tell. In clear language and with excellent visual examples, Tableau outlines best practices for making effective visualizations. They also offer tips for combining related charts and filters to really boost the effectiveness of visualizations, and ultimately your business decision making. This paper includes tips and things to consider when using the following types of graphs: Bar chart Line chart Pie chart Map Scatter plot Gantt chart Bubble chart Histogram chart Heat map Hightlight table Treemap Box-and-whisker plot Related resources about effective visualization creation: 10 Best Practices for Tableau Dashboard Design Information Dashboard Science and Design	Tips & Tricks
Preparing for Cognos Analytics V11 Prep v10 Now to Ensure a Smooth Upgrade Later By now, you have heard about all the new features of Cognos Analytics. And while there are many good things in store, the truth is that its integration with Cognos BI v10 is not seamless. Learn what you need to know to prepare for Cognos Analytics−before you upgrade. We tell you what technologies you should be investing your resources in, and which ones you should stop using. Learn which reports you should convert now and what you can leave for later. We also demonstrate a new product that allows you to automate report conversions. We demonstrate how Cognos Analytics works – or does not – with the following: The Studios: Query, Analysis, Report Portal Tab, public folders and Cognos Connection Workspace Advanced and Workspace TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI: Cognos Workspace, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Cognos Dynamic Cubes, Cognos Transformer, Cognos Query Studio, Cognos Analysis Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Program or Project Managers PRESENTERS Todd Schuman Cognos Architect Senturus Todd has over 15 years of Cognos experience and heads up the Senturus install, upgrade, and optimization practice. Jeff Dean Strategic Accounts Manager Motio Jeff is responsible for guiding strategic Cognos customers. Prior to joining Motio, he spent over 14 years with Cognos. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Farewell to Studios Query Studio and Analysis Studio supported for one more release Query Studio, Analysis Studio, Event Studio, Metric Studio and PowerPlay Studio all open in new tab using old interface Single reporting tool in Cognos Analytics Report Studio and Workspace Advanced reports are fully integrated Interactive / non-interactive concept Potential JavaScript issues Cognos “Dis”-Connection Public folders is now team content My Folders is now My Content Portal Tabs open in new window – cannot create new or set as home Search index built it – no more scheduling Preparing for Cognos Analytics Halt development of non Report Studio / WSA content Convert existing content into Report Studio / WSA Convert Query Studio Objects to Report Studio Objects Replace Any References to the Old Objects	Tips & Tricks
MAKING TABLEAU DASHBOARDS SHAREABLE Easily Create Secure, Browser- and Mobile-based Dashboards You have been creating dashboards and insightful analysis with Tableau Desktop. But now you want to share your work with others and allow them to interact with your worksheets. How do you do it? The solution is secure, powerful – and equally important – easy-to-use from both the end user and IT perspectives. If your company is using Tableau, view this webinar recording on Tableau Server to learn successful implementation, including: How Tableau Server allows Tableau Desktop users to share their work, with anyone, via any browser, in a secure environment How easy it is to install, upgrade, administer, publish to and use The powerful self-service capabilities that Tableau Server provides Different versions (in-house / cloud) and licensing option (named user / unlimited) Free Tableau Server Trial and Free Help with Installation Click here to access the 14-day free trial and if you would like free assistance with installation contact info@senturus.com. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Chuck Hooper Business Analytics Consultant Chuck’s career includes over five decades of business and IT experience. He started Tableau's Professional Services consulting organization and was a Tableau Zen Master from 2012-2014. He conducts training sessions on the use of Tableau Software products, and does speaking engagements on visual analytics, data warehouse design, and other business intelligence topics at both the technical and the executive levels. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Tableau Server Versions & Licensing In-House – Named User License: $1000 / named user – unlimited hardware In-House – Core Based License: $3xx,000 per 8 core box – unlimited users Tableau Online – hosted Tableau Server: $500 per year per person – 100GB storage allowed Install Tableau Server (Upgrade) Run a backup of the current environment Do a Windows uninstall of the old Download the current installer (~990Mb) Trial version is 100% functional – with 14-day trial license Installs on a Windows Server – a both 32 bit and 64 bit versions available Typical install, accepting all defaults = 15-30 minutes Demonstration of Server Installation Basic Installation is Done – Gotchas Creating a “cluster” environment, for larger installations Non “Active Directory” authentication can by tricky Setting up Server / role-based security Determining causes of performance issues When to publish live connections vs. extracts Connectivity from Server to DBMS – firewall issues Ways to Implement Security DBMS Server based Database table linked to our analysis The publisher can use a “User Filter” Server administrator Build an Interactive Dashboard Use Desktop to publish a dashboard Then, we will work inside Tableau Server: View what we published (browser) Create out own views (“edit” function) Discuss administration Discuss Tableau iPad apps iPad Apps Tableau App More eloquent way to get to Tableau Server views Vizable Free app for analyzing flat file data No relation to other Tableau apps / products	Tips & Tricks
The Holy Grail of Marketing Analytics Delivering on the Promise of Closed-Loop Marketing Optimization If you’re like many companies, you struggle to connect your sales and marketing systems and are frustrated by the inability to accurately profile and track your customers. Closing the loop to connect the two silo'd systems is easier to achieve than you may realize. Learn to use the right tools and maximize your expertise to easily surface critical marketing metrics to: Measure return on marketing investment Know your customer lifetime value Optimize your marketing and sales funnels based on profit per marketing dollar TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Alteryx RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Marketing Analysts, Program or Project Managers PRESENTERS Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder Senturus Adam Smithline CEO Opticity, Inc. John Policaro Channel Manager West Region Alteryx, Inc. Albert Pardilla Solutions Engineer Alteryx, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Closed-Loop Marketing Overview What is Closed-Loop Marketing? Closed-Loop Marketing Metrics: Cost Per Acquisition Closed-Loop Marketing Metrics: Return on Marketing Investment Closed-Loop Marketing Metrics: Customer Potential Ways to Use These Metrics in Practice Optimize marketing investment based on campaign and test results Segment customers to focus on high live time value (LTV) low share of wallet Use LTV and data augmentation to target premium prospects Use your understanding of retention to improve marketing and the customer experience in an effort to reduce churn Optimize Review impact of marketing campaigns and split tests on customers, sales, and profit Plan marketing campaigns and split tests Gather results from marketing campaigns and split tests and produce reports Execute marketing campaigns and split tests Segment Target Retain Addressing the Data Challenges: Tremendous Potential, Easier Said than Done Organized Data is at the Core of Closed-Loop Marketing Analytics State of the Art – Sales Analysis Marketing Analytics Vision Enhance Customer Information with Derived Behavioral Attributes Case Study: Associating Marketing to Sales/Profit Technique 1: Allocate profit to engagements Technique 2: Allocate profit to each person, then to their engagements Challenge: Marketing systems and sales systems are usually in different silos Importance of Data Quality and Matching Demonstration of Alteryx: State-of-the-Art Tool for Marketing The Modern Platform for Self-Service Data Analytics Enabling Self-Service for the Business Analyst Appendix A Pragmatic Techniques for Matching Marketing Engagements to their Associated Revenue and Profit (B2B)	Business Strategy
RETHINKING THE DATA WAREHOUSE Emerging Practices and Technologies to Meet Today’s Requirements Current data warehouses are not architected to meet current analytics requirements including end user self-service, multiple tools, huge data volumes, visualizations and deeper analysis needs. During this webinar recording, our special guest Mark Madsen, keynote speaker at the TDWI World Conference, shares his insights into the five major issues facing data warehouses and his solution to increase agility and flexibility. PRESENTER Mark Madsen President, Third Nature Over the past decade, Mark has received awards for his work in data warehousing, business intelligence and data integration from the American Productivity & Quality Center, the Smithsonian Institute and TDWI. He is co-author of Clickstream Data Warehousing, and lectures and writes about business intelligence, emerging technology and data integration. Mark was the keynote speaker at this year's TDWI World Conference. Mark is the founder of Third Nature, a firm that researches and consults with companies on new and emerging technology and practices in business intelligence, data integration and information management. He is also a former CTO and CIO with experience working in both IT and vendors, including a stint at a company used as a Harvard Business School case study.	Business Strategy
FUEL ANALYTICS WITH SELF-SERVICE HADOOP DATA PREP Trifacta Data Wrangler The great paradox of data analysis is that 80% of the overall analysis process is spent cleaning or preparing data. The reason is the complexity and diversity of data. Complicating matters is that users increasingly expect self-service, yet their organizations struggle to help them effectively work with data in a properly governed and secure environment. In this webinar recording, Trifacta explains how the emergence of new self-service data prep solutions for Hadoop are benefiting organizations. We discuss how Trifacta’s data wrangling solutions are used to improve the efficiency of existing analytics processes and successfully execute new analytics initiatives. We demo Trifacta Data Wrangler and discuss: The challenges self-service data prep solutions are designed to solve and why the space has quickly gained in popularity. How organizations are implementing self-service data prep to execute new types of analysis or augment existing processes. The range of user and administrative features of self-service data prep tools like Trifacta. How companies like PepsiCo and Royal Bank of Scotland use self-service data prep. Get a free trial of Trifecta Wrangler. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Hadoop, Big Data, Qliktech, Tableau, Trifacta RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Marketing Analysts, Program or Project Managers, Predictive: Quality Assurance, Risk & Fraud PRESENTERS Will Davis Director of Product Marketing Trifacta Connor Carreras Customer Success Manager Trifacta PRESENTATION OUTLINE The Data Analytics Process Self-Service Data Preparation Coverage The Gap Between Raw Data & Analysis Back & Forth Between Business & IT What’s the Cause? Existing Tools Oh Yeah…There’s Excel Too Trifacta’s Data Wrangling Solution Demo	Business Strategy
THE DATA LAKE: EMPOWERING YOUR DATA SCIENCE TEAM Data Science and BI in the Business Landscape There is confusion about how data science fits into the landscape of business…and IT. In this intriguing webinar with Bill Schmarzo, CTO of EMC’s Global Services Big Data Practice, we look at what data science is, what it hopes to accomplish, how it is related to business analytics, where it differs, and ultimately how organizations will benefit from using both data science and business analytics. Viewers learn: The difference between BI and data science and the complementary nature of both How the data lake can empower data science teams and free up valuable data warehouse resources TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Hadoop / big data, data warehouses RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Financial Planners, Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors, Predictive: Quality Assurance, Risk & Fraud, Data Scientists PRESENTER Bill Schmarzo  CTO EMC Global Services, Big Data Practice Bill Schmarzo is the author of Big Data MBA: Driving Business Strategies with Data Science and Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business. Bill is responsible for setting the strategy and defining the big data service offerings and capabilities for EMC Global Services Big Data Practice. He has written several white papers, is an avid blogger, and is a frequent speaker on the use of big data and data science to power organizations’ business initiatives. He is a University of San Francisco School of Management (SOM) Fellow where he teaches the big data MBA course. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Poll Results Where are you in the process of integrating Big Data with your existing data warehouse environment? Actively working to replace data warehouse with data lake Already using big data (Hadoop) to offload ETL work In the testing phase In early discussions No plans/don’t know Introducing Data Science Data Science is about identifying variables and metrics that are better predictors of performance Evolution of the analytics process – business intelligence vs. data science Business intelligence engagement process Transitioning the business questions Data science engagement process Power of analytic profiles (healthcare example) Analytic profiles x use cases (healthcare example) The Data Lake Modern BI / analytics environment Characteristics of a data lake – free up costly data warehouse and BI resources; enable your advanced analytics / data science environment Why a data lake? Enable analytics! – analytics hub and spoke service architecture #BigData reference architecture Lean data governance lifecycle How to Get Started Prioritize your business initiatives Additional Resources Schmarzo Blog To Achieve Big Data’s Potential, Get it Into the Boardroom Big Data Business Model Maturity Index Waiting for Godot: Developing Competitive Differentiation A History Lesson on Economic-driven Business Transformation Store Manager Actionable Dashboard How I’ve Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Data Lake	Business Strategy
MICROSOFT FOR BI AND DW Using the Right Tool for the Job Organizations that use the Microsoft platform to build their BI and data warehouse solutions have a wealth of resources at their disposal. Understanding these assets and how they can work together allows users to build an efficient, integrated BI solution. This webinar recording peels back the lid on Microsoft’s offering of its BI and DW related products, including: A review of product features and benefits Discuss use cases Demo of product capabilities In addition, we touch on the core functionalities of these six products: Power BI Azure Office SQL Server SharePoint Knowing these functionalities allows users to come away with a solid understanding of the role of each product and how they work together to create an integrated BI solution. You may also be interested in our webinar recording Case Studies: Enterprise BI Platforms vs. Self-Service Analytics Tools in which we discuss real-life client use cases and the factors playing into the choice of tool. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Microsoft, all database, data warehouse, and business intelligence related products (front and back end) RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Program or Project Managers, anyone involved with the creation or use of a BI or data warehouse system PRESENTER Paul B. Felix Senior BI Architect Senturus, Inc Paul is an agile business intelligence and data warehousing junkie living in Austin, Texas. He spends his time helping organizations use data to make better decisions by implementing BI/DW solutions. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Microsoft for BI and DW Tools Power BI Azure Office SQL Server and related products SharePoint The Microsoft BI/DW Ecosystem SQL Server Relational DB Tabular SSAS Multidimensional SSAS Reporting Services Integration Services Master Data Services Data Quality Services Power BI Data Reports Dashboards Azure HDInsight Database as a Service Data Factory SQL DW (MPP) Stream Analytics Machine Learning Office & SharePoint Excel Power Pivot Power Query Power View Power Map Data Mining Access SharePoint POWER BI BI front-end SaaS application Notes Easy to use Nice visualizations Mobile support (multi-platform) Limited feature set Cost Subscription schedule: free to $9.99 user per month AZURE – HDINSIGHT Managed Hadoop clusters Notes Easy to get started Well integrated with toolset (Hive, Pig, Spark, Excel) Multiple development languages (java, .net) Cost Subscription schedule: $60 to $1,832 node per month AZURE – DATA FACTORY SaaS ETL Tool Notes Well integrated with other Azure services Built-in monitoring SaaS benefits Cost Activity frequency and location based (on premise or cloud) Subscription priced monthly per activity AZURE – DATABASE AS A SERVICE Relational database as a service Notes Easily scaled No need to maintain host hardware Familiar SQL Server environment Cost Database throughput units Subscription price is based on use AZURE – SQL DATA WAREHOUSE (MPP) PREVIEW Data warehouse as a service using massively parallel processing architecture Notes Easily scaled and easy to get started Polybase (structure and unstructured SQL to Hadoop) Fair amount of T-SQL support Cost Database throughput units AZURE – STREAM ANALYTICS Stream processing as a service Notes Real time analysis of internet of things – easily scaled SQL based language Cost Pricing based on volume of data and number of streams AZURE – MACHINE LEARNING Predictive analytics platform as a service Notes Easily scaled and shared R and Python support Customizable Cost Free and standard pricing options SHAREPOINT CMS (content management system) Notes Huge array of features Easy to use and customize Plenty of skilled resources Cost Office 365 subscription or Office licensing OFFICE - EXCEL Spreadsheets and much more Notes Easily connect to large array of data sources Highly customizable Nice set of built-in data navigation and presentation tools Cost Office 365 subscription or Office licensing OFFICE – POWER PIVOT Collect, model, transform, integrate Notes Integrate on the fly Handle datasets of fairly large size Powerful columnar structure and DAX language Path to enterprise deployment (tabular) Cost Excel add-in, no additional cost OFFICE – POWER QUERY Discover, transform, refresh, analyze Notes Easily collect web-based datasets Simple and powerful transformations Integrated in PowerBI Cost Excel add-in, no additional cost OFFICE – POWER VIEW Interactive data exploration, visualization, presentation Notes SSAS tabular and multidimensional data sources Easily to build and share interactive reports Self-service or enterprise standard Cost Excel add-in, no additional cost Enable options > com add-ins OFFICE – POWER MAP Interactive mapping Notes Easily plot geographic data Play time lapse Share via Excel or video formats Cost Excel add-in, no additional cost OFFICE – DATA MINING Excel-based modeling and predictions Notes Powerful set of tools Leverage SSAS built models or self-service Simple to get started and use Cost Excel add-in, no additional cost OFFICE – ACCESS Business user database, reporting, querying, writeback Notes Wizard based Easily connect to ODBC Enable feedback and sharing Excel web apps Cost Office 365 subscription or Office licensing SQL SERVER RDBMS Relational database management system Notes In-memory OLTP Columnar indexes Always-on availability groups Cost SQL Server product SQL SERVER ANALYSIS SERVICES - MULTIDIMENSIONAL Multidimensional cube engine Notes Rich set cube of features Data mining Cost SQL Server product SQL SERVER ANALYSIS SERVICES - TABULAR Tabular model engine Notes Subset of cube features In-memory columnar (VertiPaq) Cost SQL Server product SQL SERVER INTEGRATION SERVICES Generic data integrations tool Notes Powerful ETL tool Highly customizable C# and Visual Basic language support Cost SQL Server product SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES Canned reporting Notes Enterprise canned reporting Close to pixel perfect Developer and analyst designers Cost SQL Server product SQL SERVER MASTER DATA SERVICES Master data management Notes Model master data Maintain entities, attributes, members Excel- and browser-based interface SSIS integration Cost SQL Server product SQL SERVER DATA QUALITY SERVICES Manage and enforce data integrity / quality rules Notes Knowledge-driven data quality product Domain management, matching policies Thick client Cost SQL Server product	Features
RUNNING COGNOS ON HADOOP Cost Effective, Highly Scalable, High Speed You can do data discovery or rapid BI prototyping on large data sets without becoming a Hadoop expert. Our webinar shows how you can enjoy benefits of big data and the ability to analyze it with standard BI tools, including Cognos. IBM BigInsights Product Manager Paul Yip demonstrates a cost effective, scalable solution that does not have the barriers to entry common with big data applications. He reviews: Use cases for Hadoop Pros and cons of different visualization tools and their integration with Hadoop Demonstration of BigInsights, IBM’s solution You may also be interested in the following YouTube videos authored by Paul Yip: Access Apache Hive Data Faster and More Securely with Big SQL Spark vs IBM Big SQL Performance Hadoop HDFS vs Spectrum Scale (GPFS) DEMONSTRATION CLOUD Big SQL Technology Sandbox is a large, shared environment for data science. You can use it to run R, SQL, Spark, and Hadoop jobs. It is a high performance cluster demonstrating the advantages of parallelized processing of big data sets. Click here to access TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Hadoop / Big Data, Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors, Program or Project Managers, Predictive: Quality Assurance, Risk & Fraud PRESENTER Paul Yip, IBM Analytics BigInsights Product Manager Paul has 15 years of hands-on technical experience with the design, implementation, and performance tuning of information management systems. His career has involved many aspects of information management including distributed transactional systems, data marts and warehousing, information security and governance, Hadoop, and Big Data. Paul is the author of three books and has published dozens of technical articles. PRESENTATION OUTLINE What is Hadoop? Hadoop’s Cost Advantage Distributed Analytics Example: MapReduce Hive Provides a SQL Interface to MapReduce SQL on Hadoop Matters for Big Data Analytics for BI Tools like Cognos Hive – Joins in MapReduce N-way Joins in MapReduce IBM BigInsights Hive is Really 3 Things…Storage Format, Metastore, and Execution Engine Big SQL Preserves Open Source Foundation IBM First/Only to Produce Audited Benchmark Hadoop-DS (based on TPC-DS) / Oct 2014 Performance Test – Hadoop-DS (based on TPC-DS) 20 (Physical Node) Cluster Big SQL Runs More SQL Out-of-Box Cognos & Hadoop Lessons Learned Big SQL Security – Best in Class Announced at Strata + Hadoop World Sept 2015 Performance Test Summary BigSheets: Browser based analytics tool for BigData BigSheets Demo Big Data Technology Patterns Traditional Enterprise Analytic Environment Traditional Approach to Improve Analytic Architectures Faster, Deeper Insights while Reducing Costs Current State: Analytics Development Cycle Target State: Rapid Prototyping Right Tool, Right Job Backups Big SQL: Query-able (Rapid) Archive Two Models for High Performance Analytics IBM Open Platform (alone) is similar to Hortonworks This is Hortonworks…Oh wait...no, its BigInsights! IBM Open Data Platform as of 1 IBM Open Platform vNext (1Q 2016) IBM’s Big R vs Native Open Source R Sequential vs Task Parallel Execution Automatically Distributes Workload Across Cluster Spark SQL vs Big SQL How did Big SQL Scale? Client Stories - Leveraging IBM Value Adds Public Customer References Big R Machine Learning – Scalability and Performance	Business Strategy
Information Dashboard Science and Design The Science Behind Effective Dashboard Development Learn how to strategically design analytics dashboards to bring actionable insights to light. During this webinar recording, Senturus Co-Founder John Peterson explores the science behind creating effective dashboards, including the challenges, opportunities and human factors that come into play. Using this science as the basis, John gives his top 13 tips to optimize dashboard visualizations. PRESENTER John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Preface: Common Questions We want to implement Self-Service BI, how…? We need to develop a Dashboard, what should…? Do we really need a Data Warehouse? What’s the Right tool for the job? A Few Resources to Start Things Off Edward Tufte Stephen Few (Perceptual Edge) Nathan Yau (Flowing Data) Andy Kirk (Visualisingdata.com) New York Times Infographics www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/29/us/year-in-interactive-storytelling.html Kaplan & Norton (Balanced Scorecard) The Problem: Challenges, Opportunities & Human Factors Today’s Recipe for Decision Making Support Business Requirements inform Display & Visualization Raw Data inform Display & Visualization, but requires much more Relative Time and Energy put into Transformation Recipe for Better Decision Making Business Requirements and Raw Data inform Display & Visualization, but each requires a more balanced, equal amount of Relative Time and Energy put into Transformation Considerations In the journey of the data from the sources to the information “consumer/user,” how much time and energy have you really focused on the final 24 inches? The Vision Thing When our eyes are open, our vision accounts for two-thirds of the electrical activity of the brain — a full 2 billion of the 3 billion firings per second, and50% of our neural tissue is directly or indirectly related to vision (Source: Neuroanatomist R.S. Fixot, 1957) More of our neurons are dedicated to vision than the other four senses combined, and olfactory cortex is losing ground to the visual cortex. About 60 percent of our smell-related genes have been permanently damaged in this neural arbitrage(Source: John Medina, Brain Rules, 2015) Example 1: Preattentive Processing The unconscious accumulation of information from the environment Prior to conscious perception, yet very powerful Example 1: Preattentive Attributes Example 2: Color Perception The effect of contrast Example 3: Memory Types Sensory Memory: < 1 second Ultra-short-term memory and decays or degrades very quickly, typically in the region of 200 - 500 milliseconds (1/5 - 1/2 second) after the perception of an item Short-Term (Working) Memory: < 1 minute Holds a small amount of information (typically around 7 items or even less) in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time (typically from 10 to 15 seconds, or sometimes up to a minute). Long-Term Memory: life-time Decays very little, but requires more “effort” to store & retrieve Implications Information display methods matter a lot Color Shape Layout Page size Contrast & Context Tapping into your brain’s innate capabilities will enhance information delivery efficacy And What Gets Measured “What gets measured gets managed.” (Source: Peter Drucker, 1954) "If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.”(Source: Lord Kelvin, 1883) “I chalked a big “6” on the floor, and then passed along without another word. When the night shift came in they saw the “6” and asked about it.” (Source: Charles Schwab, US Steel, 1917) “Metrics don’t just report results, they drive strategy.” (Source: Kaplan & Norton, 1992) What is a Dashboard Really? What is an Information Dashboard? Definition A dashboard is an information display that people use to rapidly monitor current conditions that potentially require an immediate response to fulfill a specific role. (Source: Stephen Few, revised 2015) Dashboards display information that matters, is updated frequently, requires a timely response. (Source: Stephen Few, 2015) Other Display Types (Source: Stephen Few, 2015) Lookup Report, for lookup Explanatory Report, for narrative Infographic, for narrative Live Presentation, for narrative Dashboard, for monitoring Analytical Application, for guided data analysis EDA Tool, for exploratory data analysis Predictive Model, for predictive analysis More Implications A person’s role really matters One size fits all dashboards are suboptimal Business requirements drive design/layout Layout matters Particularly if it exceeds one page Efficient use of space is critical Filtering, interactivity state changes actually reduce dashboard effectiveness Choice of what to display is crucial So is how you display it Putting It All Together: Do’s and Don’ts Different Strokes for Different Folks: Consider “Role-specific” Dashboards Example: Store Dashboard vs. District Dashboard Who exactly is the audience? What specific decisions do managers need to make with the data? “One size fits all” rarely fits anyone well Filtering (especially when not persistent and obvious) destroys “situation awareness” Consider modular approach, but beware of lack of Maintainability, consistency, company priority Don’t Waste Space: Stick to One Screen Use appropriate graph types and layout Real-life example from US Patent & Trademark Office vs. Award winning dashboard (Perceptual Edge, 2012) Personalized Surf Report Simple and Clean is Best Watch your data-ink (or data-pixel) ratio If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority Be Very Careful with Color Powerful but dangerous Avoid Gratuitous Graph Types Nice eye-candy, but not good information Beware of vendor provided templates Focus on Leading (vs. Lagging) indicators Don’t drive via the rear view mirror Unique visitors vs. past financials Emails opened New customers signed up Events attended Samples requested Contracts in process Integrate Context Relative to what? Metrics versus: Last year Plan Forecast Rolling average Competition Industry averages/standards Use Ratios, Variances, Moving Averages, and Trends Help identify the issues Provide Drill-to-Detail Interactivity And conditional formatting Consider your Delivery Platform(s) Beware of Mockups Requirements tend to harden Watch out for amateurs acting like pros Focus on core requirements instead Metrics and measures Dimensionality Prototype Early and Often Before major development, be sure to: Explore the data Unearth requirements Test preferences Test tools Sell the concept John Peterson’s Management Level Rework Theorem Beware of copious, often contradictory, feedback Number of rework iterations = Number of levels of management in the review loop Corollary:Cost and duration of project is directly proportional to levels of management involved The Good News: Parting Thoughts The tools are better than ever More powerful More flexible More built-in (best practices) More modular The need for good information is more pressing than ever There are now some (but not lots of) good examples in use Go forth and visualize! Additional Resources Books Information Dashboard Design (2^nd edition) by Stephen Few The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte Visualize This by Nathan Yau The Balanced Scorecard by Robert Kaplan & David Norton John Peterson’s library (just call me) Other Graph Selection Matrix (Perceptual Edge) www.perceptualedge.com/articles/misc/Graph_Selection_Matrix.pdf New York Times Infographics www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/29/us/year-in-interactive-storytelling.html	Business Strategy
BEGINNING COGNOS REPORT AUTHORS: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED! Learn Fundamentals Plus How They Translate to v11 Get unique insight into the most common Report Studio questions and obstacles to adoption. In addition to valuable information about Cognos BI v10.x, we explore several areas of concern regarding changes to Cognos Analytics v11. Our own report authoring expert, Albert Valdez, will help you: Overcome the uncertainty of working with Report Studio Learn best practices for creating effective reports Learn, through demos, the fundamental authoring techniques, such as interactive prompts, simple calculations, complex expressions, visualizations and drill-throughs TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Workspace, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business analytics and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Albert has served as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE These questions were answered during the webinar: Where/how do I get started with report authoring in IBM Cognos BI v10? Cognos BI v10 has a lot of options for report authoring: Report Studio, Workspace Advanced, Query Studio, and Analysis Studio. Will you describe which tool is best to use for which situation? If Report Studio is the most powerful tool, why would I ever use Workspace Advanced or Query Studio? Using Report Studio, how do I build a new report with sales information or product lines and revenue? How can I make reports more interactive so I can customize them? For example, I want to create a report that is going to be delivered to all the sales managers around the world, but each manager wants to see only the results for her/his territory. Will reports migrate from Cognos BI v10 to Cognos Analytics? Is it possible to migrate workspaces and other objects that have been built in one of the deprecated studios such as Query Studio or Analysis Studio to Cognos Analytics? What is the difference between a dashboard and a report? Can I use Report Studio to build dashboards? How can I reuse objects in a report? I’ve re-used the query within reports to add data in a line chart. Can I reuse components on multiple reports? Is it helpful to know SQL to optimize reports? Can I execute a stored procedure directly from Report Studio? In creating reports, is there any way to set a default value that is dynamic to make my prompt more intelligent?	Features
IS YOUR FINANCIAL PLANNING SOLUTION KEEPING PACE WITH YOUR BUSINESS? Cloud-Based Planning with Adaptive Insights Is Enterprise-Ready If you have been resisting cloud-based financial planning, it may be time to give it another look. Web-based solutions have matured considerably in the past few years, and offer significant benefits over traditional on-premise solutions, including lower cost of ownership and the ability to respond quickly and confidently in a volatile business environment. In particular, we have been impressed with a solution that provides the robustness, agility, and data security that are critical to the office of finance while also providing end user self-service financial planning and reporting. During this recorded webinar, you can view a demo of Adaptive Insights, a cloud-based financial planning solution. Our own enterprise planning expert Ken O’Boyle hosts the event. A 15 year planning veteran, Ken is deeply familiar with traditional on-premise planning tools, the needs of the office of Finance, and the Adaptive Insights solution. Ken shares frank comparisons between the solutions, and speaks about how Adaptive Insights can complement or replace on-premise solutions. The Adaptive Insights demo covers: Built-in features that lead to more simple implementations: versioning, time dimension/horizon, pre-defined account structure, sheet templates, etc. Unique user/planner capabilities (planning method – balance level, line-item detail, formula or breakback – can vary from one department to another for the same account) Do-it-yourself features including integrated financial reporting Security measures TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Adaptive Insights PRESENTER Ken O’Boyle Solution Architect Senturus, Inc. Ken has more than 20 years of hands-on experience architecting, implementing, and delivering training for enterprise planning, business intelligence, and data warehousing solutions. He has both a CPA and MBA. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Financial Planning Solutions Key Considerations Cloud vs. On-premise Application vs. Tool Web-based & Excel-based Options Centralized vs. Decentralized Planning Adaptive Insights Cloud vs. On-premise Application vs. Tool Web-based vs. Excel-based (with option for an MS Office add-in for reporting) Centralized vs. Decentralized Planning Differentiators Intuitive experience Customer service Integrated analytics Financial processes Support for Your Evolution Enhance planning = increases efficiency and accuracy Optimize finance = improves processes and decisions Transform performance = creates profound strategic value Demonstration	Features
Get A+ Reporting from Existing Higher Ed Analytics Solutions Portland State University Shares Its Quick Win Are you looking to do more reporting than your Banner or PeopleSoft solution provides out of the box? Many colleges and universities are looking for self-service analysis but think it requires expensive new software, the need for more already hard-to-get dollars, or the addition of expert resources. It does not! By properly preparing your data and using modules found in your existing Banner or PeopleSoft solution, you can provide integrated insights across your entire organization and dramatically improve report creation time and accuracy. In this webinar learn about the potential that already exists in current reporting system. Portland State University demonstrates how they were able to quickly obtain ROI by dramatically improving their report performance. We examine how data preparation allows you to leverage your ERP solution to: Stop performing time-consuming, manual data manipulation in Excel and Access Create reports in seconds, not days Adapt to new reporting requirements exponentially faster Respond efficiently to auditing requirements such as Title IX, Higher Education Opportunity Act, and HIPPA Enable self-service analytics and user adoption Ensure accurate, consistent data Improve report performance TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Banner, PeopleSoft, Cognos RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES Higher Education Institutions, Universities PRESENTERS Alison Nimura BI Manager Portland State University John O’Rourke Architect, Education Senturus, Inc. Jim Pelichowski Architect, Education Senturus, Inc. Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Current State of Analytics in Higher Ed Trends in Analytics in Higher Ed Challenges, Barriers, Concerns Solutions & Roadmap Shift to self-service Performance Enterprise data warehouse requires a enterprise-wide investment Portland State University Case Study & Demo	Business Strategy
COGNOS 10.2.2 PERFORMANCE TUNING Best Practices for Optimizing Your Investment Performance Tuning Learn proven practices and industry standards for setting up your Cognos servers to handle anything you can throw at it. In this free webinar, we focus on how to fine-tune the following different aspects of the Cognos environment to maximize the platform’s potential: Hardware-based Performance: Hardware to procure for servers, virtual vs. physical servers, and how to structure your environment Cognos Server Tuning: Settings to adjust, establishing enough resources to handle concurrent user base 64/32-Bit: Determining which one is right for your organization, leveraging 64-bit advantages Data Tuning: Determining when a data warehouse is needed, tackling bottlenecks, Dynamic Cubes and PowerCubes Discover how to get the most out of your Cognos investment. PRESENTER Todd Schuman Cognos Architect Senturus, Inc PRESENTATION OUTLINE Hardware Performance Sizing Up Servers: Processors, Sockets, and Cores Processes An independent program running on a computer. A process has a full stack of memory associated for its own use, and does not depend on another process for execution. Thread A thread is essentially a process that does not have a full stack of memory associated for it. The thread is tied to a parent process, and is merely an offshoot of execution. Typically thread processes must run on the same computer, but can execute simultaneously on separate cores of the same node. Hyper-threading Hyper-threading is an Intel technology that originally preceded multi-core systems, and was used to make a single core appear logically as multiple cores on the same chip. Intel abandoned hyper-threading briefly during the advent of multi-core processors but reintroduced the technology in 2008. Since then, Intel has used it extensively to improve the performance of parallel computations in its multi-core processors. Hyper-threading improves performance by sharing the computational workload between multiple cores whenever possible, allowing the operating system to schedule more than one process at a time. Adjusting RAM Use the following memory settings as a starting point and adjust them based on the memory usage of your system. 2 GB for the base operating system and accompanying software, such as antivirus, back up, and enterprise management software 4 GB for a 64-bit Content Manager JVM 4 GB for a 64-bit Application Tier JVM 2 GB for the graphics JVM (IBM Cognos Workspace) 2-4 GB for the query service (dynamic query mode) JVM 1 GB per core for the report services processes (dynamic query mode) (JVM) 2 GB per core for the report services processes (compatible query mode) (BIBuS) Note: Dual Core, 64-bit Single Server needs 16GB for CQM Distributed Environments Load balancing Fail over Hardware aligned for specific Cognos needs Scalable Virtual vs. Physical Servers Pros Reduced maintenance on physical servers Easily allocate additional resources Cons Overhead: 5-10% Dedicated resources Cognos Server Tuning Concurrent Users 100:10:1 Rule 100 Named Users 10 Active Users 1 Concurrent User 4,000 Named Users = 40 Concurrent Users Dispatcher Tuning 93 Tuning Categories! Batch Report Processes 1 * # CPU Cores, 2GB CQM, 1GB DQM Interactive Report Process 2 * # CPU Cores, 2GB CQM, 1GB DQM Dispatcher Requests High Affinity Tasks Report Viewer links (Run again, Return) HTML report navigation(Top page, Page up, Page down, Bottom page Delivery options(Save, Save As, Print, Email, Viewing) Low Affinity Tasks Report Querying(Reporting, Report Processing) Report Authoring(Metadata Retrieval, Query Validation) Administrative(Testing Data Source Connections, Adding Objects (Folders, Jobs, Schedules, etc.), Refreshing Portal Page) Peak/Non-Peak Hours WebSphere Liberty Profile To reduce the startup time, memory footprint, and resources used, use the default setting of 768. To balance between fast startup time and quick operating speeds, type a value about 1.5 times the default value, such as 1152. To maximize operating speeds and if performance is more important than fast startup time, and if your computer has a lot of resources, type a value about double the default value, such as 1536. Quick Fixes ISAPI instead of CGI Improved management of multiple users IIS – Content Expiration COG_ROOT>/webcontent/pat/images 600+ Images Set HTTP Response Headers Common Headers Expire Web Content Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) Not using DMQ? Turn off Query Service to gain 1GB RAM each server Performance and Scalability Testing End-User Transactions and Load Generation Tools IBM Rational Performance Tester HP Loadrunner Telerik Test Studio (previously Fiddler) Server Resource Tools Microsoft’s SysInternals Tools (Windows) Microsoft’s Performance Monitor (Windows) NMon (AIX and Linux) ‘top’ and ‘ps’ (Linux and UNIX) 64-bit and Data / Report Tuning 64-bit Advantages Access more memory 64-bit registers allow faster, more efficient execution Stability DQM / Dynamic Cubes In-memory Aggregation Relational DMR Run DQM Install JDBC Drivers Enable JDBC Connections Enable JDBC in Framework Manager Senturus.com/Resources Beyond PowerPlay: Choosing OLAP Dynamic Cubes in 10.2 IBM Cognos Dynamic Cube Deep Dive Star Schema Less join paths Allows quick understanding, navigation, and analysis of large, multidimensional data sets Flexibility Summary Tables Pros Eliminate need for large, on-the-fly aggregation of large tables Fast performance Cons Requires DBA / maintenance Built at only one level of aggregation Power Cubes Pros Drill up / down Aggregation at every dimension Cognos dimensional functions Cons File size Latency Build time Other Performance Causes Reporting Design Database Performance Network / Firewall Stitched Queries Local Processing Infinite Others	Tips & Tricks
FASTER SELF-SERVICE DATA ANALYTICS Data Enrichment with Alteryx Business analysts deal with multiple types of data from a variety of internal and external sources, including behavioral data, census data, sales data, and predictive data. All too often, they are spending too much time preparing data, or relying on others to get the data in the right format for visualization. These burdens often mean missed opportunities regarding the richness of the information. In this webinar, learn how Alteryx empowers analysts to deliver deeper insights to the organization. See how self-service data analytics help organizations to: Put all available data in the hands of the line of business analysts who are most familiar with the day-to-day business challenges Blend predictive analytics and spatial data with existing datasets to enhance the profitability of marketing and asset location strategies Complement their current data prep solution Handle and enrich all types of data, including demographic, social media, and the rapidly-emerging Hadoop-based datasets Perform sophisticated analysis and easily repeat the process – without coding Feed directly into visualization environments such as Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI Free Trial of Alteryx Download a free trial of Alteryx Designer. Learn More TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Hadoop / Big Data, Data Warehouses, Microsoft Power BI, Qliktech, Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Program or Project Managers, Predictive: Quality Assurance, Risk & Fraud PRESENTERS John Policaro  West Region Channel Manager Alteryx John manages the Alteryx Partner Ecosystem for the West Region. He has been working with technology leaders in BI and analytics, helping clients and partners, for over 15 years. Assisting individuals succeed in leveraging transformative solutions, such as Alteryx, is a passion. Kim Hands Solutions Engineer Alteryx Kim has served in a variety of customer and partner enablement roles. She enjoys helping organizations unleash the power of their data through analytics and is most excited when new users see for themselves how Alteryx can transform their day-to-day data needs. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Top four barriers analysts face Legacy analytics: multi-step, multi-tool approach The Alteryx solution for analyst enablement Demonstration of Alteryx solution	Business Strategy
PREVIEW OF COGNOS ANALYTICS VERSION 11 Totally New User Interface With Cognos Analytics v11, IBM has taken self-service analytics head on. In this recorded webinar, our guest from IBM previews the new functionality including the user-friendly interface with great visualizations. Cognos Analytics will be widely available at the end of 2015. Highlights of the changes include: Interactive and personalized self-service reporting that provides answers without involving IT No more multiple studios, just one clean, simple UI with intuitive functionality for reporting and dashboard needs The added functionality of modeling on the web TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Cognos Analytics, Cognos BI RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO) PRESENTER Jim Youldassis Business Analytics Portfolio Architect IBM PRESENTATION OUTLINE Cognos Analytics Portal – Welcome Screen Easy access to samples Coach marks to guide users Navigation Revamp New sliding panels for each section Helps to retain current context Allows easy navigation with minimal complexity Content Management Manage content in wide view Create folder, sort, copy, move and more Properties New Names Search: Newly redesigned My content: Content from my folder Team content: Content from public Folder Recent: List of all recently used assets Portal Pages & Tabs Pages Opens in new browser tab, outside of the new UI Cannot set them as home Cannot create them Tabs Cannot be set as home Planned to create as shortcuts for the users Authoring Authoring interface merges Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced It’s the same studio under the covers It uses same XML report specification Other Items Prompts have slightly different appearance User interface profiles not available Templates now in template folder No more editing XML file to customer template palette Query Studio & Analysis Studio Studios still available No changes in functionality or look Launches in new browser tab Existing Reports Assets Existing reports are upgraded in “non-interactive” mode by default Switching to “interactive mode” will remove all JavaScripts and prompt APIs Query Studio reports -> no change Analysis Studio reports -> no change Saved outputs -> no change Report Views -> no change Report properties -> no change Name, descriptions, security Cognos Workspace Opens in a new browser tab Fully functional (filter, toolbar actions, drill) Can edit, create new dashboards Cannot set as home Removed: Do More, new report widget Manage Basic administrative capabilities Targeted at the departmental admin Simplified UI Uploaded Files Existing reports will continue to work 2.2 My Data Sets are no longer updateable Re-upload your data using new upload files feature Schedules & Subscriptions All schedules and jobs are maintained Users can now subscribe to reports The report is delivered to their notification center on a schedule Data, Metadata & Query Framework Manager, models and packages as is Compatible Query Engine (CQE) as is Dynamic Query Engine (DQE) as is Dynamic Cubes and Cube Designer as is PowerPlay and Transformer as is Infrastructure Changes Gateway removed Moving internal APIs from SOAP to REST Life Cycle Manager will be updated and will ship later Embeddability& Partner Apps Viewer URL APIs should continue to work SDK is unchanged Some APIs may no longer work New UIs are not part of the SDK Portlets to embed content in third party portal unchanged SharePoint WebSphere Other Changes Event Studio – No change (opens in new browser tab) Metric Studio – No change (opens in new browser tab) Cognos Office Connection – No change Drill-through definitions – No change (opens in new browser tab) Cognos mobile native apps – Remove access to regular reports and consume Active Reports and CW only	Features
IBM COGNOS ANALYTICS VERSION 11 DISCUSSION Whitepaper Overview of Changes and Features IBM Cognos Analytics is the new name for, and the next version of, IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. You can think of it as version 11. This document, authored by IBM, discusses various aspects of the Cognos Analytics product. The topics covered include: Licensing Unified User Experience Quirks and Standard HTML New Portal Search Cognos Connection Portal Pages and Portal Tabs Global Experience My Inbox Watch Items Limited Administrative Capabilities Full Administration Portal (Cognos Administration) Capabilities Cognos Connection Package Drill Through Event Studio Authoring and Reports Limited and Fully Interactive Reports Drill Through Active Reports as Prompts Query Studio and Analysis Studio Mobile and Touch Enablement Web Based Modeling/Data Modules and Uploaded Files Upload Data Files Cognos 10 External Data and My Data Sets Intent-driven modeling JDBC Drivers Lineage and Glossary Legacy Components Cognos Workspace TM1 Widgets PowerPlay and Transformer Cognos Analytics Architecture Report Server and Data Sources Content Manager Web Gateway IIS IIS with Kerberos Apache or HIS Example Configuration Load Balancing Gateway Install Gateway Install Partner and Application Integration User Interface Styling Authentication Install and Upgrade Upgrade and Life Cycle Manager	Features
NEW CALCULATIONS IN TABLEAU 9 New Level of Detail and Regex() Calculations Tableau version 9 includes powerful calculation functions that are more complex than the usual functions. This webinar covers the following topics: Learn how to use REGEX() functions See examples of Level of Detail calculations Learn how to solve database issues with these functions Our Tableau expert, Chuck Hooper, shows how these functions are useful for solving database issues (for example: many to one) where custom SQL has been the typical solution. For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Tableau RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Predictive: Quality Assurance, Risk & Fraud PRESENTER Chuck Hooper's career includes over five decades of business and IT experience. He started Tableau's Professional Services consulting organization and is one of the few individuals officially designated as a Tableau Zen Master 2012-2014. He conducts training sessions on the use of Tableau Software products, and does speaking engagements on visual analytics, data warehouse design and other business intelligence topics at both the technical and the executive levels. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Regular Expressions in Tableau REGEXP_REPLACE() REGEXP_MATCH() REGEXP_EXTRACT() REGEXP_EXTRACT_NTH() Level of Detail Expressions FIXED INCLUDE EXCLUDE Regular Expression Assistance Links Tutorial Easy Testing of Regular Expressions ICU Regular Expressions Guide	Tips & Tricks
Cognos CAFE Using Excel with Cognos TM1 and Cognos BI Cognos Analysis For Excel (CAFE) is a popular way for business and financial analysts to combine enterprise information with local data in an Excel spreadsheet that can be refreshed as server information changes. In this webinar recording, we look at the capabilities of CAFE, compare them when using the tool with TM1 versus Cognos BI as a source and share useful tips and caveats along the way. Providing demos of concepts, we cover the following topics: Differences between using CAFE with TM1 and Cognos BI When and why to consider using CAFE Useful techniques and common pitfalls If you'd like to learn more, you may be interested in taking our Cognos Analysis for Excel training course. You will learn how to combine queries of Cognos data with Excel features to create complex, presentation quality reports. It also covers customization options and sharing of CAFE content. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos BI, CAFE (Cognos Analysis for Excel), Cognos TM1 Recommended Audience BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Financial Planners, Financial Analysts, Finance Managers, Marketing Analysts PRESENTER Ken O’Boyle Solution Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE What is CAFE? Excel add-in (IBM Cognos tab/ribbon) Provides analytical and report authoring capabilities against Cognos BI packages and TM1 cubes Evolving as the successor to TM1 Perspectives, the legacy add-in for TM1 forms and reports Productivity tool to streamline report writing tasks Why use CAFE? Excel is the most widely used reporting tool with estimates of nearly 1 billion users. Many reports will be done in Excel; CAFE can make the task more productive, reliable and accurate. Leveraging Excel skills can broaden authoring and self-service capabilities within the organization. Enables IT/BI groups to focus on high priority, high impact projects and delegate some report writing to business users. Best of both worlds: Excel ease-of-use, cell-based calculations and formatting, charting, print precision combined with refreshable links to governed, system of record data. Demonstration CAFE Modes Exploration – List or Crosstab (BI and TM1) Cell-based (BI) Flex View (TM1) Launch CAFE Click IBM Cognos icon IBM Cognos panel opens to access server content Logon Logon to BI, TM1 or both Functionality is based on the selected system Exploration Overview Works with both BI and TM1 data sources Behaves like Analysis Studio/TM1 Cube viewer within Excel Limit: one exploration per worksheet/tab Each exploration can reference a different data source within a single Excel workbook Governed data can be combined with local, cell-level calculations, formatting and commentary Starting point for other modes Exploration Example Multi-page report referencing a BI and a TM1 data source Excel formatting, chart and commentary Excel page setup/print functionality Cell-based Overview Works with BI sources only (note: TM1 can be configured as a BI source) Data from multiple sources can be included on a single sheet Data access implemented with Excel functions (COGNAME and COGVAL) No IBM Cognos toolbar, limited right-mouse menu Cell-based Example Multiple data sources on a single sheet Flex View Overview Works with TM1 sources only Ability to combine data from multiple cubes/servers on a single sheet Views can be linked to each other to share parameters TM1 functionality includes write back, spreading and sandboxes Excel cell-level calculations, formatting and commentary Flex View Example Multiple Flex Views on a single sheet Link context cells Asymmetric crosstab Excel formatting, calculations Conclusion CAFE Advantages Enables IT to focus on data management and enterprise wide reporting, and delegate some report writing to business users Improves productivity Combines governed data with local data, calculations, formatting and commentary Easy to reference multiple data sources in a single workbook and a single sheet in some cases Business users can overcome technically challenging authoring by leveraging Excel skills CAFE Advice Train CAFE users on BI/TM1 exploration tools; experience with Excel does not eliminate the need for Cognos BI or TM1 knowledge Develop guidelines within your organization for when to use CAFE versus Cognos BI for report development Leverage CAFE as tool for business users to prototype and provide specifications for BI report requests Do not use CAFE to download large data sets, there are more efficient ways to move large amounts of data to the desktop	Features
Leveraging Cognos Content in MS Office Apps Professional Report Authoring for Dashboard and Desktop Use Cognos Content As an IBM Cognos licensee, you probably already own IBM Cognos for Office. This means that you can leverage dynamic content developed in Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced inside your PowerPoint, Word and Excel applications, showing trusted data that can be updated with the push of a button! In this eye-opening webinar we teach proven practices for developing reusable report artifacts that can be used in Cognos Workspace dashboards as well as within Microsoft Office applications. In this session, we review fundamental report authoring concepts and showed how to create clean and lightweight report artifacts. Following a modular approach, participants: Learn how professional authors can develop a library of reusable content that can be assembled by business users in either Cognos Workspace or Microsoft Office Understand the benefits and potential drawbacks of each approach Learn how to eliminate manual updates to desktop applications each time the data changes TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Workspace, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Microsoft Office RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Financial Planners, Financial Analysts, Finance Managers, Finance Executives (Controllers, CFO), Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors, Program or Project Managers PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Bi-Modal Business Intelligence Using Personal Data Sets in IBM Cognos New feature to version 10.2.2, previously the External Data feature was used Users can now create stand-alone packages based on local flat files such as Excel, CSV, TXT Data sets are stored in a DB2 repository, making them more centrally-available and scalable You must use DB2 for Personal Data Sets repository The version 10.1(+) External Data feature enables similar functionality, but must be associated with an existing package Joins to existing metadata are available, but NOT required Local data file is always referenced by the server From Professional Author to Information Consumer Authors must take into consideration their target audience when developing content Traditional Report Viewer audience is well-covered Things have changed with introduction of the Workspace Report PARTS are used as widgets Embedded prompts do not offer much benefit Superfluous layout elements such as page headers, footers and variables become irrelevant Workspace filtering requires common query items to reside in the report output Keep it generic, users can customize elements such as display types, palettes, simple calculations and filters within the Workspace Developing content for MS Office consumption Objects will be embedded as images Tabular objects will deliver to Excel as cell values Can be formatted using Office features, but things like data format, palette, should be managed by the author Keep it simple and clean, only relevant objects such as data containers are needed How does it work? All BI licensees have rights to the MS Office add-in Must be installed centrally on server as well as locally on each client Demonstration Authoring content for an MS Office audience Consuming content in PowerPoint Updating personal data sets and downstream impact	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Dynamic Cubes: Set to Retire Transformer? 10.2.2 Update: Pros & Cons With version 10.2.2, is Dynamic Cubes now ready to replace Transformer implementations? In this webinar, the business analytics experts at Senturus take an unbiased look at the pros and cons of switching. Drawing on our own experience and providing real client anecdotes, we examine: Types of Transformer implementations that could benefit by switching to Dynamic Cubes Pre-requisites for replacing a Transformer implementation with Dynamic Cubes Typical pitfalls you may encounter in the process TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Dynamic Cubes, Cognos Transformer RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers PRESENTER Pedro Ining Senior BI Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Cognos Dynamic Cubes: Set to Retire Transformer? Typical Customer Questions What are Cognos Dynamic Cubes? Is Transformer going away? Should I replace Transformer with Dynamic Cubes? What’s the effort to replace Transformer with Dynamic Cubes? Will Dynamic Cubes resolve my current Transformer issues? Can I still use PowerPlay Studio against Dynamic Cubes? Current Transformer Architecture Cognos Transformer Pros Fairly easy to model, build, and deploy a cube ‘ETL’ like functionality, allows creation of cubes from a variety of data sources Star schema Excel and text files Operational sources Performance For properly sized cubes, performance is quite good Once the cube is build, very little on-going tuning is required Cognos Transformer Pain Points Transformer build times are too long Size limitations prevent full analysis of data Create separate cubes for different years Transformer is a 32bit app and consequently limits the file size to 2GB Various partitioning schemes are required to implement cubes with sizes > 2GB Performance Large cubes slow as you nest dimensions Suppress ZERO is expensive for large data sets Drill through to detail Requires different packages and harder to configure Cognos BI Stack Dynamic Cubes: Key Architectural Differences A ROLAP in-memory engine that sits on top of star-schema data warehouse Does not extract all data to build a physical cube Cube startup is relatively quick Uses a variety of in-memory and disk caches to enable fast query retrieval Not limited by the physical limitations of cube size like Transformer Can query the full breadth of data warehouse facts through the use of database and in-memory aggregates Aggregate aware query engine Requires optimization maintenance processes in order for the cube to continually perform adequately Dynamic Cubes Architecture Dynamic Cubes Aggregate Layers Load time of in-memory aggregates will depend on performance of the in-database aggregates layer Dynamic Cubes Development Lifestyle Dynamic Cubes Product Evolution Dynamic Cubes was initially released in 10.2 and IBM has continually added features that may close the features gap between Dynamic Cubes and Cognos Transformer Dynamic Cubes Support of Transformer Features Relative time support Supported Custom Relative Time became available in 10.2.1 FP3 Custom Single Period e.g. Same Month, Last Quarter Custom Period-to-date e.g. Quarter-to-Date, Last Year Custom N-Period Running Total e.g. Trailing Six Months, Next Year Semi-Aggregate Time-State Rollups FIRST, LAST are supported but cannot be optimized in-memory Transformer Style Security – Suppress, Apex, Cloak Can be replicated via MDX Expressions within dimension security Orphan Categories Not supported as this should be handled in the star schema Dynamic Cubes Checklist Dynamic Cubes Checklist: Data Source Is the data stored in a star or snow-flake schema? If not, can it be ported to one Use of DB Views to create a star schema are not recommended due to performance reasons If data is in a star schema, is there referential integrity between dimensions and facts? Ignoring this check will result in erroneous totals as you drill up and down the cube Can the underlying database support execution of multiple queries against a star schema? Reports executed against a dynamic cube may result in serial execution of multiple queries Are most measures Semi-Aggregate in nature? Semi-Aggregate measures are not supported by in-memory aggregates. Manual optimization of in-database aggregates is required. Dynamic Cubes Checklist: Resources Is there access to resources with DBA skills and privileges? DBAs are a key resource in the optimal tuning of a Dynamic Cube As data volumes grow and query patterns change, creation of in-database aggregates will be required Are the personnel developing a Dynamic Cube have advanced modeling/authoring skills? Dynamic Cubes requires dimensional modeling skills as well as a good understanding of relational star schemas and SQL Queries Report developers need to understand how to author reports against dimensional sources Is the LOB responsible for application maintenance? As data volumes grow and more users write reports, a Dynamic Cubes will need to be continually optimized. This may be beyond the skill set of the LOB. Unlike Transformer, Dynamic Cubes require optimization across the full stack. Dynamic Cubes Checklist: Change Management Do you rely on Cognos PowerPlay Studio? PowerPlay Studio is only used for Transformer Cubes Transitioning to Dynamic Cubes will require a change management strategy for shifting users to Cognos Workspace Advanced Do you have many Cognos Report Studio reports against Transformer cubes? Each report will require conversion to the new Dynamic Cube Depending on the complexity of the report and structural differences between the Transformer and Dynamic Cubes, this can take 1-3 days per report Case Study Summary Customer requested a POC of Dynamic Cubes in their environment to replace a problematic Transformer implementation Key Current State Issues Transformer Cube takes 20+ hours to build for 3 years of data Various smaller cubes and packages were created as a workaround Performance using PowerPlay Studio is slow Fact table contains 600+ million rows and growing Would like to create a cube with 5 years of data for trending analysis Slow PowerPlay Studio Reports takes 4+ minutes to render Advanced complex reports are maintained by the support group Our Findings This use case could benefit from the use of a Dynamic Cubes Transformer load time of 20+ hours goes away to a fully optimized cube load of 30 minutes Performance of a majority of PowerPlay studio reports went from minutes to seconds when hitting in-memory aggregates But Need To Clean up star schema further to resolve RI issues Roadmap to optimize star schema with integer keys DBA Resources will need to be allocated up-front and on-going Continually optimize cube Plan for report conversion and change management from PowerPlay Studio to Cognos Workspace Advanced Recommend moving to 10.2.2 in order to speed up optimization via the ‘user-defined’ in-memory aggregate feature What We Did Environment was 10.2.1 FP5 Analyzed one Transformer cube Analyzed the Transformer data sources and validated the underlying star schema Modeled one Dynamic Cube against two fact tables. Based the design on how the Transformer cube was structured. Implemented one virtual cube that combines the two fact tables Optimized and validated the cube. Worked with DBAs to create in-database aggregates. Create 44 in-memory aggregates Converted one Transformer-based report to Dynamic Cubes in consultation with in-house developer What We Determined Performance Queries that hit in-memory aggregates were nearly instantaneous Queries that did not hit in-memory aggregates but hit in-database aggregates performed slower but were still in under 10secs Subsequent request of the same queries performed well due to data cache hits Queries that hit the 600M row fact table performed poorly as expected After creation of in-database aggregates, load time of in-memory aggregates went from 4 hours to 30 minutes Optimization Several runs of the Dynamic Query Analyzer were required against an adequate workload log to get satisfactory in-memory aggregates The new 10.2.2 ‘user-defined’ in-memory aggregates would have sped up optimization Data Source Star schema but: No surrogate keys were used Dimension level keys were not unique. Some were blank and rolled up to multiple parents. Later determined referential integrity between facts and certain dimensions was lacking Data Quality Due to referential integrity issues, totals and sub-totals were not footing across various dimensions Did not tie back to Transformer totals as Transformer used the ‘orphan’ category feature Report Conversion One complex report took approximately 3 days to convert. Required export to XML and search/replace parsing. Demo 2.2 user defined in-memory aggregates What happens when RI goes bad	Business Strategy
Tips for Tableau Beginners Dashboard Design with Tableau Desktop For Tableau Beginners Learn fundamental techniques and best practices to turn critical data into meaningful insights in a matter of hours using Tableau. In this webinar, we demonstrate how to use Tableau to take raw data, both from the desktop as well as from a typical enterprise data warehouse, to quickly create engaging, actionable visuals. Demonstrations highlight the following: Connecting to various data sources (flat file and database) Core techniques for visualizing data using the Tableau canvas Enhancing visualizations with filters, calculations, summaries, and palette selection Combining visualizations to construct dashboards Learn more about what the Tableau platform and philosophy, and how self-service solutions can complement a traditional, centrally managed BI initiative. For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here. PRESENTERS Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Making the Case for Data Visualization and Agile, Self-Service Business Analytics: Why It’s Important and How It’s Done What is Tableau? Mission: “Tableau helps people see and understand their data.” Software for anyone and everyone Fast access to data, wherever it lives: desktop, database, cloud (liberate data) Not constrained by IT (empower people) Easy-to-use user experience (UX) that is designed for optimal visualization from the ground up (design for people) Why is Data Visualization Such a Big Deal? When our eyes are open, our vision accounts for two-thirds of the electrical activity of the brain — a full 2 billion of the 3 billion firings per second, and… 50% of our neural tissue is directly or indirectly related to vision (Source: Neuroanatomist R.S. Fixot, 1957) More of our neurons are dedicated to vision than the other four senses combined, and… Olfactory cortex is losing ground to the visual cortex - about 60 percent of our smell-related genes have been permanently damaged in this neural arbitrage(Source: John Medina, Brain Rules, 2015) User Experience and Time to Decision Why is Data Visualization Such a Big Deal? How do we take raw data and make it visual? Traditional Business Intelligence (BI) tools provide strong visualization capabilities, why don’t we just use those? Go ahead! This is always going to be a critical solution, but we have to understand that the world is changing The variety, volume, and velocity of data are all accelerating Our time to decision window is shrinking Agile (or Self-Service) BI complements our traditional BI solution to address this changing requirement Traditional BI vs. Agile (Self-Service) The Traditional model is based on highly-governed, centralized data sources and models that are rigid and not designed to be changed in real-time There always have been, and always will be significant benefits of this model: Data governance Crucial business rules and logic are centrally managed, providing a single version of the truth Enterprise-scale, central administration for security Strengths in operational (managed) reporting But what happens when: You need to analyze data that is not available in the centralized data source? You need to perform self-service analytics in real-time, without assistance from IT? Agile BI complements this model with one that delivers information to decision makers much more quickly Traditional BI vs. Agile (Visual/Interactive) The Importance of an Analytical Approach Humans are not good with data We have dozens of built-in cognitive biases: http://businessinsider.com/cognitive-biases-2014-6?op=1 The power of Visualization cannot be overstated Raw data from: http://fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/publicsite/on_the_fly_download.aspx Can be turned into this: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ben.jones#!/vizhome/Railroad_Accidents/RailroadAccidents Tips for Tableau Beginners: Demonstration of Dashboard Design with Tableau Desktop	Tips & Tricks
Installing Cognos BI 10.2.2 Tips for Successful Migration Installing Cognos Learn important tips in order to successfully upgrade to Cognos BI version 10.2.2. During this free webinar, our experts provide attendees with a better overall understanding of the core Cognos architecture, plus discuss common pitfalls and misconceptions. This webinar covers: A review of the Cognos architecture and the individual components that can be installed in a single or multi-tiered environment The Cognos Configuration interface and what settings to modify A review of Internet Information Services (IIS), including virtual directories, handler mappings, application pools, and setting up your webpage A review of Cognos default security and how to set up a third party authentication provider TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Dynamic Cubes, Cognos Transformer, Data Warehouses RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO) PRESENTER Todd Schuman Cognos Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Installation of Cognos Components View of 10.2.2 Core Components Presentation / Web tier IBM Cognos Gateway connection Application Tier Custom fit to serve your organizations reporting needs Dispatcher: IBM Cognos Content Manager Content Manager: workhorse for the environment, content to data tier, be authenticated through third party connection Dispatcher: IBM Cognos Report Server Report Servers: heavy lifting for running reports, connected to data sources, data marts, can access OLAP cubes here as well Data tier Security namespace IBM Cognos content store Data source OLAP Component selection Cognos Content Database: small, standalone database that can be used to set up a demo environment. Wouldn’t recommend using in a production environment, but good for a demo environment. New feature in 10.2.2: IBM Cognos Quick Setup Installs all BI components (web, app, content) Install and configure servlet gateway Installs and starts DB1 10.5 Advanced Workgroup Server Edition Creates Content Store database Sets up and configured My Dataset database to allow importing flat files Configures Cognos Starts Cognos service Confusing “Content” Content Manager The Cognos service that manages the storage and retrieval of report specifications, published packages, configuration data and Cognos security settings from the content store database Content Store The set of database tables that are used by the Content Manager to store Congos application data Cognos Content Database Self-contained Apache Derby database server – can be used to host the content store database in demo environments when an enterprise DMBS is unavailable Load Balancing Cognos load balancing performed by the Dispatchers, not the Gateway The gateway always sens its requests to a single dispatcher URI – we would call this the gateway’s “current” target dispatcher Web server gateway > IBM Cognos BI servier with dispatch (will go to next one if first one fails) 64-bit vs. 32-bit 64-but Report Server includes both the 64-bit and 32-bit report server Gateway now defaults to 64-bit, no need for CopyGateMod.bat 64-bit = Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) Recommend installing 64-bit BI Server to access both report types Configuring Servers Setting up your environment Depending on how you set it up, if you’re doing a tiered environment, you’ll see different options available. Use fully qualified domain names for servers (recommended) Gateway URI Webserver (ISS, Apache) Local host vs. Fully Qualified Domain name CGI or ISAPI Ports Dispatcher URI Used by the gateway to send requests to Cognos First in list is default dispatcher Will move to second if first is not available External Dispatcher Identifies dispatcher to other external dispatchers in same installation Internal Dispatcher Always set to the same as external Exception: SSL Dispatcher URI for external applications How Framework Manager, Dynamic Query Analyzer connect to Cognos Always set to the same as external dispatcher Exception: Load Balancer (third party) Content Manager URIs Used by dispatcher and services to send requests for content manager(s) Add servers where you installed the Cognos Content Manager component Setting up Content Store and Audit Databases Must delete existing value to change type Right click to access menu (delete / test) Create database ahead of time New databases for each Cognos version Use Cognos version in database names (e.g. c1022_content) Test and ensure able to connect Setup Security Add Active Directory or LDAP Access Manager support ending soon Validate/ test connection Disable Anonymous First Run: Leave Anonymous = True Define System Admins from new AD / LDAP Remove “Everyone” from System Admin Set Anonymous = False Restart Cognos Setting Up Server Application Pools Cognos strongly recommends creating a new application pool dedicated to Cognos, instead of using default application pool Name: Specify version for future upgrades .NET Framework: 2.0 = default, 4.0 supported since 10.2.1 Managed Pipeline: Integrated Start application pool immediately if running 64-bit Virtual Directories / Applications Tell server where Cognos is installed and how to run it Alias your website [ComputerName][Alias] IBM Cognos, Cognos1022, etc. Map Path [Install Directory]webcontent Add as Application Alias = cgi-bin [required] Application Pool = Pool from Previous Slide Path = [Install Directory] ISAPI vs. CGI Common Gateway Interface (CGI) cgi set as default CGI modules spawn a new worked process for each session, which makes them unsuitable for high load production environments Internet Server Application Best practices recommend CognosISAPI.dll ISAPI provides better performance and resource allocation in high load production environments Requires additional steps and modifications ISAPI and CGI Restrictions Set ISAPI and CGI Restrictions at Top Level Path: [Install Path]cgi-bincognosisapi.dll Ensure “Allow extension path to execute” is checked Handler Mappings Add Handler Mappings at cgi-bin level Request Path: cognosisapi.dll Module: ISAPIModule Executable: [install path]cgi-bincognosisapi.dll Name: CognosISAPI Modify HTML and Web.Conf Files HTML files Navigate to [Cognos Install Dir]webcontent Edit default.htm and index.htm files Changes cognos.cgi to cognosisapi.dll Config Navigate to [Cognos Install Dir]cgi-bin Edit web.config Add allPathInfo=”true” after Common Pitfalls Where is the Software? Cognos Service Accounts Add Cognos service account to Local Administrator group Ensure Cognos service account is confused to run Cognos Service Data Execution Prevention (DEP) Installed on almost all servers, intended to stop malicious code from running Right click My Computer Select System Properties Advanced Tab Performance Options Button Data Execution Prevention tab Simple approach: Essential Windows programs and services only Advanced approach: add individual exceptions for Cognos Database Connections Incompatible Collation Sequence The Cognos Content Store requires a case-insensitive collation sequence. SQL Server: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS Oracle: AL32UTF8 Oracle: Incorrect JDBC Driver File for Content Manager The correct JDBC drive must be copied from the Oracle client installation location to.. /webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/lib Dynamic Query Mode: Spaces in the path to the JDBC Drives DQM cannot handle spaces in the path to the JDBC drivers Use non spaced paths such as “C:IBMCongos..”instead Incorrect Bitness of Database Client Software For Compatible Query Mode (CQM), access to 3rd party data sources, 64-bit Cognos still requires 32-bit client libraries Oracle: Install 32-bit client libraries when running Cognos on 64-bit server SQL Server: 64-bit native client includes 32 and 64-bit libraries IIS Role Services Server Manager IIS Add Roles Services Ensure the following are installed: ISAPI Extensions Windows Authentication	Tips & Tricks
The Microsoft Modern Data Warehouse Must-Have Capabilities a DW Needs to Fit Modern BI and Analytics The traditional data warehouse is under pressure from the growing weight of explosive volumes of data, the expansive variety of data types, and the real-time processing velocity of how data is being used. These changes are so seismic that Gartner reports, “Data warehousing has reached the most significant tipping point since its inception. The biggest, possibly most elaborate data management system in IT is changing.“ This whitepaper provides a discussion of the necessary capabilities needed for DW to evolve to fit modern BI and analytics needs along with a look at the Microsoft modern datawarehouse solution. Included are case studies, an examination of Hadoop and various deployment options and hybrid scenarios. PRESENTATION Outline The traditional data warehouse Traditional data source, IT management The advent of Web 2.0 Core business value: historical analysis and reporting Key trends breaking the traditional data warehouse Increasing data volumes Case study: Hy-Vee Supermarkets Real-time data Case study: Direct Edge Stock Exchange New sources and types of data Cloud-born data Logical information architecture Evolve to a modern data warehouse Data management and processing Data enrichment and federated query Business intelligence and analytics The Microsoft Modern Data Warehouse All volumes Scale-out relational data Scale-out non-relational data Case study: Hy-Vee Supermarkets Real-time performance In-memory columnstore performance Case Study: Bank of Nagoya Any data What is Big Data? Common scenarios for Big Data What is Hadoop? Integration of Hadoop non-relational data Case Study: Direct Edge Stock Exchange Deployment options and hybrid solutions Box software Prebuilt appliance Cloud-based deployment Conclusion	Features
Demystifying In-Memory Technologies Best Uses and Competitive Advantages for the Enterprise With technology advances and an increasingly attractive price-performance, in-memory technologies have proliferated from their early days to take center stage on buzzword bingo cards. You may be wondering, what is in-memory, and what can it be used for, particularly for the enterprise? In this webinar, we address these questions and more, as we discuss the origins and history of in-memory technologies with a review of high-level architectures. We also dive into several primary applications and use cases, including transactional, operational, and analytical, and examine the different ways this technology may benefit the enterprise by providing a competitive advantage. PRESENTER Michael Weinhauer Practice Area Director and Solutions Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Current Challenges Setting the Stage Can the speed at which your current reports run best be described asglacial? Are the number and type of data sources in your organization best being described asexploding? Current Challenges: Data Explosion Volume In 2005, mankind created 150 Exabytes of information. In 2011, 1,200 Exabytes will be created (The Economist) Velocity Worldwide digital content will double in 18 months, and every 18 months thereafter (IDC) Variety 80% of enterprise data will be unstructured spanning traditional and non traditional sources (Gartner) Setting the Stage Is the speed of your business processes best communicated using geologic time? Do changes and additions to your EDW require superhuman effort? Are the demands for real-time information in your enterprise skyrocketing? Time Value of Information Varies greatly but time is decreasing and value is potentially unlimited in some cases Latency occurs between data collection, analysis, and decision points There are three dimensions of latency on the continuum between when an event occurs and when an informed action is taken: data latency, analysis latency, and decision/action latency Data latency is the time it takes to collect raw data, prepare it for analysis, and store it where it can be accessed and analyzed. Important functionality here includes data profiling, extraction, validation, cleansing, integration, transformation, delivery, and loading. There are a wide variety of tools and products that address one or more of these aspects of data latency. These tools fall into several categories, including extract, transform, and load (ETL); data replication; enterprise application integration (EAI); enterprise information integration (EII); master data management (MDM); and others. The destination platform of the data is typically a data warehouse or data mart. Analysis latency is the time it takes to access the data, analyze the data, turn the data into information, apply business/exception rules, and generate alerts if appropriate. Analysis may be done by a user or an application. Decision latency is the time it takes to receive an alert, review the analysis, decide what action is required, if any, based on knowledge of the business, and take action. Setting the Stage Have you dreamt of brilliant new ideas that would catapult your company light years ahead of the competition, but can’t suggest them because you’ll sound crazy? The Problem with Hard Drives: Latency = SLOW 10ms for spinning physical disk I/O .2ms for SSD (50x faster) .0001ms for RAM (2000x faster than SSD, 100,000x faster than physical disk) Server Technology State in 1995 Existing systems were created using the optimal architecture at the time RAM: small and expensive CPU: smaller, single-core, non hyper-threaded, no cache HDD: smaller, slower Slower LAN/WAN Addressable memory (16-bit/32-bit) In 1995, 16-bit applications were still the norm Currently Implemented Technology State RAM: larger, still relatively small, 64-128GB CPU: quad-core, hyper-threaded HDD: faster, some SSD Clustering: 4-8 node LAN/WAN: gigabit Ethernet, Optical OC-48 32-bit Applications, some 64-bit Current Available Technology State RAM: 12TB, NVRAM CPU: 16 sockets, multi-core, MPP HDD: high capacity SSD Clustering: infinite nodes LAN/WAN: 100 gigabit Ethernet, Optical OC-96 64-bit Applications Trends: Logarithmic Drops in Cost and Increase in Capacity High End Server Configurations What is In-Memory? In-Memory Defined Traditional Architecture So Why Don’t I Just Get a Box with a Bunch of RAM? In-Memory Architecture Types of In-Memory TM1 Cube engine resides in memory, early 64-bit application Duplicates data from source Highly indexed bitmapped array, i.e. not columnar Dynamic Cubes In-memory ROLAP engine, sits on top of RDBMS (DB2) Replicates data from source Qlik, Spotfire, Tableau In-memory, columnar stores, replicate data DB2 BLU, Oracle 12c, MSFT Accelerator Duplicates data into separate store to improve performance RDBMS instance lives in-memory Extend existing RDBMS skills and technology Exalytics, PureData, Teradata Appliance optimized for analytics Combines in-memory with SSD Built-in intelligence for optimizing in-memory SAP Hanna Appliance-like Completely in-memory (OS, Engines, Data) SSD for log files Engines exist natively on the same instance Use Cases: In-Memory Technology Transactional/Operational Simplify and optimize business processes Batch-oriented or process-intensive areas like MRP New business processes Real-time re-pricing Real-time offers Embed operational reporting into transaction processing Order fulfillment Eliminate/minimize need for ETL Landscape Simplification Eliminate redundant data and hardware Less power, cooling, floor space, manpower, maintenance Easier H/W upgrades Less/simpler ETL Bring the engine(s) to the data Analytical Agile Analytics Real-time Sentiment Analysis Ads Re-pricing Complex Event Processing of Streaming Sensor Data Predictive/Prescriptive Fraud Detection Machine Learning Geospatial Text Analysis Image/Video Simplifying the Stack = Speed and Agility A key advantage of running in-memory and having HW acceleration is that you no longer need data marts, aggregates and indices. You can create logical representations of these in memory using views because you are running 1 million times faster than disk. Also, because you are using columnar technology, you see 2.5x -5x or more compression. This compresses the size of your DW. This is important because it significantly reduces the total amount of data that requires managing. In some cases, where the engine is embedded in the server, as in the appliance case, you can eliminate another layer. Finally, we reduce latency by enabling real-time replication of information into super fast analytical appliance. You don’t need an operational data store anymore. Operations and Analytics Together Use a single environment for both analytics and applications Proof Point: Step-by-Step Process Today: Demand Forecasting (APO-DP Variant) How Processes Change with In-Memory: Demand Forecasting (APO-DP Variant) Success Stories MKI: sequences DNA from biopsies, delivers targeted treatment regimen in 20 minutes, down from 2-3 days Citi – Foreign Exchange: 100ms delay costs $1m Google: half second delay in search results in 20% traffic drop = lost revenue Implications, Considerations, Predictions, Musings Time Value of Information We mentioned earlier that the value of information declines rapidly over time. This is true, until you need it again- for an audit, or historical analysis – whatever the reason. Because of the cost of in-memory, you will likely want to segment your data to keep only the most used data in memory, while placing other data in more cost-effective stores. Data Temperature Transparent query processing Cross-store optimizer Data for immediate use (daily, hourly etc. reporting) direct from source/stream Pareto principle: 20% of data falls into this category High potential candidate for in-memory or flash/SSD Data for immediate use: daily, hourly etc. reporting 20% of data falls into this category Good candidate for columnar store Infrequently used data Archive storage Good candidate for Hadoop, traditional RDBMS, tape or other offline Data Temperature Analysis: Example Captured by analysis of database statistics Can also be captured via audit reports from BI tools Business impact analysis Not All Technologies are Created Equal Who is how columnar? Comparison of Vendor/Product and Columnar Maturity Teradata Database: 2 Oracle Exadata: 1 SAP HANA: 3 Pivotal Greenplum/HAWQ: 2 IBM DB2 BLU: 3 Microsoft SQL Server xVelocity: 2 HP Vertica: 3 Actian Paraccel: 3 IBM Netezza: n/a SAP Sybase: IQ, 3 Infobright: 1 Vectorwise: 1+ Columnar Maturity Key Level 1 Columnar: Uses PAX to achieve columnar compression. No columnar projection provided. No columnar engine provided. Approximate 4X performance advantage over row store for read queries (10X column compression versus 2.5X row compression). Level 2 Columnar: Uses columnar compression and projection. No columnar engine provided. Approximate 10X advantage over Level 1 read queries (10% of the columns are selected). Level 3 Columnar: Uses columnar compression and projection… and includes a columnar engine that optimizes processing. Approximate 50X advantage over Level 2 read queries (Vector processing – 20X, SIMD – 8X, Fewer CPU Stalls – 2X, Cache Utilization – 10X, in-memory compression + projection 20X in differing combinations for each query) Who is how parallel? Cost Considerations & Comparisons SAP HANA Microsoft SQL Oracle TimesTen IBM DB2 BLUE Teradata Tableau Qlik Spotfire TM1 Dynamic Cubes Hadoop Implications, Predictions, Considerations, Musings For the right business problem, in-memory can truly be a game changer New competitive differentiation through the implementation of new/better business processes Real-time applications combining analytics and transactional at the point of impact In-memory technology is now mainstream and proven, and will move increasingly to de facto status As with any technology, the business value and use case should drive the adoption of a specific technology While expensive, given competition and simultaneous growth in capacity and precipitous price drops, in-memory technology will become increasingly attractive for a growing number of use cases In-memory is so fast - don't POC for incremental speed - we're talking orders of magnitude Mobile/social data can be processed fast enough in-memory then be persisted as needed Senturus Recommendations While powerful, in-memory will add the most benefit to properly architected applications Can be expensive enablers of bad habits otherwise Use the right tool for the right job Don’t just speed up bad decisions or accelerate faulty processes	Business Strategy
Transitioning to Cognos Workspace Advanced Migrating from Query & Analysis Studio IBM has recently announced that both Query Studio and Analysis Studio will be deprecated after the Cognos 10.2.2 release. With this announcement, it is important to plan an eventual migration away from Query and Analysis studio usage, as Cognos Workspace Advanced will serve as the new environment for future ad-hoc queries or analysis type capabilities. This webinar provides an overview of the Cognos Workspace Advanced user interface and capabilities against both relational and dimensional data source. In addition, we compare and contrast Workspace Advanced against Query and Analysis Studio, including a review of any current functionality gaps. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Query Studio, Cognos Analysis Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Managers PRESENTER Pedro Ining Senior BI Architect Senturus, Inc. Pedro brings over 20 years of business intelligence experience to his engaging and informative presentations. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Have you migrated from Query Studio and Analysis Studio to Cognos Workspace Advanced? We have already migrated Not yet, but we have a plan in place to migrate We do not have a migration plan IBM Deprecation of Query Studio & Analysis Studio 10.2.2 will be the last release to include Analysis & Query Studio Subsequent releases will NOT INCLUDE Analysis & Query Studio Query & Analysis Studio will be supported until Oct 2018, you can pay for an additional 3 years of support beyond 2018 Subsequent Cognos releases will bridge current gaps between Cognos Workspace Advanced and Query/Analysis Studio What about existing QS & AS Reports? Query Studio Existing Query Studio reports will be able to run from the portal and editable in CWA Analysis Studio IBM is not intending that users edit existing analysis reports in Cognos Workspace Advanced Users will be able to run all existing Analysis Studio assets from the portal and create new analyses as required Migration Options Individual Query Studio report migration Open each QS report in CWA and perform a Save As What if our users have hundreds of QS and AS reports? Motio is a company that specializes in Cognos Administration tools Motiowill be adding functionality to its PI product that will allow for batch updates How Cognos Thought It Should Work... Cognos 10 Going Forward Cognos Workspace Advanced Overview Web-based tool to author reports and perform ad-hoc analysis Formerly called Business Insight Advanced in 10.0/10.1 A bridge between the older Cognos 8 Query/Analysis Studios and Report Studio Capabilities Can be used against either relational or dimensional data source New to 10.2.1 can be used with external data sources: e.g. CSV files. 10.2.2 enhances this feature with My Datasets One place for all reporting (OLAP, Relational) Presents data as Lists, Crosstabs, or Charts Integration with Cognos Workspace Compatibility with Report Studio Basically a Report Studio light Why Should We Move to Workspace Advanced? Single Interface for Ad-Hoc Query and Data Exploration Single tool for the job eliminates confusion over multiple studios Training is consolidated on to one tool Intuitive drag-and-drop interface, see data as you author More functionality than Query and Analysis Studio Leverage multiple queries and objects, more flexibility with charts and lists/crosstabs, improved formatting and layouts Empowers users to create more complex professional looking reports without the complexity of Report Studio, bridges the gap Integration with Cognos Workspace Perform in-context analysis directly from Workspace without needing to jump to another studio and start from scratch Integration with Report Studio Start with CWA to create a simple report that can be further enhanced by professional report developers in Report Studio Query & Analysis Studio will be gone in subsequent releases Comparison Chart with Query Studio, Analysis Studio, Workspace Advanced User Interface The user interface exposes the most commonly used controls needed for reports including business view of data, object formatting, and properties Cognos Workspace Advanced Report Types List report objects used to show detailed information from data source Crosstab report objects used to show data in a more summarized compact form: e.g. total sales by product line by sales reps Chart report objects used to show information graphically, various chart types are supported RAVE visualizations Report Studio Maps and Active Reports cannot be created in Cognos Workspace Advanced Enhanced Filtering Standard filtering User customizable filters bring values from Excel Copy Report Data to Excel CWA report data can be copied directly into Excel Cognos Workspace Integration From within Cognos Workspace, you edit report widgets by choosing the Do More option The widget is opened with Cognos Workspace Advanced where the report widget can be edited Once saved, the changes are reflected in Cognos Workspace Current Gaps Between Query & Analysis Studio Query Studio to CWA Gaps – CWA has most of the capabilities of Query Studio – IBM is intending to fix the following gaps in the next release: Page header special text (filter, sort and suppression text) Templates with page header, footer, and special text support Filter attributes on lists Drill through from Cognos Workspace Advanced Filter on group summaries Number of days filter Aggregate options: Ranking Median, Standard Deviation, Variance, Count Distinct, Calculated, and None in Calculation dialog. Filter on custom groups Framework Manager prompt information properties CWA has most of the capabilities of Analysis Studio – IBM is intending to fix the following gaps in the next release: Independent drill with nested or stacked edge items Move replaced edge items to the context bar to retain current context Many arithmetic functions such as rank() Page header special text (Data Source Name or PowerCube Build Date) IBM has worked with customers and determined the following gaps are NOT critical and will not be addressed in the next release: More subtitle in/excluded Linked chart and crosstab Switch between chart and crosstab Show attributes IBM has stated the existing Analysis Studio reports will NOT be editable in Cognos Workspace Advanced. Existing Analysis Studio reports will be able to run from the portal. New analyses will be created in CWA as required. Poll Question Do you consider Cognos Workspace Advanced a viable alternative to Query Studio and Analysis Studio for your organization? Yes No Unsure Only after future enhancements to Cognos Workspace Advanced	Features
Tips for Intermediate Cognos Report Studio Authors Demos of Techniques, Tips and Tricks Chock full of tip-and-trick demonstrations, this webinar helps boost productivity and makes reports more dynamic. Continuing our Beginning Cognos Report Studio Author webinar series, this session is ideal for users with a grasp of the Cognos platform and report building basics. Albert Valdez, Vice President of Learning Solutions at Senturus, provides a number of demonstrations using the Cognos BI version 10.2.2.* Covered are intermediate fundamentals such as: Dynamically filtering report data based on the user running the report Using report bursting to enable dynamic report delivery based on report groupings Using report references to quickly consolidate individual reports into a single master report Creating dual-axis charts, assigning default parameter values and using layout component references Techniques shown are applicable to all versions of Cognos BI. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Cognos Active Report RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors PRESENTER Albert Valdez* Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Poll Question How many years have you been doing development work with Cognos Report Studio? < 1 year 1-3 years 4-6 years > 6 years Business Analytics and Professional Authoring Report Studio is a professional authoring tool that leverages a metadata package, allowing us to create reports Metadata is produced using IBM Cognos Framework Manager and is based on one or more physical data sources A well-designed architecture makes authoring more effective and less labor-intensive Less data manipulation Easier to identify and understand – better query performance More stable and reliable results Good Data Architecture = More Effective Reporting	Tips & Tricks
USING TABLEAU TO GAIN ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS Overview & Demonstration of Visualization Software Executive managers and analysts are frequently turning to Tableau to get to actionable insights stored in their business intelligence environments. In many companies, Tableau is complementing existing business intelligence tools, such as those from IBM Cognos, SAP Business Objects, Oracle and Microsoft. In this webinar, “Tableau Zen Master” Chuck Hooper highlights the ease of use of this software for interactive data visualization and analysis. We build an actual dashboard, and also demonstrate how this applies across multiple industries, including manufacturing, retail, healthcare, education, and banking. For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here. PRESENTER Chuck Hooper Business Intelligence Consultant Chuck Hooper is the former head of Tableau's consulting organization. He is one of the few individuals officially designated as a “Tableau Zen Master,” and has received this recognition for the past three years, since Tableau first started bestowing this honor. He conducts training sessions on the use of Tableau Software products and does speaking engagements on visual analytics, data warehouse design, and other business intelligence topics, at both the technical and executive levels. His career includes over five decades of business and IT experience. WEBINAR DEMONSTRATIONS: OUTLINE Ease of Use Demo Tableau does automatic intelligent analysis of data files brought into the dashboard Example: Connect to Excel file on desktop and bring data into Tableau Dimensions are where Tableau categorizes and places things that are used to analyze the data (i.e. the way data is categorized) Measures are where Tableau puts numeric values associated with the data (i.e. areas that might require or warrant calculations) Simply double-click or drag and drop on dimensions and measures to bring into worksheets in dashboard, including the main shelf, side shelf, top shelf options (no need to even touch the keyboard for these purposes) Change data views including chart type, color coding, values, dates, etc. with simple clicks on various fields Create multiple sheets with different types of data charts within the same dashboard Creating a bar chart View multiple dimensions and values such as sales, profit, and product views by region, and differentiate by: Length of bar (sales) Color of bar (profit) Number of rows (region) Number of columns (product category) Thickness of bar (shipping dollars) Change from sum to average by simply clicking on field and choosing alternate view Creating a scatter plot chart Tableau will automatically select and suggest the best way to view the data (in terms of chart type) based on the measures and dimensions selected View multiple dimensions and values such as sales, profit, and product views by region, and differentiate by: Scatter plot axis (profit) Color (difference in regions) Note: Tableau also has a “color blind” palette built in as an option Filter shelf (ship date) Shape shelf (product categories) Lasso data points, right click to view underlying data Creating a map chart Tableau automatically recognizes geographic dimensions (such as state and province) from your original data document, and generates latitude and longitude measures Alter color and size of data mark to view and differentiate between different measures, such as sales and profit Map options include adding view of per capita income per state; lots of demographic variables are included as part of the Tableau Creating a date chart Look at multiple years, by quarter, or drill down to monthly views of data, and add color variances for better visibility Multiple charts (sheets) in one interactive dashboard view Making one chart a driver for other charts Choosing a measure or dimension on the driver chart will automatically change and align the data view on all the other charts associated within the same dashboard Publish workbook to Tableau hosted online server (note, must extract data first) More Advanced Capabilities Demo Tableau has a direct interface connection to R, a free statistical package open source Multi-variant outlier package (there are 7,000+ packages to choose from with R) Add color coding to each one of the outliers Tableau can also create trellis charts, as well as gauges, waterfall, and spider charts When you hover over any mark in Tableau, you get tool tips Tableau forecasting is also built in with multiple editing options in terms of forecast length, etc. Map ranges and masks Drop down view list eliminates need for tabs to change views Big Data Wine example Looking at multiple dimensions and measure (such as brand, flavor, dollars spent) all executable in sub-second response time Not aggregated data; looking at a lot of detailed rows of data Sub-second response time is coming from a Tableau data extract on notebook computer with over 1 billion rows of data Industry Examples Demo Banking Wanted to understand why customers were leaving the bank and pulling their accounts Industry database outlines various reasons people leave Local bank data comes from SQL server National average comes from Excel database Calculations done taking data from both; two different databases on one chart Healthcare Blood supply for last 30 days Three types of product: red-blood cells, platelets, fresh frozen plasma Blue reflects where transfusion was medically indicated, red reflects where it was not medically indicated Why would a doctor prescribe it if not indicated? Click into red data to see further details (who is prescribing it, cost per unit, etc.) Education Masters program, number and percent of students studying abroad Sort by region via drop down options Manufacturing Manufacturing score card: KPIs performance versus target by retailer Yellow is neutral/ok, red is bad, green is good Executive dashboard that satisfies the needs of many users Simple clicks to gray out the data you don’t want to view, and drill down to data that matters Speed to shelf chart How many days between authorizing order to time it sold, time product actually hits the shelf to seeing first sales record, etc. Price elasticity models If I raise the price of one of my products, how does it impact the sales of my other products?	Features
Is Hadoop the Demise of Data Warehousing? The Impact of Hadoop/Big Data on BI and Data Warehousing Exponential growth in data volumes and data velocity is stretching the limits of traditional business intelligence tools and architectures. Furthermore, most organizations are aware of the increasing value of their data, but are having a hard time finding the right (and cost-effective) place to store the dizzying array of new data types. And amidst all this, business users are growing ever more frustrated at not being able to get at the information they need to run their organizations. Luckily, there are solutions to these challenges. During this presentation, John Peterson gives a brief overview of some of the tools and technologies that are poised to dramatically alter the fabric of business intelligence in the next few years. Particular focus is placed on how and why Hadoop is changing the data warehousing paradigm and the implications on system architectures from a pragmatic point of view. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Hadoop, Big Data, Data Warehouse PRESENTERS John Peterson CEO & Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding.	Business Strategy
Introducing Microsoft BI Tools Microsoft BI Tools and the Key Workloads They Best Support Microsoft provides a variety of business intelligence (BI) tools that can address key workloads. In addition to providing guidance about the best BI tools to meet your organization’s analytics needs, this article discusses the workloads – Self Service BI, Corporate BI, and Advanced Analytics -- and the tools that best support each. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Introducing Microsoft BI Reporting and Analysis Tools Self-Service BI, Tool Options, Typical Infrastructure, Key Considerations Microsoft Excel Power Pivot for Excel Power Query for Excel Power View for Excel Power Map for Excel SharePoint 2013 Sites Power BI for Office 365 Power BI Designer Preview Power BI Preview Data Mining Client for Excel Corporate BI and Tool Options, Typical Infrastructure and Key Considerations Tool Options Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Analysis Services Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Reporting Services Power View for SharePoint 2013 SharePoint 2013 Dashboards Performance Point Services BI and Microsoft Azure Technologies Azure Machine Learning Azure Stream Analytics Advanced Analytics Tool Options Data Mining Client for Excel (2010, 2013) Data Mining in Analysis Services Conclusion	Features
Hadoop and the Future of SQL Using BI Tools with Big Data Hadoop is changing how businesses fundamentally operate. As Big Data processing becomes mainstream, more and more applications have begun to process data from click-streams, social media and application logs. This means applications have to accommodate data sets that are real-time, semi-structured and large-scale in nature. In this webinar, we delve into the emerging technology stack, the role that SQL queries play for Big Data, and how SQL-on-Hadoop technologies enable organizations to leverage their existing SQL skills and investments in business intelligence (BI) tools to dramatically improve: Recommendation engines for online retail. Transactional Fraud Prevention for financial services. Customized advertising. Predictive failure analytics for manufacturing. PRESENTERS Jack Norris CMO, MapR Technologies Jack leads worldwide marketing efforts for MapR, the provider of the top ranked distribution for Hadoop. Jack has over 20 years of enterprise software marketing and product management experience in defining and delivering analytics, storage, and information delivery products. John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding.	Business Strategy
IBM Cognos Reporting Tools Feature Set Comparison How Are Reporting Tools Different? One of the challenges every Cognos user faces is, "Which reporting tool should I use for my application?" With Cognos 10, you have many choices, and as such, figuring out which tool to use can be confusing. Our quick visual reference guide provides a easy-to-understand comparison between the options, including: Query Studio, Analysis Studio, PowerPlay & PowerPlay Studio, Active Report, Cognos Workspace (Standard), and Cognos Workspace Advanced. See which features and functions apply to: Software Requirements & Browser Support Data Source Support, Report Types & Visualization Report Functionality Query Support Prompting Report Formatting & Outputs Printing, Distribution & Security Licensing Considerations Ease-of-use & Development Speed	Features
Top 10 Trends in Business Intelligence for 2015 Looking Ahead at the State of Analytics Innovation in data and analytics is redefining pre-conceived notions about business intelligence, and pushing the industry into new territories. This whitepaper authored by Tableau highlights emerging concepts and inventive approaches that are now moving into the mainstream and providing a new source of value. Discover the top trends in business intelligence for 2015, including: Data governance transformation in the world of self-service analytics Social intelligence providing a competitive advantage Rapid spread of self-service throughout multiple departments Cloud analytics isn’t just for cloud data anymore Maturity of mobile options to provide on-the-go data analysis For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here.	Business Strategy
Tableau 9.0 New Features Overview of Business Intelligence Data Analysis Suite This webinar, hosted by Tableau, provides an overview of the following new features in Tableau version 9.0: Analytics in the Flow: Featuring new Level of Detail (LOD) Expressions that make an expanse of new questions answerable Auto Data Prep: Tableau Data Interpreter now automatically identifies structure of Excel files, plus new tools to pivot and split data Smart Maps: Increased responsiveness, speed, and capabilities, including enhanced geographic search and new functionality to lasso irregular shapes New Tableau Server: Management of content in Tableau Server and Tableau Online 9.0 with a refreshed look and feel Faster Performance: Includes increased speed with analytics, as well as workbooks via parallel queries, Query Fusion, and smarter query caches For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here.	Features
Tips for Beginning Cognos Report Studio Authors Live Demos of Techniques Beginning Cognos Report Studio Authors Learn the fundamentals of professional report authoring with IBM Cognos Report Studio. This webinar is perfect for those just getting started with the platform, or for colleagues new to the team who need to get up to speed on building reports for your organization. Albert Valdez, Vice President of Learning Solutions for Senturus, provides a number of live demonstrations using the latest Cognos version 10.2.2: How to use templates and predefined data items to build various types of reports Working with the layout framework in Report Studio to create freeform reports Building user-friendly reports with interactive prompts and drill-through reports Techniques shown are applicable to all versions of Cognos BI. Technologies Covered IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Cognos Active Report Recommended Audience BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Business Executives (CEO), Financial Analysts, Marketing Analysts, Marketing Managers / Directors Presenter Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE What is IBM Cognos Report Studio? Browser-based Professional Authoring Tool Supports Sophisticated Report Design Advanced Layouts (Dashboard-style Reports) Interactive Reports (Sophisticated Prompting and Drill-Through) Supports Advanced Data Manipulation Full Access to Common, Database, Macro, and Dimensional Functions Advanced Query Design (Joins, Sets, Query References) It doesn’t have to be complicated. Drag-and-drop Graphical User Interface The base of most reports is usually pretty straight forward. What Resources are Available? IBM Documentation and other resources at IBM.com Hint: Search for Cognos Proven Practices Senturus.com and Other Third Party Sites www.senturus.com/recorded-webinars.php YouTube IT Toolbox (www.ittoolbox.com) Cognoise.com Tailored Learning Solutions Live Demonstration of Fundamental Report Authoring Techniques Buidling a report with prompts Creating a job/scheduling reports Report bursting Detail filter expressions Use templates and predefined data items Create reports with freeform layout. Build user-friendly reports with interactive prompts and drill-through Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine (RAVE) Currently only available for Active Reports. The RAVE technology is not based upon pre-defined chart types, but rather on a visualization language(vis JSON). It uses the Grammar of Graphics approach to describe and define new visualizations. New visualizations are available through a simple download from the new Extensible Visualization Community on IBM AnalyticsZone. Report authors can browse through a continually increasing range of visualization options in the community. Cognos Administrators download visualization files from the community. Extensible visualizations that have been uploaded into the BI system will appear as new visualization types in Report Studio. Using an extensible visualization in an Active Report provides a number of advantages over the existing static charts that are used today. Data can be filtered and/or selected based on actions that the user does in the Active Report. Animation from filtering the data in the visualization using a variety of transition effects provides a visual cue to the user of the change that occurred. Extensible visualizations in Active Reports does not replace the existing static charts that are in use today. Both can be used in an Active Report. Active Reports Target Audience Executives Easy-to-use high level information while in the office or remote. Remote Professionals Access to critical business information while on the road. Internal Consumers Where responsiveness is inconsistent or slow, Active Reports can serve as interactive Dashboards and as drill-through sources to additional information. IBM Cognos Active Report Authoring What skills are required to create Active Reports? Experienced Professional Report Authors Leverages the same Report Studio authoring interface. However, also requires new skills to leverage new features. Significant, compelling new interactive controls available in Active Reports that are NOT possible with standard reports. Awesome Resource: Active Reports Cookbook http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/reporting/active_report/page593.html IBM Cognos Active Reports For Mobile Consumers Active Reports are an effective way to deliver content to Mobile users. The Active Reports can reside on the device for disconnected access. New Active Report controls in Report Studio are designed specifically for iPad interface (Iterator controls support “swipe” gestures). Demonstrate New Visualization Capabilities for Active Reports: The 10.2.2 RAVE Engine Business Analytics and Professional Authoring Report Studio is a professional authoring tool that leverages a metadata package, allowing us to create reports. Metadata is produced using IBM Cognos Framework Manager, and is based on one or more physical data sources. A well-designed architecture makes authoring more effective and less labor-intensive. Less data manipulation. Easier to identify and understand. Better query performance. More stable and reliable results. Good Data Architecture = More Effective Reporting Business Process Dimensional Model – Example Orders Fact Customer Dimension Product Dimension Territory Dimension Date Dimension Cognos Training Options: Senturus Education Solutions Cognos Training Options We offer 20 live instructor-led online Cognos training. Senturus offers private training that can be tailored to your needs.	Tips & Tricks
Using TM1 Cubes with Cognos BI Three Tips for TM1 Cube Design TM1 Cubes TM1 can be a high performance dimensional data source for Cognos BI. Learn more about how these two product suites can work together to improve the BI report building process in this webinar, as we share examples of key TM1 capabilities. Featured demonstrationsusing the latest Cognos BI and TM1 versions (10.2.2) cover the following topics: Reporting examples from a TM1 cube source How TM1 cube design choices impact reporting capabilities Including text formatted cells in a BI report TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM COGNOS BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos TM1 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers, Financial Analysts, Finance Managers, Marketing Analysts PRESENTER Ken O’Boyle Solution Architect Senturus, Inc. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview: Why Use TM1 with Cognos BI? For BI Users: Reasons to Use TM1 as a Data Source Faster cycles from input/data load to content delivery Reduced ETL processes Reporting and analysis directly against an application Streamlined inclusion of planning information within the enterprise reporting platform For TM1 Users: Reasons to Use Cognos BI Enterprise-scale, web-based reporting platform Broaden the audience for TM1 content Reduce dependence on Excel Common BI Architecture Including Planning Information Streamlined BI Architecture with TM1 Key Points The BI Package for a TM1 cube has a similar look and capabilities as other OLAP/DMR sources Common requirements can be delivered with TM1 Balanced and Unbalanced Hierarchies Alternate Hierarchies Dimension Attributes Relative Time TM1 Dimension and Cube design impacts BI capabilities TM1 allows you to store text values in an OLAP source TM1 Reports: Examples TM1 Reports: Package Example TM1 Package Characteristics Package is a reference to one or more TM1 Cubes Displayed the same as other OLAP/DMR sources Measures Dimension is specified in TM1 cube design TM1 Reports: Hierarchies Balanced vs. Unbalanced Balanced: Example = Product Named levels listed accurately and consistently Attributes available within each level Unbalanced: Example = Organization Level based reporting is problematic Attributes available across the entire hierarchy TM1 Reports: Alternate Hierarchies Example: Promotion_Alt_Hiers Dimension Use Case: Marketing Promotions Two hierarchies each with a with a distinct root element Each leaf-level element rolls up to two parent elements Rollups by Bundle Group and Campaign TM1 Reports: Relative Time Time Dimension Characteristics Relative time elements can be constructed (in TM1 10.2.2, they can also be generated) Implemented as alternate hierarchies TM1 Reports: Example 1 – Crosstab with Nested Level and Attribute Product Sales by Year Report Design Product Level is nested to the right of Product Type Color attribute is included for each Product TM1 Reports: Example 2 – Crosstab with Relative Time Product Sales Comparison Report Design Columns are defined relative to the current time period TM1 Reports: Example 3 – Crosstab with Separate Year and Month Dimensions Product Sales Year-over-Year Comparison Report Design Month/ quarter can be nested with year Not limited to current/relative time periods TM1 Cube Design Options: Dimensions, Hierarchies and Attributes TM1 Design: Hierarchies Balanced vs. Unbalanced Balanced All leaf-elements are the same distance from the root element Unbalanced Distance from root element varies for leaf-level elements TM1 Design: Alternate Hierarchies Dimension Design for Alternate Hierarchies Elements are assigned to more than one parent Level names are not hierarchy specific Care must be taken to avoid in the design and reporting to avoid double counts TM1 Design: Named Levels Level Attribute System-generated attribute Defaults Level 1 ... Level n (top down) Defaults are ignored in BI Editing the Level for one element updates all peers Named Levels provide additional capabilities in BI TM1 Design: Attributes Attribute Characteristics Attribute Types: Alias, Text, Numeric One Alias attribute for each dimension can be set as the default display name in the BI package Populate at any or all levels of the hierarchy Attributes can be included in BI content TM1 Design: Relative Time Time Dimension Features Dimension Type = Time: generates common attributes Populate Time Dimension Wizard populate elements, hierarchy and attributes Right-mouse menu has option to generate relative time elements TM1 Design: Measure Dimension Measure Dimension Characteristics Cube Property: Measure Reporting Dimension Mandatory selection before creating BI package Elements are displayed as Measures in BI TM1 Text Cells in BI Reports: List Report Example TM1 Text in Cells Common Challenge TM1, unlike many OLAP platforms, supports Text values in cube cells BI crosstabs do not render text, so the typical method for reporting and analysis against an OLAP source is not applicable to this use case Solution Use BI list reports when you need to deliver text values in reports Scenario TM1 Supports Text/Date-formatted Measures Requirement: Formatted Report with Crosstab Layout BI Crosstab Component does not Display Dates or Text Display TM1 Text with List Report Be sure to make a specific selection for each dimension in the report body, page or context area Include at least one measure as a column List Report Design	Tips & Tricks
Case Study: BI Dashboards Presentation by President of AERO Precision Leveraging Insights to Double Sales and Gain the Competitive Edge Aero Precision, a fast-growing military aircraft parts and distributions company, had hit a significant wall with their initial Excel-based business reporting system. Mired down by a manual process that was time consuming, prone to errors, inflexible, and extremely limited in terms of user adoption, it was time to make a change in order to stay on track as the industry leader. Aero Precision President Frank Cowle shares how the company doubled sales and gained a competitive edge as a result of their new business intelligence system. See actual dashboards from Aero Precision’s current BI platform, along with how it delivers levels of insight inkey business areas of quotes, sales, purchases, inventory, quality and financials. PRESENTERS Frank Cowle President Aero Precision Frank Cowle has more than 30 years of experience in the military aircraft sector. In July 2008, he joined Aero Precision as Vice President of Supply Chain Management and became Aero Precision COO in 2010. He was appointed President in December 2011, and currently oversees worldwide operations. Since 2013, Frank has also held the position of Senior Vice President of Distribution for DAC International and NASAM, two additional divisions of Greenwich AeroGroup. Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder Senturus Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001. He now heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures.	Business Strategy
A Case Study in Predictive Modeling How One Firm Achieved Dramatic Results with Analytics Predictive analytics has been a hot topic in the BI world, particularly over the last year. In this webinar, we explain how it can work to your advantage. Join our experts as we review a case study on how a large U.S. telecommunications company used predictive analytics to increase its collection effectiveness, adding tens of millions of dollars annually to its bottom line. We also demystify predictive analytics across the board, and define predictive models, including how to develop and apply them to create measurable Return on Investment (ROI). This session includes a demonstration of IBM SPSS Modeler as well. PRESENTERS Eric Zankman Predictive Analytics Practice Director, Senturus, Inc. Eric leads the predictive analytics practice for Senturus, and carries a 20-year track record of improving profitability for some of the world's largest firms by applying data mining, predictive modeling, customer segmentation, experimental design, and optimization. Arik Killion Client Technical Professional, IBM Business Analytics, SPSS	Case Study
Getting Started with Tableau Desktop Quick Start Guide Tableau Desktop is a data analysis environment that can be used to quickly create and publish visualizations, dashboards, and reports in multiple output formats to see patterns, identify trends, and extract actionable Business Intelligence insights. This easy, quick start guide from Tableau explains how to use version 9.0 to connect to data, build views, and create a story using sample data. For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here.	Tips & Tricks
Maximizing IBM Cognos BI for the Business User Demos of Built-in Productivity Features Maximizing IBM Cognos BI Is your organization getting the full value from your investment in IBM Cognos BI? Are your non-technical business users leveraging the platform’s built-in features to help increase productivity and personalize their experience? It’s a role that’s often overlooked and underappreciated when it comes to BI system deployment, but Cognos is a robust suite with a lot to offer this important stakeholder. In this webinar recording, we provide an overview and demo of how IBM Cognos 10.2.2 can help business users and others interested in mastering automated report execution and delivery, data-driven alerting and self-service dashboarding and data discovery. We also offer a variety of Cognos training courses, including classes specifically for business users. Visit our training page to see the schedule. PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus.	Features
Agile Analytics Demystified With Special Guest, Lawrence Corr, Author of Agile Data Warehouse Design Agile analytics and techniques have revolutionized software development and are increasingly being adopted by business intelligence/data warehouse developers. Learn how the early/frequent delivery of working software, customer collaboration, and responsiveness to change can transform traditional dimensional modeling and analytics system design. In this webinar, Lawrence Corr, author of the book Agile Data Warehouse Design, describes how agile methods can dramatically improve the design of one of the most critical parts of BI/DW systems: database schemas. Specifically, Lawrence introduces BEAM (business event analysis and modeling): a set of agile tools and techniques for dimensional modelstorming(modeling + brainstorming) with BI stakeholders and users. Webinar recording includes discussed Q&A to help apply these valuable concepts to specific needs. BUSINESS CONTEXT Maximizing business stakeholder involvement during BI solution development coupled with early and repeated solution releases, results in more business benefits early and better BI user adoption. The classic “waterfall” development method delays solution delivery and places the incorporation of the full volume of useful business data at the end of the lengthy project. This separates the first useable solution delivery from the requirements and design phase so far in time, that often major gaps and surprises that compromise usefulness and adoptability occur. Shortening the solution release cycle so that useful business data is incorporated earlier and business users continually interact to test and refine the delivered solution in each release, eliminates most surprises and provides incremental business value early and often. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Business Intelligence; Data Modeling; BI Software Development Recommended Audience Business Analysts; Business BI Users; BI Developers; IT Management PRESENTER Lawrence Corr Lawrence Corris a leading data warehouse designer and educator. Early in his career, he was invited by Ralph Kimball to become an associate and teach data warehousing classes for Kimball University in Europe and Africa. He now regularly teaches agile dimensional modeling courses and has taught dimensional BI skills to thousands of students in Europe, North America, the Middle East and South Africa. Using his proven techniques, he has helped optimize DW architectures in healthcare, telecoms, engineering, broadcasting, financial services and retail sectors. He is the author of Agile Data Warehouse Design: Collaborative Dimensional Modeling, from Whiteboard to Star Schema, an Amazon.com #1 bestseller in data warehousing. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Agile Business Intelligence “Agile” as applied to Information Technology (Agile Alliance, 12 years ago, Aug. 2001) Agile is generally defined as: able to move quickly and easily active; lively mentally quick or acute Agile Computer SoftwareDevelopment => “Agile Manifesto” We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. Twelve Principles of Agile Software Development: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter time scale. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. The most ef?cient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace inde?nitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. At regular intervals, the team re?ects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. Standard, “waterfall” approach: BDUP => “Big Design Up Front” Agile [iterative] development: JEDUF = “Just Enough Design Up Front” ( also: JEDI => Just Enough Design Initially ) What’s in the “Analysis, Design and Data Modeling” [red] box above? Why do the Analysis, Design and Model with BI Stakeholders? Identify the signi?cant business events worth measuring Scope and Prioritization Discover how business events are described Dimensions Determine how they are measured Measures, Hierarchies, Comparisons, KPIs Unearth budgets, forecasts, targets and other user-controlled data sources. Extra data, Common summarization levels: Physical Optimization Create business ownership and pride in the DW design Approach to data modeling with business people (business modeling): Use R.K.’s keywords . . . I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who… — Rudyard Kipling The Elephants Child (1902) Plus: How many or how much? Relating to the Event / Fact (see below).And relating this to the star schema data model: A new methodology and documentation technique for doing agile business requirements gathering, analysis and data modeling with business stakeholders: ”BEAM”=> Business Event Analysis &Modeling Model as a BEAM Table – an Example Data Model Q&A Question / Topic Requirement Changes: If requirement changes are welcomed from release to release (as a result of early BI solution versions and business user feedback), doesn’t that result in a considerable amount of development rework? If the focus of requirements gathering, analysis and subsequent design is on business processes more so than on a current, point-in-time perception of needed reports, then the basic business dimensions and needed granularity comes out and usually stands the test of time and future releases. Subsequent requirement changes then are mostly about additional and augmented dimension attributes and only rarely do new dimensions or major changes to granularity come about to cause major development rework. Time and Date Dimension A rich date and time dimension in a well-thought out data model supports flexible reporting without the need for lengthy, report specific SQL date calculations that need to be developed for each report.	Business Strategy
WHAT’S NEW IN COGNOS BI VERSION 10.2.2 Overview of Added Features & Functionalities IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version 10.2.2 includes a number of added features and functionalities, with more impact than anything released in the last two years. This webinar highlights the latest and greatest offerings, including the Report Studio preview modes making authoring for Active Report and other mobile consumers much less cumbersome. Our special guests Stefan Constantinides, Solution Advisor North America for IBM, and Don Davis, Client Technical Professional in Business Analytics for IBM, also demonstrate and discuss: Simplified end-user functionality for greater user self-service Simplified deployment for faster time to value Numerous improvements in general data access and administration Additionally, we touch on Cognos Disclosure Management (CDM), which can be a huge time saver when generating reports, along with Watson Analytics. Get up to speed on what the latest version of Cognos BI offers. PRESENTER Stefan Constantinides Solution Advisor North America IBM Stefan Constantinides has Expert level certification within IBM as a Solution Advisor and technical pre-sales solution architect. Over the course of his career, Stefan has had successful sales engagements with companies like Amazon, Disney, Wells Fargo, Sprint, Charles Schwab, AT&T and many other large, high profile accounts. With over 6 years at IBM and almost 3 decades of enterprise level experience, Stefan is now working with large companies to ensure their success with IBM products and helping to guide their business into the future. Don Davis Client Technical Professional - Business Analytics IBM Don Davis is a Client Technical Professional in IBM's Business Analytics software group, residing in the Seattle area. Don has been helping clients with Cognos BI since 2006, and with business intelligence and enterprise reporting technology since 1999. OUTLINE What’s New in Cognos BI Version 10.2.2: Added Features and Functionalities Overview Enabling Foundational Self-Service with Cognos Business Intelligence V10.2.2 Speed deployment to enable foundational self-service Targeted profiles will engage even more users and make them more self-sufficient Customize profiles in Report Studio and Workspace Advanced Views based on skill and required functionality Enables more users to be self-sufficient Use ‘quick set-up’ to easily install and configure all Cognos BI components for testing and prototyping Increase confidence by managing security at the individual user level in multi-tenant deployments Leverage high performing Dynamic Cubes by quickly migrating existing Framework Manager models Proactively plan your upgrade using the Cube Designer hardware sizing guide Support users with a broad range of disabilities with broadened accessibility US Section 508 Compliant, from modeling through to authoring Supports assistive technologies Produce fully accessible, compliant reports Streamline the report creation process to save time and make authors more efficient Build a report once and create a consistent corporate identity with reusable style templates Define styles for standardized reporting Create templates for groups to provide a starting point Simplify report maintenance by updating styles once Leverage the new visualization capabilities and customize them directly in Report Studio Extensible visualization properties are exposed in Report Studio and Workspace Advanced Extensible visualization data slots are now flexible, use only those that you need. See changes to your reports in real-time and speed authoring with Active Report Live Preview View Active Report Content in Report Studio Directly Change Layout to Match Device Output or Custom Make Formatting Changes Directly in Preview Mode Empower more users with increased personalization and targeted capabilities Quickly upload and easily model personal data sources for end-to-end analysis with My Data Sets Upload CSV, XLS, XLSX, and create reports and dashboards Manage uploaded data files without IT Administrators can define who has privileges Quickly focus your analysis by using Dynamic Filters in Cognos Workspace Create interactive dashboards for easy analysis Define custom buttons that specify a filter action Filter related widgets by selecting values Learn more about these exciting innovations on AnalyticsZone IBM Watson Analytics and Cognos Business Intelligence Cloud-based agile analytics for business users Guided flexible exploration with cognitive computing and automated visualization selection Automated discovery of combinations and permutations of data providing new answers A standardized gateway to maximize business intelligence value across the Enterprise Foundational business intelligence for the enterprise Support for multiple data sources and operating environments with customizable visualizations A known and trusted analytics foundation Provides a baseline of information to feed Watson Analytics across one integrated and supported environment Demonstrations Cognos 10.2.2 Cognos Disclosure Management (CDM) Introduction CDM Deployed at Amazon: HUGE time saver Now with using CDM, it takes five minutes to generate the monthly executive level report that used to take a minimum of 3 hours to cobble together CDM is rapidly becoming irreplaceable at Amazon One of the Amazon team described it as something as essential as turning the lights on How? Specific and underlying reporting problems The “Do it Again” Problem Every month means all reports need to be updated to reflect the current period Title pages Date references in text Narrative comments Dates that drive the data reported Data reported How IBM Cognos Disclosure Management (CDM) addresses the problems Leverages existing tools in use; Word, Excel, etc. Reports directly integrated with data sources so they can be rolled forward; Master documents can be cascaded Changes dynamically updated in reports, e.g. numbers within text Provides a powerful multi-user, collaborative environment Workflow and version controls deliver process transparency Evidence of compliance, report validation, access control and audit trails reduce operational risk Reports driven from a single, secure database so stakeholders and consumers get a consistent view Multiple output formats Integrated XBRL taxonomy, XBRL validation and pre-tagged template reports Organizations are relying on outdated tools and processes to meet mandated reporting requirements Abundance of reports and changing requirements Manual time-consuming processes High Risk of errors What we deliver Employ a repeatable process Instead of navigating gaps in the production of recurring reports over and over again Streamline report assembly Instead of manually piecing together Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files Make better decisions Instead of interpreting “just read” data, get to understanding right away Recurring, multi-author reports create the same problems Time is spent on low-value work (data/text, copy/paste, editing, validation) Limited time for specialists to make insightful decisions Slow, manual, recurring process Facts within reports can be out of date before the report even published No compliance or controls during the process Cognos Disclosure Management (CDM) solution features Replace tools and manual processes with a proven reporting solution used by 300+ customers worldwide Filing packages provide all the templates and XBRL connectivity that you need Familiar MS Office interface for ease of use Reduce the risk of errors with strong data integration Built in workflow plus full audit trail provides visibility and transparency Reports cascading for easier reporting of multiple subsidiaries Rollover capabilities reduce reporting for future cycles and provide an easy transition between periods and mandate versions Questions: What’s New in Cognos BI Version 10.2.2 The following questions were originally collected during the live webinar session and answered by the Senturus team. You can download the complete Questions Log from the right hand side bar at the top of this page. Questions Q: Just looking at the 10.2.2 videos online, there are many mentions of new Framework Manager and Report Studio capabilities. However, I only see TM1 and Business Insight as actual 10.2.2 updated applications on the IBM site under Software Catalog. Is there actually a Framework Manager 10.2.2 or Report Studio 10.2.2? Can you go over the actual products that were updated, and if not, what their packages may be (i.e., Framework Manager 10.2.1 + TM1 10.2.2) or other actual updated mix & matches to install to get the updates claimed in the videos? Q: Will the IBM Cognos quick setup be available for SQL server in the future? Q: Will the tenant capabilities be called out in the licenses? Q: Do I have to get 10.2.2 for additional RAVE charts? Q: Will Cognos add Venn diagrams to their reports? Q: Is external data still available? Q: Is it possible to easily assign colors so they are consistent across multiple charts? Q: Can you stop someone from loading 10M rows? Q: How will the admin know who has loaded large files? Q: Can we load multiple data sets into one package? Q: Can you link multiple spreadsheets or worksheets? Q: How can I do the join for more than one Excel file column? Q: Could we have created a new calculated field when modeling the external data? Q: Can it connect to databases, or only to the files? Q: How will My Data Sets affect resource needs? Limits to how much users can store? Q: Is the space consumption shared across all users? Can we put limit on the size for users? What would be the size of the database? Q: If the spreadsheet has multiple worksheets, will it import all of them and create multiple tables? Will the package have all the metadata? Q: When Excel data changes, how do I refresh the data from Excel to data stored in Cognos (DB2)? Q: Can we keep changing the Excel files? Q: Can I join two dataset packages? Q: Can we upload multiple Excel files and get one model published that is inclusive of data from all the uploaded Excel files? Q: Can we schedule the loading frequency of data to get the latest data every day? Q: Can we restrict the My Data Sets feature? Q: Is the default that everyone can use My Data Sets, or do you have to specifically give a user access? Q: What's the modeling process of multiple external files to use it in a single package? Q: Can relationships be set between two My Data Sets or between two external files in creating one My Data Set? Q: Can I make updates to the same my data set? Q: Will it be updated when source file is updated? Q: Can data sets be combined in a single package? Q: Can we use two external spreadsheets and create one package out of them? Q: Can I change the source Excel file at a later time? Q: If I have multiple sheets in my Excel file, can I import all the sheets? Q: Can we use multiple files in Data Set and create one package? Q: Can we join multiple My Data Sets? Q: Can My Data be used as data sources for modeling in FM? Q: Can we join two Excel sheet one create one package? Q: Can data published out ever be refreshed? Or do you need to create a new package each time you want current data? Q: Does that mean you can't refresh the data in My Data Set? Q: When backing up the content stored from Cognos, does it also backup the data set in DB2? Q: Do I have to republish the Excel file if the data changes after the report created? Q: Will Transformer cubes still work in Cognos 10.2.2? Q: Is Query Studio and Analysis Studio still supported in the new version of Cognos? Q: Do we have any zoom option to enlarge particular region in a map? Q: Can the values on the axis be formatted to remove extra decimal places? Q: As an Australian example, is there a way to display labels on the chart, so we could see Australia category without hover over? Q: In Report Viewer, can we finally expand/collapse, re-sort columns, do on the fly calculations and on the fly resizing? Q: How stable will 10.2.2 be? Q: How is My Data Sets different from Cognos Insight? Do we still need Cognos Insight? Q: Any info on Analysis Studio capabilities in workspace? I understand that Analysis Studio is depreciated in 10.2.2? Q: Is dynamic filtering only available in Workspace or can it be used in HTML report? Q: Is Dynamic filters only available in Workspace or can it be used in Report Studio reposts? Q: If you have both relational and dimensional widgets on a page, will the global filter work for both? Q: Is possible to use dynamic filters if the other charts don't have the filtering element visible? Q: Can we use the dynamic filters in chart like the crosstab? Q: Will dynamic filters work on any two fields with the same name or only on base package fields? Q: Cognos 10.2.1 requires IE11 to run in compatibility mode. Is this true in Cognos 10.2.2? Q: What happened to the query studio icon and other icons? Q: With external data sets, is it only with DB2 or other RDBMS as well? Q: Is it possible to publish Cognos workspace in a Cognos viewer within a portal tab? Q: How do you clean up all the junk if it’s uploaded in DB2? Q: Does the Excel file need to be present on the BI server, or it can be local to user's machine? Q: Can I publish my report objects created using My Data Set to other people in my team? Q: Do you have to use the personal edition of DB2? (We are an ORACLE shop) Q: Does this new integrated DB2 component included in 10.2.2 require special configuration/installation file when upgrading to 10.2.2 from 10.1.1? Q: How does the data refresh happen for external data? Q: Can an external data source have a scheduled refresh in Cognos? Q: What is the difference between charts and visualizations? Are visualizations just more options for displaying data? Q: With the upgrade from 10.2.1 to 10.2.2, is it a new installation or an upgrade of the current version? Q: Can you only use My Data Sets using the DB2 database? Q: Can the built in DB2 engine shipped with 10.2.2 be used as the content store? If so, does that replace the Apache database used in the previous versions? Q: How can I do more than one Excel file that I need to join? Q: Do we have any size limits on the local files? Q: Does My Data Sets have to be uploaded to its own DB2 database? Is that separate from the content store? Q: Is self-analytic support connecting to DB through Cognos data sources? Q: Is it possible to upload multiple spreadsheets and then perform "joins" as in Framework Studio? Q: Can we include this option as part of existing package like external data? Q: Can I join the uploaded table (new package) to an existing package? Q: Do you need separate licensing for DB2 server installed with Cognos 10.2.2? Q: Will that affect the current database behind Cognos (i.e. Oracle)? Q: Can you access other packages with My Data Sets? Q: What version of DB2 is the My Data Sets using? Q: What's the maximum size for a data set? Q: What's the difference between My Data Sets and external data source in this version? Q: Is each import a different package? Q: Is Cognos 10.2.2 certified on IE 11? Q: Do we have to import RAVE visualizations into Cognos, or do they come with a Cognos License?	Features
IBM COGNOS 10.2.2 NEW FEATURES FOR PROFESSIONAL AUTHORS Live Demonstrations with Q&A IBM Cognos 10.2.2 provides a number of added features for professional report authors. Get an overview of our favorites, with the following demonstrations: New look and feel of IBM Cognos 10.2.2 Report Studio How to tailor the authoring experience via user interface profiles Improved templatization using Style References More productive Active Report development using Live Preview Enhanced visualizations and greater control of visualization properties TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Cognos Active Report RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES BI Report Authors, BI Report Consumers, BI Power Users (Developers, Support Staff), BI Managers PRESENTERS Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Greg Herrera Co-Founder and President Senturus, Inc. Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001, and currently heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures. Under his leadership, the company achieved the honor of placing in the San Francisco Business Times “Fast 100” Hall of Fame. Prior to Senturus, Greg established over 20 years of experience at Quovera, Oracle, and Accenture. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Audience Poll #1 What version of Cognos are people running? What’s New in IBM Cognos 10.2.2? Official Release Date: Nov 21, 2014 What this release really means: It is a culmination of various fix and feature packs that had been introduced between 2012 and 2014 Instead of rolling all the incremental packs onto your 10.2.1 environment, fresh install of 10.2.2 will have a BIG Impact Which areas were addressed – where do we anticipate the biggest impact? The Highlights: For the Professional Author, Report Studio gets significant enhancements in the following areas: Active Report preview mode Tabbed HTML report output Better control over extensible visualizations, expanded library of visualizations, including dynamic maps Style references For the Business Analyst, Cognos Workspace becomes more functional with: More intuitive filter controls The ability to author reports from directly within a Workspace We see significant attention being paid in these additional areas: Custom User-Interface Profiles allow Administrators to roll out precise features and functionality to different types of authors, eliminating barriers to adoption for self- service authoring Personal Data Sets allows users and administrators to create packages from desktop-based files such as Excel or CSV Framework Manager metadata enhancements Dynamic Cubes metadata improvements as well as a new hardware sizing utility and greater control over in-memory aggregation Audience Poll #2 What would compel you to upgrade to this version? Cognos 10.2.2 New Features Demonstrations	Features
How to Better Manage Cognos Upgrades Leveraging the New Release of MotioCI Motio, Inc. March 2015 release of MotioCI allows you to better plan, budget and manage Cognos upgrades. In this webinar, our guests from Motio demonstrate and discuss the following MotioCI functionalities: Connect multiple versions of Cognos simultaneously Automate the manual processes of validating reports, namespaces, datasources, etc. Create comparisons of the data, performance, and formatting of content in pre-upgrade and post upgrade environments Receive immediate alerts when any changes in the BI environment negatively impact performance or validation TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI, MotioCI RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Managers, IT Managers, IT / BI Executives (CTO), Program or Project Managers PRESENTERS Edwin Van Megesen VP of Business Development Motio, Inc. Jeff Dean Strategic Accounts Manager Motio, Inc. Jim Frazier Vice President of Client Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc.	Features
Tableau: Understanding Level of Detail (LOD) Expressions Using and Leveraging LOD Expressions in Data Analysis The best data analysis experience is one that allows users to focus the majority of their time deeply engaged with the actual data and less time thinking about how the mechanics of tool they are using to extract the information. Working with the aggregated data on different levels of detail can lead to tool functionality questions. Some examples: Can I plot the number of days per quarter where my company had more than 100 orders? If I want to conduct an analysis of regional sales performance, how can I see which region has the highest (or lowest) average order size? How can I see total sales per month as well as total sales by region per month? To address these types of queries, Tableau 9.0 features a new syntax called Level of Detail (LOD) Expressions, which both simplifies and extends Tableau’s calculation language by making it possible to address level of detail questions directly. This whitepaper from Tableau provides insights into how LOD Expressions work, along with an in-depth look at the different types of LOD Expressions and their respective use cases. For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here.	Tips & Tricks
TESTING & IMPROVING PERFORMANCE IN IBM COGNOS BI Plus Automated Cognos Testing System, MotioCI Demands on business intelligence systems are growing, and with increased usage, we often see a corresponding rise in performance issues. During this webinar, we discuss the various layers that can contribute to performance issues, from the presentation layer to the database and host server architecture. We review some of the OS-level and Cognos-specific tools that are available to help gather relevant information to pinpoint the causes of performance issues. With a case study, we also show you how to use an integrated performance testing method, along with how tuning changes can be used to reach the target level of performance. One of the tools highlighted is the automated Cognos testing system, MotioCI. MotioCI is an iterative testing tool that enables repeatable, automated testing in order to evaluate changes in report execution performance as tuning changes are made. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI 10; MotioCI RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT, Cognos and BI Support Staff PRESENTERS Steven Reed-Pittman Practice Director – Systems Integration and Optimization Senturus, Inc. Steve leads the installation and upgrade team at Senturus. He has installed, and configured, and optimized hundreds of Cognos instances from Cognos Series 7 through Cognos 10 on the Windows, UNIX and Linux environments. Dr. John Boyer Proven Practice Lead Motio, Inc. John has nearly 20 years experience in business intelligence, database architecture, and software development. He is an IBM Information Champion, has led workshops and been invited to speak at numerous national events including IBM Information On Demand, Cognos Forum, Cognos User Groups, and the Composite Software annual conference. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Sources of Trouble: Where is My Problem Coming From? Where to Begin Performance troubleshooting requires detective work. Gather data from systems and people. What changed, and when? Consider all of the possible layers. Options for addressing performance issues vary across different Cognos versions and configurations. Cognos-Specific Problem Areas Performance issues can originate from multiple layers: Configuration Layer Cognos software configuration and tuning (install/configinconsistencies, esp. in distributed environments). Database Layer Data warehouse schema design. Metadata Layer Framework Manager model. Presentation Layer Report Studio, Workspace Advanced, etc. Other Problem Areas Performance issues can also originate outside of Cognos: Network (network speed, latency). Database server (concurrent query execution, contention with other databases hosted on the same db server or cluster). Host server architecture (CPU, RAM, disk, virtual vs. physical infrastructure). Approaches to Troubleshooting Fire Prevention vs. Fire Fighting Is your organization proactive or reactive with regard to the performance of your Cognos systems? When trouble strikes, quick answers can be hard to find. Preventing the fire is better than fighting it! Tools can make this easier by providing: Baseline performance data. Replicable test cases. Some Tool Options MotioCI as an iterative testing tool for determining changes in report execution performance (SLA testing). LoadRunner scripting. Commercial and open-source application performance monitoring tools (e.g., SolarWinds, Opsview). Built-in OS tools (e.g., Resource Monitor, perfmon). Cognos Administration dashboards. Why Use Tools? The risk of doing this without tools or methodology: Lack of repeatability makes it difficult or impossible to know whether changes have made a difference. Tools enable repeatable testing for reliable performance comparisons. Keys to Improving Performance: Three-Phase Methodology for Performance Testing and Tuning The Key to Improving Performance A three-phase approach to successfully beat performance issues in IBM Cognos. Solving performance issues is like playing “Whack-a-Mole”: every time you thought you killed the beast, it will pop up again! A Three-Phase Approach to Solving Performance Issues Just a commodity approach? Build Measure Learn A Three-Phase Approach to Solving Performance Issues A tailor-made approach for IBM Cognos. Build Identify all elements that can impact performance. Set up monitoring for capturing system performance metrics. Analyze user and system behavior. Set up test cases using MotioCI. Measure Run test cases and metrics to capture initial baseline. Review test results and captured metrics. Run load test. Analyze system behavior. Learn Implement tuning changes based on the results. Return to “Run load test” step (Measure, step three). Repeat steps until the target level of performance is achieved. What does your multi-disciplinary team look like? Cognos Knowledge Cognos Admin Cognos Architect Cognos Modeler Infrastructure DBA Network/firewall Specialist Hardware Specialist General Roles Project Management Senturus BI Specialist Knowledge of methodology. Knowledge of Cognos. Knowledge of MotioCI. Experience at different environments, organizations and infrastructure set ups. Building Your Test Case: Tools, Techniques and Questions to Consider How to Build Your Test Case Four essential steps to being well prepared. Step one: identify all elements that can impact performance. Step two: set up monitoring tools for capturing system performance metrics. Step three: analyze user and system behavior. Who is using IBM Cognos? When are they using it? How long, what frequency? What do they execute? How often? What is used the most? What is used during peak time? What is taking the most time? Sample Testing: Running a Stress Test with MotioCI Set Up Test Cases using MotioCI MotioCI server creates multiple simulated Cognos users. Each simulated user asks Cognos to run reports. Cognos processes report request, and produces finished reports. MotioCI evaluates each finished report for accuracy and notes the time required to generate it. Cognos Stress Test with MotioCI Define a Stress Test Configure Stress Test Customizing a Stress Test Ramped User Logins and Ramped Report Executions Ramped User Logins Ramped Report Executions Simulated User Interactivity Results Summary Interactive and Non-Interactive Executions by Report Samples Reports How to Build Your Test Case Four essential steps to being well prepared. Step four: set up test cases using MotioCI. How to Measure Your Test Case and Analyze the Results Executing repeatable test cases with comparable results: Run test cases and metrics to capture initial baseline. Review test results and captured metrics. Run load test. Analyze system behavior. Adjustments and Aftercare: Analyzing Results and Making Changes How to Measure Your Test Case and Analyze the Results Examining the test case results. How to Improve and Tweak the Settings Solve the bottleneck and retest. Reviewing metrics from Cognos Administration. Executing repeatable test cases and viewing final results. What is So Revolutionary About This? The right combination of tools and expertise promotes rapid results. Key problem: Performance issues are hard to tackle without reliable metrics and deep knowledge of the systems in question. Without a simple and repeatable approach, troubleshooting and tuning is difficult to perform effectively. Unstructured troubleshooting is hard to manage, and can be both expensive and slow to produce results. Dependencies across multiple layers aren’t always obvious. Custom-made test cases often require lots of programming/scripting. MotioCI helps the project team focus on the core, repeatable test cases: test, analyze and measure improvement. Deep Cognos system expertise from Senturus provides multi-layer examination of the affected systems, interpretation of test results, recommendation of tuning changes, and implementation assistance when needed. Aftercare Proactive Monitoring of your Cognos BI Environment When the problems are solved, organizations need to stay healthy! By constantly monitoring performance, BICC’s stay in control and on topof the quality of their BI environment, regarding: Performance. Data quality. IBM best practices and corporate standards.	Tips & Tricks
Getting Started with Tableau Server Quick Start Guide Tableau Server is an online browser and mobile-based resource that allows users to share, distribute, and collaborate on content created in Tableau Desktop, including workbooks and views, dashboards, and data sources. This easy, quick start guide from Tableau explains how to install and configure version 9.0, explores the main components of the server interface, introduces how to work with a view, and highlights other key features. For a free, 14-day full version trial of Tableau, click here.	Tips & Tricks
IBM COGNOS BI LICENSING CHANGES in V10 What You Need to Know In summer 2014, IBM announced some dramatic changes in the IBM Cognos user roles and definitions. In this webinar, Jim Frazier, Vice President of Client Solutions for Senturus, takes you through the details and the implications for your business environment. We demonstrate how these changes will make it easier for the Cognos customer base to use Cognos 10 capabilities, such as Cognos Workspace, Active Reports and mobile. We also explain how the existing user roles will automatically be migrated to three simplified roles with increased functionality. Also, as a complimentary service, Senturus can take you through the new licensing, recommend the most appropriate and efficient options, and advise on the implications for your environment. REGISTER FOR FREE EVALUATION PRESENTER Jim Frazier Vice President of Client Solutions, Senturus, Inc.	Features
COGNOS DATA MANAGER SUPPORT CHANGES Entitlements Migrate to DataStage On Sept. 30, 2014, IBM ceased sales of Data Manager. Support for Data Manager will be withdrawn on Sept. 30, 2015, however, customer entitlements will be migrated free of charge to the DataStage Workgroup Edition. You will be able to continue to receive technical support from IBM for DataManager until the announced end of support of DataStage which is currently July of 2019. You just need to site your DataStage entitlement when calling in for support. In this webinar, we clarify the confusion over Cognos Data Manager end of support. Click here to reach IBM’s website with the announcement of the “Software withdrawal: IBM Cognos Data Manager and InfoSphere DataStage MVS Edition." PRESENTERS Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. Jim Frazier Vice President of Client Solutions, Senturus, Inc.	Business Strategy
How to Develop a Ragged or Unbalanced Hierarchy IBM Cognos TM1 Performance Modeler In the latest Cognos TM1 releases (10.2), IBM added new functionalities that allow users to easily and quickly develop ragged and unbalanced hierarchies using the Performance Modeler Guided Import Wizard, a Graphical User Interface (GUI). While this GUI can save significant time and effort for some fairly common tasks, IBM did not extensively document the techniques required for doing so. In this short video demonstration, Ken O’Boyle, Senturus Senior Planning Architect, reveals how to manage hierarchies through the Performance Modeler GUI to circumvent the need for writing code to handle the source data. This includes ragged hierarchies, where there are null or repeated strings at the intermediate levels, as well as unbalanced hierarchies, which includes null strings at the lowest levels.	Tips & Tricks
Editing Existing Reports in IBM Cognos Workspace Allowing End Users to Take Ownership of Existing Content In this short video, Albert Valdez, Senturus Vice President of Learning Solutions, shows how end users can easily modify existing content within IBM Cognos Workspace to obtain data and conduct analysis. Specific demonstrations include: Changing display/chart types Changing the query by using filters Creating new tabs for new work area and naming the tabs Using “select value filter” so reports interact across different tabs	Tips & Tricks
Do You Really Need a Data Warehouse? Why Properly Staged Data is Critical to BI System Success The most common question we have been asked over the last 14 years is “Why do we need a Data Warehouse?” Data warehouses are often perceived as expensive, monolithic, slow and built for old requirements. BI software vendors often go out of their way to tone down the need for one, and recently, some new technologies have been heralded as bringing, “the end of data warehousing.” Despite these claims, there are many significant reasons why properly staged data is the most important element of Business Analytics system success. And it is now clear that companies with well-designed, enterprise-wide business insight capabilities consistently outperform their peers by wide margins. In this webinar, Senturus CEO and Co-FounderJohn Peterson dispels a number of myths about data warehouses, addressing: How integrated data warehouses (or marts) differ from OLTP systems, ODS’s and reporting databases. Why they are a mandatory complement to operational systems. How to correctly design and build a best-practices data warehouse, and not simply a “dumping ground for tables of raw data.” Why the initial architectural foundation for integrated data is so critical to long-term performance, scalability and usability. How to quickly and cost-effectively implement a world-class solution. Join the experts from Senturus to learn strategies your organization can use to gain the benefits of enterprise-wide business insight while avoiding the downsides typically associated with data warehouses. These proven strategies have been refined over our 14 years of experience delivering successful business intelligence solutions for more than 750 clients. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Architecture and Solutions RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Managers and Professionals; Business Analysts and Business Managers responsible for Enterprise Performance Management and Improvement PRESENTER John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding.	Business Strategy
Streamline Management and Regulatory Report Processes Narrative Reporting with Cognos Management and Regulatory Reporting If you’ve invested a good deal of money in your business analytics solution, only to have the end users get mired down in a manual reporting process prone to errors, this presentation can help you get on the right track to extend and improve your internal and external business analytics reporting capabilities. Learn how to quickly, accurately, and safely create collaborative reports, while reducing costs, risks, and data inaccuracies with Cognos Disclosure Management (CDM). In this webinar, we demonstrate the following key benefits: Provides a controlled, auditable environment Works within suite of Microsoft Office programs, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint Seamless integration between Cognos BI, TM1, and non-Cognos data sources Ability to securely merge enterprise data with narrative analysis Better data governance Built-in validations Integrated tagging for regulatory filings PRESENTERS James Stinson, MBA Client Technical Professional IBM James is a senior member of IBM's technical team. He combines functional and technical requirements to create game changing software solutions. Greg Herrera Co-Founder and President Senturus Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001. He now heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures.	Features
Developing a Flexible Copy Process IBM Cognos TM1 Performance Modeler Flexible Copy Learn how to copy data from one cube to another using a link, a new capability within Cognos TM1 Performance Modeler. This copy option can prove to be a better alternative than rule based implementation for situations such as when there are cube dependencies or user activity with frequent cache and validations. In this short video, Ken O’Boyle, Senturus Senior Planning Architect, demonstrates how to map data from a source cube to a target cube by copying the information via the link implementation type to process. We also examine the two types of possible mapping matches, manual and automatic, and how the latter creates a parameter for each of the dimensions, thus allowing the flexibility to copy all the data or specific slices.	Tips & Tricks
INTERACTIVE REPORTS AND DASHBOARDS FOR THE MOBILE AUDIENCE IBM Cognos 10.2.1 With smartphone and tablet usage as a “first screen” continually on the rise, positioning your BI tools to serve a mobile audience is key. Discover how you can leverage your existing IBM Cognos platform from a mobile perspective and make key information accessible anywhere, anytime. We also review the latest advantages with Active Report, along with some overall best practices for report development. Originally presented during IBM Insight 2014 by Albert Valdez, Senturus Vice President of Learning Solutions, and Patrick Powers, Senior Instructor for Senturus.	Tips & Tricks
COGNOS BI PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION 101 For IBM Cognos Servers Discover how to fine-tune the system performance of your IBM Cognos servers to maximize overall speed and efficiency. We demonstrate how to improve the performance of sorted reports, as well as changing dispatcher settings. Our experts will also take you through horizontal versus vertical scaling, along with common infrastructure issues. Originally presented during IBM Insight 2014 by Albert Valdez, Senturus Vice President of Learning Solutions, and Patrick Powers, Senior Instructor for Senturus.	Tips & Tricks
UNDERSTANDING IBM COGNOS BI Holistic Platform Review If you’re overwhelmed by the breadth of your IBM Cognos Business Intelligence solution, and not sure where to get started, we can help get you on the right track. In this recorded webinar, we take a step back and provide a holistic look at the platform from 30,000 feet. We break down the many moving parts, and set focus on what you need to know, as our IBM-certified experts pinpoint where the greatest value in this tool set lies. PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 15 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE Key components of Cognos 10, such as Cognos Connection, Cognos Workspace, Report Studio, Framework Manager Consume reports using the Cognos Connection Portal Running and reviewing reports within the IBM Cognos Viewer Quick drop down tools built within the IBM Cognos Viewer to see reports in various formats, including HTML, PDF, XML, and Excel Navigation capabilities within table of contents Saving, emailing, and exporting options Using the My Folders tab to organize content Setting My Preferences, including increasing the number of entries and adding separators in list view Run a report with a prompt Create a Report View to create alternate versions of reports, save in My Folders, and set a default prompt value Setting up, customizing and testing report delivery schedules via email, with multiple delivery options such as single email recipient, adding an email distribution list, embedding the report within the email or sending as an attachment Altering report output versioning and viewing scheduled report delivery results Creating and delivering data driven reports based on actionable items Setting report view properties, including enabling advanced options, specifying rules, and creating alerts when new version becomes available Use Workspace and Workspace Advanced to: Create a Workspace from existing reports Customize a Workspace Interact with and explore the data Enhance the consumer experience Drag and drop elements from other reports onto Workspace dashboard, without needing to re-create from scratch Changing and customizing selected data packages / chart elements Adding interactive filtering interfaces for different display types Run reports, build your own reports, create and schedule report views Organize content and create portal tabs Use the inbox and define alerts and subscriptions Enhance the consumer experience with Workspace	Features
IBM Cognos BI 10.2.2 Video Series New & Added Features IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version 10.2.2 supports business users, report authors, and administrators alike by simplifying end-user functionality and speeding time to value with simplified deployment. Below is a summary of the changes. You may also view the videos-all listed on the right sidebar-- on each subject. Simplified end-user functionality for greater user self-service: End-to-end analysis with personal data import for business users. Support for customization of Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine visualizations in IBM Cognos Report Studio and IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced. Create reusable style templates for a consistent corporate identity including styles, fonts, and colors. Interactive maps in IBM Cognos Workspace. Accelerate Cognos Active Report creation with live preview. Simplified deployment for faster time to value: Use quick setup to easily install and configure all Cognos Business Intelligence components for testing and prototyping. Securely manage individual users and administration in multitenant deployments. Reduce Cognos Dynamic Cube develop time by migrating existing IBM Cognos Framework Manager models. IBM Business Intelligence Pattern now included with the Analytics Architect and Analytics Administrator roles. General data access and administration: Filter join optimization: Optimization of joins by applying filters in Cognos Framework Manager and Cognos Report Studio Improve performance by filtering one side of a join using the values retrieved by the other side Minimize the amount of data retrieved by the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence server Summary query subjects: Ability to control the grouping and aggregation when creating a model Control grouping and aggregation in ways previously only possible in reports Define a join between aggregated values and detail values Specify the granularity of filters and calculations available to ad hoc users Bridge query subjects: Creation of a bridge table to link star schemas or subject areas in a model Identify bridge tables in your database Avoid double counting in stitched query aggregations Filter entire rows of a multiple fact datastream when filtering the bridge Parameter map freshness: Ability to enable parameter caching Control the frequency for which parameter map values are refreshed See data updated seconds before a report is run Balance the performance benefits of caching with data latency requirements NIST SP800-131a Cognos Business Intelligence now leverages IBM Global Security Kit (GBKit) for security. Encrypted (SSL) connection to the content store database Control security features such as enabling SSL and Data Encryption, during the database definition process Support for SSL and Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificate pinning You can now protect the Android and Apple iOS apps from the man-in-the-middle attacks by restricting the apps to connect only to those IBM Cognos Business Intelligence servers that use trusted certificates. Conformance updates: Content Store IBM DB2® 11 for z/OS® Microsoft™ SQL Server 2012 R2 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Portal servers IBM WebSphere® Portal V8.5 Liferay Portal Security libraries GSKit Web servers Microsoft Internet Information Services 8.5 Data sources Cloudera Impala 1.3 IBM Netezza® V7.1, V7.2 IBM DB2 for i 7.2 IBM Cognos TM1® V10.2.2 IBM InfoSphere® BigInsights™ V2.1, V3.0 Apache Hive 0.11, 0.12 Microsoft SQL Server 2012 R2, 2014 Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 R2, 2014 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 9.3, 9.4 Teradata 15 Drivers JT400 JDBC driver (IBM DB2 for i) Mobile Apple iOS 7 Android 4.4 Phone support for iOS and Android	Features
Leveraging TM1 Performance Modeler 3 Tips the Manual Doesn’t Tell You Performance Modeler is a graphical user interface (GUI) that works to make modeling more efficient and intuitive for Cognos TM1. In this webinar recording, we share three key tips you WON’T find in the product manuals. We'll arm you with the insight to take full advantage of Performance Modeler latest features to streamline modeling and report building. Learn: How to set up ragged and unbalanced hierarchies quickly and easily through the Performance Modeler GUI wizard A shortcut method to copy data from an input cube to a reporting cube, without the need to code manually How to move beyond PowerPlay with an alternative way to execute TM1 cube design for integration with Cognos BI PRESENTER Ken O’Boyle Senior Planning Architect, Senturus, Inc.	Tips & Tricks
TIPS & TRICKS FOR EFFECTIVE DASHBOARDS How to Build Practical Widgets Using IBM Cognos Effective Dashboards Understanding the relationship between IBM Cognos Workspace and Report Studio is fundamental in order to efficiently and successfully focus your development efforts. Learn how these tools can most effectively work in tandem, including a demonstration of how to create a fixed size widget and add it to your workspace. Originally presented during IBM Insight 2014 by Albert Valdez, Senturus Vice President of Learning Solutions, and Patrick Powers, Senior Instructor for Senturus.	Tips & Tricks
#2 Key to Success in BI: Understanding True Business Requirements One of the 10 Keys to Success in BI One of the most important factors to consider when defining BI success is a full understanding of true business requirements, not just what a company initially asks for or thinks they want, but what they really need. In this short video, Senturus CEO and Co-Founder John Peterson shares what to consider in order to thoroughly define all requirements, based on his real world expertise with over 1,400 BI implementations. This video is a segment from our webinar, "Top 10 Keys to BI Success," available for free download from our online resources library.	Business Strategy
Join Queries Advance Query Design in Cognos Report Studio Join Queries Joins are useful for creating relationships between queries that may not exist in the model. In this short video, we show how you can create a join within the IBM Cognos Report Studio tool using a list report as an example. PRESENTERS September Clementin Senior Instructor for Senturus	Tips & Tricks
INTRODUCTION TO SELF-SERVICE DASHBOARDING AND REPORT AUTHORING Leveraging IBM Cognos Workspace Self-service Dashboarding and Report Authoring During this webinar, we examine the IBM Cognos landscape of self-service data discovery and report authoring. This webinar will prepare you to take full advantage of the functionalities across Workspace, Workspace Advanced, and Report Studio. We demonstrate how you can extend dashboards into deep data exploration and leverage self-service authoring to free yourself from the traditional constraints of the information consumer. We also touch on the role of the advanced report author to illustrate the limitless potential of the IBM Cognos 10 platform for delivering professional reports. This presentation also includes an introduction of IBM’s changing licensing model and how this impacts your business. PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions, Senturus Inc. Albert has spent the last 13 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. His Senturus training courses have received numerous accolades over the years, such as: “Meticulously prepared and superbly presented, (with) a huge amount of theory, advice and practical examples.” “Single best session on Cognos Report Studio.” Before joining Senturus, Albert was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. PRESENTATION OUTLINE The following demonstrations are featured in this webinar: Viewing and interacting with multiple data visualizations Simple filtering through self-selected values to focus on specific data and provide better insights Easy double-click functionalities to drill down into details on specific data points Self-managing desired changes from one chart type to another, including data point color schemes Slicing and dicing data on a deeper level through improved “Do More...” actions with advanced feature options Dropping additional dimensions into dashboards Building a report from scratch as a business author, starting with Workspace Advanced (using a Crosstab report as an example) Ad-hoc experience that provides ability to see selected report dimensions and measures in order to build and visualize in real-time as one fluid experience Dragging and dropping columns of data Easy toolbar short cuts for quick data formatting Data exploration functionalities with Workspace and Workspace Advanced, such as drilling up, drilling down, and replacing data Moving report draft from Workspace Advanced into Report Studio for additional content development with more sophisticated options, including visualizations within tables in Report Studio Adding value prompts through the Report Studio Prompt Wizard to drive context filtering Using padding within Report Studio to provide adequate spacing between objects Adding drilling up and drilling down options to reports	Features
Implementing Relative Time in Cognos BI Using OLAP Modeling & Reporting Tools Year-to-date, trailing 12 months, this month, this week, etc., are examples of relative time categories. With Cognos Business Intelligence, relative time definitions can be managed in either the metadata or the reporting layer. During this webinar, we demonstrate three different techniques for managing relative time: using OLAP modeling with Cognos Transformer, using Cognos Cube Designer, and using the reporting tools. Demonstrations include how to manage the out-of-the-box relative time definitions, as well as how to create your own custom definitions. Albert Valdez, Senturus’ Vice President of Learning Solutions, showcases the following hands-on techniques during this 90-minute event: Enable and manage standard relative time definitions in both Transformer and Cube Designer. Create custom relative time definitions in both Transformer and Cube Designer. Create dynamic reports by both leveraging pre-defined relative time members as well as creating custom definitions in the report. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI 10, IBM Cognos Transformer, IBM Cognos Cube Designer, IBM Cognos Report Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers, Cognos and BI Support Staff PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions, Senturus Inc. Albert has spent the last 13 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect, Director of Education and Vice-President of Learning Solutions for Senturus.	Tips & Tricks
IMPROVING THE PLANNING CYCLE FOR SOPHISTICATED BUSINESS NEEDS TM1 Demo, Plus Case Study by Meyer Corporation If you’re feeling constrained by your current planning system, or have simply outgrown it, watch this webinar for a demonstration of IBM Cognos TM1. Our guests from Meyer Corporation, the largest cookware distributor in the United States, share why and how they successfully migrated to TM1 in order to improve their planning cycle. Learn how this tool can be used on a more complex level to transform and improve your entire cycle, including revenue planning, capital planning and retail assortment. We also discuss how TM1 is uniquely suited for large, sophisticated models and data sets. PRESENTERS Mrudang Patel Information Solutions Architect, Meyer Corporation Calvin Clack Cognos Programmer, Meyer Corporation Clint Parker Technical Sales Specialist, Business Analytics, IBM	Features
Income Statement Reporting: Reversing the Sign Rule Showing Expense Numbers as Positive Income statement reporting presents challenges when doing BI reporting, because the business requires that both revenues and expenses be shown on the balance sheet as positive numbers. However, debits need to be negative numbers to do rollups correctly. So what’s the solution? In this short video, the experts from Senturus show you how to solve this problem by using the Reverse the Sign Rule for both standard and ad hoc reports in any general-purpose business intelligence software. Presented by Senturus CEO and Co-Founder John Peterson.	Tips & Tricks
Using Predefined Templates to Create a Report IBM Cognos Report Studio IBM Cognos Report Studio offers a number of predefined templates to make authoring basic reports a simple, straightforward process. In this short video, the experts from Senturus show how you can leverage these templates for your needs, add data packets, and create more tailored reports with just a few clicks. We’ll demonstrate how to do so through the commonly utilized list report template, which offers a tabular representation of data. PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions for Senturus	Tips & Tricks
Metadata Modeling Best Practices IBM Cognos Framework Manager Don’t be intimidated by metadata modeling! During this webinar, our expert trainer Albert Valdez breaks down the role of metadata modeling with Framework Manager. Albert explains how, and more importantly why, we implement: Multi-tiered metadata. Row-level security using session parameters. Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) and JDBC for OLAP Over Relational (OOR), or Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) Packages. See the benefits of the dimensional package from the user’s perspective. Unravel the mysteries of JDBC and the benefits of the DQM. BUSINESS CONTEXT Increased productivity for data model development. The data model is the Business Intelligence (BI) foundation for performance management, operational and financial reporting. Speedier development means earlier realization of the business benefits of timely decision support information. It also means shorter IT queue times for business’ service requests for data access. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Framework Manager 10; Cognos BI 10 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT Cognos and BI Support Staff PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions, Senturus Albert has spent the last 13 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Framework Manager Demonstrations: Context All demonstrations are based on the standard IBM Cognos 10.2.1 Great Outdoors Sample package. Demonstrations are valid for ALL supported versions of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. These exercises are part of what we teach in our classroom, specifically from our Metadata Modeling Best Practices with Framework Manager course. Best Practices for Project Design: Advantages for Multi-tiered Metadata Metadata Modeling for Best Practices Use a multi-tiered design. Establish query item properties and relationships early on (in the first tier). Plan your design with consideration to how the IBM Cognos query engine generates SQL. Define Model Query Subjects as either a “true” Dimension or a “true” Fact. Relate Facts to one another through one or more Conformed Dimensions. Review and carefully define Determinants. Define Package and Object-level Security. Create a user-friendly Presentation. Use Dimensional Modeling techniques where appropriate. Multi-tiered Design Use Namespaces and Folders to organize your Query Subjects. Start with an Import View. There should be at least two tiers, however a three-tiered design offers some advantages. Advantages of Three-tiered Designs Import Layer All database objects are represented here exactly as they appear in the physical data, making references between this metadata and the database simple and obvious. All base relationships should be defined in this layer. Design Layer Establish the “dimensional design” that will guide the query engine toward more predictable results. Use Model Query Subjects, Merging, Aliasing, and other techniques to enforce desired query behaviors. Business Layer Create value-added features such as embedded and stand-alone Calculations and Filters. Implement user-accepted naming and presentation conventions. Why? Use metadata to your advantage. Query logic is controlled by our design, not restricted by the physical limitations of the database. Referential metadata creates a “buffer” between the physical model and what is used by our authors. Changes to our Database layer in order to address changes in the physical data can be made without impacting existing reports, or the end-users’ view of the model. Simplify the modeling process by isolation certain tasks within their respective layer. Best Practices for Project Design: Advantages of Multi-tiered Metadata Demonstration Row-Level Security: Using Session Parameters and Query Macros Parameterized SQL Typical application of this technique is to create dynamic filtering based on user attributes. We can use a Parameter Map and Query Macros in combination with unique user account attributes to enforce these rules in the metadata. Session Parameters: Attributes unique to each user’s session. Derived from your Authentication Provider. Parameter Map: Three Types Manually key in the values in the project. Import from an external text file (.txt, .csv). Reference a query subject (db table). Query Macros #$UserLookup{$account.personalinfo.userName}# Several functions available, allowing for the creation of dynamic expressions. Row-Level Security: Session Parameters and Query Macros Demonstration OLAP in Framework Manager: Setting Up for Success OLAP in Framework Manager In the Cognos version 8 release, we were introduced to Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) capabilities. What happened? Run-time OLAP presents significant query response challenges in large data environments. Guess what? We ALL live in large data environments! What’s changed? There is a shift in the architecture strategy, adding more query processing capacity on the application tier. Dynamic Query Mode presents a new approach to query processing. Dynamic Query Mode Next-generation, Java-based query mode. Query optimizations to address query complexity, data volumes and timeliness expectations with improved query execution techniques. Significant improvement for complex OLAP queries through intelligent combination of local and remote processing and better MDX generation. Security-aware caching. New data interfaces leveraging 64-bit processing. Take advantage of increased capacity of 64-bit in-memory processing. Ease of maintenance with query visualization. Why are OLAP sources important? True MDX-style analytics and reporting provide tremendous benefits to end-users. Drill-up/ drill-down functionality is built-in to the data source, encouraging simple, intuitive data investigation. Access to MDX functions and gestures in reporting tools allows for more dynamic reports, dashboards, and analyses. Data Exploration and Data Discovery are the next level of analytics (move beyond reporting!). OLAP in Action: OLAP Vs. Relational for Self-Service Authors Demonstration OLAP in Framework Manager What needs to be done to enable DQM? Cognos 10.x? You own it. The Query Service spawns its own java process, consumes resources whether you use it or not. Data Sources Must configure the JDBC Connection and copy the requisite driver to the Cognos library. Framework Manager DQM can be switched on at the Project or the individual package level. System Administratior Configure Query Service resources, optimize application tier components to maximize throughput. JDBC Drivers – what to do? http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/infrastructure/cognos_specific/page529.html Basically, you download and copy the requisite JDBC driver to both the ..v5dataserverlib and the ..p2pdweb-inflib directories. Make sure you only have ONE version of the driver in the library! Specific instructions for each database type are detailed in the above document.	Tips & Tricks
BEYOND POWERPLAY: CHOOSING THE RIGHT OLAP TOOL FOR YOUR BI ENVIRONMENT Cognos Dynamic Cubes vs. Microsoft SSAS vs. TM1 vs. Powerplay Almost all business intelligence systems benefit significantly from using OLAP as part of the overall system architecture. Blazingly fast reports, interactive dashboards, instantaneous drill-down and speed-of-thought analysis are just a few of the reasons to use cubes in your BI environment. For almost 25 years, PowerPlay cubes and PowerPlay Transformer have played dominant roles in BI systems as the OLAP tool of choice for Cognos BI environments. However, due to limitations of its 32-bit architecture, PowerPlay has been unable to keep pace with the growing data volumes common to BI systems today. Accordingly, IBM’s development resources have focused on newer technologies, allowing PowerPlay’s feature set to fall further behind. The good news is that there are several excellent alternatives for OLAP in your BI system. In fact, these tools now have features long desired by PowerPlay users. The challenge is determining 1. what those alternatives are and 2. how they compare and contrast. In this presentation and demo, we highlight the important feature differences between the various OLAP tools used for BI applications, including IBM Dynamic Cubes. This session outlines important criteria that should be considered before investing significant hours (and dollars) in development. As always, we give a candid review of relevant tool capabilities, show key features in action and provide some pragmatic decision-making tips on how to make the right choice for your BI environment. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI 10, IBM Cognos PowerPlay, IBM Cognos PowerPlay Transformer, IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes, Microsoft Analysis Services, IBM Cognos TM1, Hyperion Essbase, IBM Cognos Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) PRESENTERS John Peterson CEO & Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Pedro Ining Senior BI Architect, Senturus, Inc	Tips & Tricks
CREATING USER-FRIENDLY COGNOS ACTIVE REPORTS Advanced Reporting Techniques This webinar features some of our most frequently requested advanced reporting techniques. We focus on some of the more sophisticated foundational techniques for creating user-friendly IBM Cognos Active Reports. Building on our foundational Active Reports training, we showcase the following hands-on techniques during this 90-minute event: Creating breadcrumbs in your reports, allowing users to easily navigate to and from different levels of detail within a single, stand-alone Active Report. Enabling two-way interactivity between report objects, allowing flexible navigation at either the parent or the child object. This technique encourages end-users to explore causal relationships within the data. Understanding how report bursting can be implemented to deliver different views of the same report to different recipients, streamlining report management, and optimizing report execution and delivery. BUSINESS CONTEXT Effective Active Report development techniques give the growing mobile audience the ability to explore data using intuitive, native gestures on the most commonly used mobile devices. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Active Reports; IBM Cognos BI 10.2.1; Cognos Mobile RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE IBM Cognos Report Authors, Developers, Power Users PRESENTER September Clementin Senior Instructor Senturus	Tips & Tricks
Advanced Authoring Comes to Life IBM Cognos Report Studio Techniques Advanced Authoring Are deficiencies in Report Studio skills holding back the analytics potential of your organization? Are you comfortable working in the Query layer in order to expand the scope of analysis within a single report? Are you leveraging proven practices to achieve report standardization and increase productivity? During this webinar, expert Senturus trainers, Pat Powers and September Clementin, share their expertise on advanced Report Studio techniques. They start off by exploring the magical world of working with multiple queries in a single report, and then journey further as they show how to improve the presentation layer with reusable components. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Business Intelligence 10.2.1, IBM Cognos Report Studio Recommended Audience BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers Presenter Patrick Powers Senior Instructor Senturus September Clementin Senior Instructor Senturus	Tips & Tricks
Predictive Analytics Demystified Explanation of Predictive Models and their Applications Many organizations have made big investments in Business Intelligence, deploying sophisticated reporting systems and performance dashboards. Yet for most companies, translating "interesting insights" into quantifiable business benefits is more the exception than the rule. Predictive analytics can be the next logical step in the evolution toward achieving dramatic improvements to the bottom line. In this webinar, Eric Zankman demystifies predictive analytics by explaining what predictive models are, how to develop them, and how to apply them within a customer management framework to create measurable Return on Investment (ROI) Key components of a comprehensive analytics approach are explored: Creating a customer data mart with predictive analytics in mind Building predictive models Segmenting customers Developing champion/challenger strategy tests Establishing processes for continuous learning and improvement Reaping the benefits of predictive models This webinar includes a demonstration of IBM SPSS Modeler. Business Context Predictive analytics can greatly improve profitability when part of a comprehensive analytics solution A well-designed data mart is the first step toward effective predictive analytics Organizations must be committed to ongoing strategy testing to maximize their benefits Technologies Covered Predictive Analytics, IBM SPSS Modeler Recommended Audience Business executives, managers and analysts who are responsible for devising and implementing a range of strategies that would be applied to different customer, product or other market segments to improve profitability. Presenter Eric Zankman Mr. Zankman is an analytics and business intelligence consultant with a 20-year track record of improving profitability for some of the world's largest firms by applying data mining, predictive modeling, customer segmentation, experimental design, and optimization. Mr. Zankman heads the predictive analytics practice for Senturus. He has founded Zankman Solutions, a provider of analytics consulting services, and served as Analytics Practice Leader, Coordinator of CRM Knowledge Center, and Senior Subject Matter Expert at American Management Systems (AMS), a global business and IT consulting firm. Mr. Zankman has given numerous presentations at major industry conferences related to customer analytics. He has authored several white papers and thought leadership articles, including a Gartner publication on customer loyalty. Mr. Zankman earned a BS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Arik Killion Client Technical Professional, IBM Business Analytics, SPSS Outline PREDICTIVE MODELS General Definition Empirically-derived algorithms used to predict future outcomes Customer Analytics Definition Predicts future customer actions Combines individual attributes that are strong predictors Produces an assessment score for each customer Model Uses Customer Analytics Direct Marketing Underwriting Usage Stimulation Cross-sell / Up-sell Retention / Churn Customer Value Operational Analytics Risk Management Credit Policy Decisions Channel Preference Portfolio Management Threat and Fraud Analytics Fraud Detection Collections Write-offs / Recoveries Predictive Model Timeline Observation Period / Observation Point Performance Period / Forecasts Part of a Comprehensive Analytics Solution Customer Data Mart Predictive Models Customer Segmentation Champion / Challenger Strategy Tests Model, Segmentation and Strategy Execution Strategy Test Evaluation New Champion Strategy Back to Step 4 (continuous learning and improvement) Predictive Model Development Methodology Define business goals Specify model objective function Design/build modeling database Partition modeling data Derive potential predictors Analyze predictor strength Perform sub-population analysis Build model algorithms Evaluate model performance Deploy Model Champion / Challenger Strategy Improvement Methodology Develop a "champion" strategy and "challenger" strategies for each segment Execute strategy tests and analyze results after a defined test period Perform model validation (controlling for treatment) Deploy new champion strategy with quantifiable business improvements Create new round of promising challengers Example Application: Customer Churn Reduction Develop predictive models for customer value and churn Identify customers with high value and/or high churn propensity for tailored treatments (e.g., special retention campaigns, VIP service, liberal fee-reversal policies) Conduct champion/challenger tests to identify the best treatments for each segment Implement new champion and develop next set of challengers Demonstration: IBM SPSS Modeler Q&A Topics Groups and Point Assignments For scoring models, there are tools within SPSS that help define the number of groups for an attribute (e.g., the breadth of each group: Customer Age groups of <1 yr; 2 to 3 yrs; 3 to 5 yrs; 6 or more) and the number of points that should be assigned to each group for scoring purposes. Consulting Validation for Data Readiness Senturus does offer this "discovery" call or visit as a service and it usually takes a few hours. Modeling Technique Choice Criteria Statistical Regression and Point Scoring models work well for binary outcome situations (e.g., a customer cancels an account or doesn't; a customer defaults or doesn't, etc.) Decision Trees work well for multi-outcome situations Neural Nets work well for a resulting list of suspects (as for fraud) as opposed to an off/on or yes/no evaluation for each customer Customer Involvement Usually significant over the 2 to 3 month implementation period for domain expertise; model validation; segmentation implementation; strategy determination, testing and strategy changes Model Implementation Challenges Business Use and Customer treatment (for example) Model Validation Frequency: at least quarterly is recommended How is SPSS software implemented: hosted or on-premise? Both (see links in the slide deck) Does SPSS require a data warehouse? Not necessarily because the observation data can come from any source, but a customer DW - for example - provides other reporting and analysis benefits and is an excellent source for SPSS for it supports changing the combination and population of attributes that SPSS analyses. Are the SPSS demonstrated charts and graphs available in Cognos 10 BI suites? No. The SPSS data would have to be brought into Cognos BI, some calculations added, and the native Cognos charts and graphs would then display the SPSS data. Is in-data base analytics recommended for SPSS? Yes, this is one way SPSS has been architected. Most data bases have internal algorithms that can be turned on and utilized by SPSS for analysis. (As opposed to the older, perhaps “standard” approach of extracting data from the data bases and handing that data to SPSS to store and analyze.) Can data marts and warehouses support predictive modeling? Yes, but there are analysis and sampling requirements for making observations and getting attribute values that usually require multiple snapshots and date stamping them so that values can be obtained for a specific point in time. Such as the values on a day that a customer defaults on a payment, or the values on the day a customer cancels an account, or the first day of each month to obtain trended historical values in the observation period.	Business Strategy
#1 Key to Success in BI: Executive Sponsorship One of the Ten Keys to Success in BI Executive sponsorship is the #1 most important factor in implementing successful business intelligence projects. But what if you don’t have a great sponsor? Do a prototype! John Peterson, Senturus Co-Founder, uses examples of his experience of over 1,400 BI implementations to discuss the importance of executive sponsorship and alternatives if you don’t have a sponsor. This video is a segment from our webinar recording, "Top 10 Keys to BI Success," available for free from our online resources library.	Business Strategy
Choosing the Right Tool for the Job Cognos Workspace vs. Traditional Studios vs. Active Reports One of the challenges every Cognos user faces is, "Which tool should I use for my application?" With Cognos 10, you have many choices: Active Reports, Cognos Workspace Standard and Advanced, the traditional studios (Query, Report, etc.) all with different features and functions. In this presentation and demo, we highlight the important differences in features between the various Cognos Studios, as well as the newer tools, such as Cognos Workspace Advanced. This session outlines important criteria that should be considered before investing significant hours (and dollars) in development, and provide tips on how to make the right tool choice. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos BI 10, Cognos Workspace, Cognos Workspace Advanced, Cognos Report Studio, Cognos Active Reports, Cognos Query Studio, Cognos Analysis Studio, Cognos PowerPlay Studio & PowerPlay Client, Cognos Metrics Studio, Cognos Insight, CAFE (Cognos Analysis for Excel) Recommended Audience BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers, Cognos and BI Support Staff Presenters John Peterson Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Peter Jogopolus Senior BI Architect, Senturus, Inc. Outline The Challenge: Which (Tool) Studio Should We Use? The Olde Days Impromptu Client – Relational Source PowerPlay Client – Dimensional Source (OLAP) The Good News: Cognos 8 & 10 BIVision Universal Web-based Front End Relational Source DMR Source Dimensional Source (OLAP) External Data The Reality: Cognos 8 & 10 BI One application server, but too many different Tools & Studios. How Cognos Thought It Should Work Use determines the tool. Use: Ad Hoc Query Tool: Query Studio Use: Drill-down Analysis Tool: Analysis Studio Use: Formal Report Tool: Studio Report Use: Dashboards Tool: RS/Portal or Workspace Use: Mobile Tool: Active Reports Framework Manager Metadata Model Relational Source DMR Source Dimensional Source (OLAP) External Data How Analysis and Reporting Really Work It’s a continuum. Ad Hoc query: a simple question. Drill-down and explore: needs more detail. Simple report: make it routine. Complex report: make it fancy. Complex report or dashboard: automate and distribute it. Other Factors Training on all tools for all users doesn’t make sense. Licensing on all tools for all users doesn’t make sense. Handing off to Report Studio pros is not scalable (nor is it self-service). The Challenge: Lots of Front End Tools Report Studio Query Studio Analysis Studio PowerPlay Studio & PowerPlay Client Metrics Studio Cognos Workspace (Standard) Cognos Workspace Advanced Cognos Insight CAFÉ (Cognos Analysis for Excel) Active Reports Important Criteria: What Should IConsider? Uses to Consider Standardized Reports Self-run Automated Distribution Ad-hoc Reports One-off Queries Individualized, Interactive Dashboards Scorecards Speed-to-thought analytics Visualizations Mobile Reports and Analysis Features to Consider Software Requirements & Browser Support Data Source & Package Support Report Types & Visualization Capabilities Report Functionality Query Support Prompting Report Formatting & Outputs Printing, Distribution & Security Licensing Considerations Overall Ease of Use & Development Speed Feature Set Comparisons: How Are Tools Different? Caveat Audience Nowhere is change more constant than in software feature sets. The following slides were based on the latest available information regarding Cognos 10 tool functionality (note: items are changing constantly). Note, focus of the following slides is not on: Cognos Insight CAFÉ Metrics Studio Software Requirements & Browser Support Software type Requires Server software installation Desktop Client (Windows) Browser Support Internet Explorer Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Apple Safari Apple Safari on iOS Data Source Support, Report Types &Visualization Data Source & Package Support Data Source & Package Support Relational Package Dimensional Package External Data Sources Report Type Supports List Reports Supports Crosstabs Supports Charts Supports Maps Supports Active Reports Visualization Immediate Data Preview Both Run & Design Modes RAVE Support Report Functionality Filtering Advanced Filtering Slicers Create Calculations Create Complex Calculations Copy Report to Clipboard Drill-through Definitions Drill-up/ Drill-downs Variable Support Layout Calculations (Param. headers) Complex Nesting and Row Selection Intersections/Tuples Expand-Collapse Built-in Query Support Supports Multiple Queries Supports Joins Supports Unions Supports Excepts Supports Outer Joins Supports Member Sets Supports MDX Functions Can “link” Dimensional and Relational Data Prompting Basic Prompting Controlled Filtering & Sorting Cascading Prompts Cognos Prompt API Prompting Page design Report Formatting Blocks & Tables Box Type Background Effects Alignment Size and Overflow Conditional Styles Advanced Conditional Styles Data Formatting Multiple Tabs Multiple Pages (Report Books) Report Outputs HTML PDF Excel CSV MHT Printing and Distribution Page layout control Multi-object page printing Single Frame printing only Bursting Saved Prompt Values Result set size constraints Security Supports row-level security in FM Model. Supports row-level security in Cubes. Supports portal/folder security. Interactive report can be emailed. Licensing Considerations Minimal Role required (for development). Minimal Role required (for consumption). Ease-of-use (scale: 1-5, where 5 is most difficult). Development Speed (scale: 1-5, where 1 is fastest). Other Considerations Remember that many tools export to Report Studio for further enhancement, but only CWA can re-import modified reports. Write-back capability not included (only available in Cognos Insight & TM1. Use Event Studio for advanced report scheduling & delivery control. Cognos OLAP Roadmap: How Should you Stage your Dimensional Data? IBM Cognos OLAP Roadmap IBM Cognos TM1 Optimal for write-back, what-if analysis, planning and budgeting, or other specialized applications. Able to handle medium data volumes. Aggregation occurs on the fly, which can impact performance with high data and high user volumes. IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes Optimal for read-only reporting and analytics over large data volumes. Aggregate-aware, with extensive in-memory caching for performance. Star or snowflake schema required in underlying database (highly recommended to maximize performance). IBM Cognos PowerCubes Optimal to provide consistent interactive analysis experience to large number of users when the data source is an operational/transactional system, and a star or snowflake data structure cannot be achieved. Cube (MOLAP) architecture that includes pre-aggregation is such that scalability requires careful management using cube groups. Data latency is inherent with any MOLAP cube technology, where data movement into the cube is required. Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) Optimal to easily create a dimensional data exploration experience over low data volumes in an operational/transactional system, and where latency needs to be carefully managed. Caching on the Cognos Dynamic Query server helps performance. Processing associated with operational/transactional system impacts performance. Demo: Recreating Existing PowerPlayReports using Cognos Workspace Advanced A Few Decision Making Tips Carefully evaluate your expected uses (especially mobile use and delivery) Seriously consider Cognos Workspace Advanced (particularly prior to deploying Analysis Studio). If interactive mobile is important, look at Active Reports, but beware of significantly more effort. Mock up Active Reports before starting development. QS and CWA work well for quick research and validating. Make full use of the ability to shift reports between of Report Studio and other tools. Push logic and relationships “upstream” into the FM model & Mart(s), instead of relying on report tools (Self-service BI).	Tips & Tricks
Installing Cognos 10.2.1: Tips and Tricks from the Trenches How to Ensure a Successful Upgrade Leveraging our experience installing Cognos hundreds of time across all versions of Cognos 8 and Cognos 10, Senturus shares the common issues and how-tos for a successful upgrade to Cognos 10.2.1. This presentation covers the common issues and how-tos, such as: Cognos 10.2.1 BI Server core components, common installation issues, and tips for a successful configuration (including Dynamic Query Mode and support for the RAVE visualization engine). TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos 10.2.1 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers; Cognos and BI Support Staff Presenter Steven Reed-Pittman Practice Director – Systems Integration and Optimization, Senturus, Inc. Steve leads the installation and upgrade team at Senturus. He has installed, and configured, and optimized hundreds of Cognos instances from Cognos Series 7 through Cognos 10 on the Windows, UNIX and Linux environments. OUTLINE Core Architecture of the BI Server (and Some Common Misconceptions) Cognos 10.2.1 BI Server Core Components Note: Report Servers are part of the “Application Tier Components” in the Cognos installation program. Component Selection Options Note: The Cognos Content Database isn’t generally used in enterprise installations; it is only recommended for use in demo environments. Content “” Confusion: What Are These Things? Content Manager The Cognos service that manages the storage and retrieval of report specifications, published packages, configuration data and Cognos security settings from the content store database. Content Store The set of database tables that are used by the Content Manager to store Cognos application data. Cognos Content Database Self-contained Apache Derby database server; can be used to host the content store database in demo environments when an enterprise DBMS is unavailable. What is a Dispatcher? The “Dispatcher” is a Java application that runs a configurable set of Cognos services, not just reports. A dispatcher can also route requests to other dispatchers for load balancing. Load Balancing Basics Cognos load balancing is performed by the Dispatchers, not the Gateway. The gateway always sends its requests to a single dispatcher URI; we could call this the gateway’s “current” target dispatcher: The gateway’s “current” target dispatcher performs load balancing as needed with the other dispatchers in the environment. The gateway will switch to a different dispatcher only if the “current” target dispatcher stops responding. 64-Bit Identity Crisis: The Ever-Growing Maze of Cognos Bitness* 32-bit and 64-bit Components Java code is architecture agnostic (can run on a 32-bit or 64-bit JVM). Some components are still strictly 32-bit native C++ code (e.g., BIBus processes for Compatible Query Mode). 32-Bit Components in 64-Bit Cognos There are still some 32-bit-only components embedded in 64-bit Cognos 10.2.1: Report execution processes for Compatible Query Mode (BIBusTKServerMain.exe) are still 32-bit. 32-bit database client libraries are required for native-client integration with third-party databases. Selectable-Bit Components In 64-Bit Cognos In 64-Bit Cognos 10.2.1, some components are delivered as BOTH 32-bit and 64-bit: Web gateway components have been available as both 32-bit and 64 bit since Cognos 10.2.0. Both versions of the gateway components are installed whenever you install the 64-bit BI Server. In 10.2.0, the 32-bit gateway components were used by default. In 10.2.1, the 64-bit gateway components are now used by default. Use the “copyGateMod.bat” script to switch between them. More Selectable-Bit Components in 64-Bit Cognos In 64-Bit Cognos 10.2.1, the Report Server execution mode can be set to 32-bit or 64-bit: 32-bit execution mode allows the report server to handle CQM or DQM requests (DQM query requests are forwarded to the 64-bit Query Service for execution). 64-bit execution mode allows the report server to handle DQM and Dynamic Cubes requests ONLY (note: routing rules are needed if running a combination of modes in one environment). What Difference Does It Make? 32-Bit Versus 64-Bit 32-bit components are limited to a smaller amount of memory per-process (4 GB max addressable). Out-of-memory errors can occur on complex reports when a BIBus process hits this limit. Even if additional memory is available on the server, the BIBus process cannot use it. 64-bit components aren’t subject to the 4 GB memory limit, so they can perform higher complexity, memory-intensive processing. Dynamic Query Mode and Dynamic Cubes leverage 64-bit scalability to provide in-memory caching for high performance. Things Go Wrong: Common Installation Problem Areas Why Things Go Wrong: Cognos is Not an Island Famous last words: ”How hard can this be… don’t you just, point, click and go?” External dependencies add unique and variable complexity in every environment, including: Network Security Virtual Infrastructure Database Access (SQL, Oracle, DB2, ODBC, JDBC) Authentication Mechanisms (AD, LDAP, Series 7) Web Server Configurations (IIS, Apache, SSL) Anti-virus and Endpoint Security Solutions Where Things Go Wrong: four Common Problem Areas Operating System (Windows) Database (SQL Server, Oracle) Web Server (IIS) Fix Packs Common Problem Area #1: Operating System Common Windows OS Issues Service account not added to Local Administrators group. Cognos hasn’t been configured to run using the service account credentials. Check the service’s properties. Data Execution Prevention (DEP) has not been configured to allow Cognos to run. For simplicity, DEP is enabled here for essential Windows programs and services only. Alternatively, individual DEP exceptions can also be explicitly configured for Cognos. Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is turned on. Set IE ESC to “Off” in order to access Cognos Connection directly from the server. Note: This change is NOT required for browsers on client PCs to be able to connect to the server. Common Problem Area #2: Database Common Database-Related issues Incompatible Collation Sequence The Cognos content store requires a case-insensitive collation sequence. Some common collation sequences for Cognos installations are: SQL Server: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS Oracle: AL32UTF8 Oracle: Incorrect JDBC driver file for Content Manager The correct JDBC driver must be copied from the Oracle client installation location to .../webapps/p2pd/WEB-INF/lib. ojdbc6.jar is recommended for use with Cognos 10.2.1. Dynamic Query Mode: Spaces in the Path to the JDBC Drivers Beware: DQM cannot handle spaces in the path to the JDBC drivers (e.g., the default Cognos installation path “C:Program Filesibmcognos...” ). Use something like “C:ibmcognos...” as your installation path instead. See the IBM Cognos 10 Dynamic Query Cookbook for additional details on required JDBC driver files and configurations for DQM. Common SQL Server and Oracle DB Issues Incorrect Bitness of Database Client Software For Compatible Query Mode (CQM) access to third-party data sources, 64-bit Cognos 10.2.1 still requires 32-bit client libraries. For Oracle, you must explicitly install the 32-bit Oracle client libraries when running Cognos on 64-bit Windows. For SQL Server, the 64-bit SQL Native Client includes both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries. Common Problem Area #3: Web Server Common IIS Configuration Issues Role Services have not been installed for ISAPI and Windows Authentication. Application Pool Identity not set to Network Service. Application Pool not configured properly for the bitness of the gateway extensions. Set “Enable 32-Bit Applications” to True when using the 32-bit gateway extensions. Set “Enable 32-Bit Applications” to False when using the 64-bit gateway extensions. Common Problem Area #4: Fix Packs Fix-Pack Madness: Which Fixes To Install? 10.2.1 Fix Pack 1 Unlike standard fix packs, FP1 also added new functionality. Support for the RAVE visualization engine was added in FP1. XML schema change for report specifications – requires a separate step to upgrade existing 10.2.1 content after applying FP1. 10.2.1 Fix Pack 1 Dynamic Query Feature Bundle Also known as 10.2.1.1 Interim Fix 3. This is a separate install that goes on top of 10.2.1 FP1 to add enhanced capabilities for DQM and Dynamic Cubes. The Dynamic Query Feature Bundle MUST be installed before FP2 if its features are needed. It CANNOT be installed after FP2 has been installed. 10.2.1 Fix Pack 2 Unlike standard Cognos fix packs, FP2 is not quite cumulative (it doesn’t include the Dynamic Query Feature Bundle changes). Recommended Install Sequence for 10.2.1 BI Fix Packs To get to the latest, most stable and most feature-complete version of Cognos 10.2.1, use the following install sequence: 10.2.1 Base Install 10.2.1 Fix Pack 1 10.2.1 FP1 Dynamic Query Feature Bundle (aka 10.2.1.1 Interim Fix 3) 10.2.1 FP2 Additional Gotchas: 10.2.1 Mobile Fix Packs Mobile adds a further layer of complexity to the Fix Pack process: Cognos Mobile 10.2.1 has its own, separate Fix Packs. The latest SERVER-SIDE Mobile Fix Pack is Mobile 10.2.1 Fix Pack 2, which requires BI 10.2.1 FP1 or later to be installed first. Mobile 10.2.1 Fix Pack 3 is also available now, but Mobile 10.2.1 FP3 is only an app upgrade (iOS/Android), not a server-side upgrade. Plan carefully and patch carefully! Some Final Notes: Keeping 32-bit Tools Separate, Disabling the Query Service to Save Memory Keeping 32-Bit Tools Separate As always, the “pure” 32-bit client tools still can’t be installed in the same directory as the 64-bit BI Server components. Because Framework Manager, Transformer and Cube Designer are 32-bit components, they must be installed in a separate directory from any Cognos BI 64-bit server components. The Dynamic Query Analyzer is available as both a 32-bit and a 64-bit install. The Cognos 10 Query Service If Dynamic Query Mode is not being used, you can disable the Query Service to save memory. The Query Service uses a dedicated JVM instance for Dynamic Query Mode execution, which allocates 1 GB of memory by default at startup. Getting Unstuck: Use the Cognos Knowledge Base Using the IBM Cognos Knowledge Base Simple searches are more likely to produce relevant articles. Detailed searches are less likely to return anything at all. http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Software/Information_Management/Cognos_Business_Intelligence Select “Search only Cognos Business Intelligence,” otherwise you’ll get results for all IBM products.	Tips & Tricks
Mobile Business Intelligence with Roambi Delivering Existing BI Content to Mobile Devices Our clients are finding Roambi to be a valuable solution for mobile BI because it: leverages the mobile interface elements such as swipes, zooms and auto-refreshes. is a mobile front-end to the business intelligence infrastructure that you already own including: SAP Business Objects, IBM Cognos, Oracle OBIEE and Microsoft BI. In this webinar recording, we objectively discuss Roambi and give a demo Roambi for mobile business intelligence. The discussion and demos include: the mobile BI capabilities of Roambi. the steps required to configure an existing BI report to be a data source for Roambi Mobile BI as well as the steps required to deploy to the mobile device. the mobile BI experience from the perspective of your users. Business Context Deploying business intelligence results and capabilities to mobile devices provides significant benefit for managers and analysts because it is often more timely and interactive than connecting to enterprise data with a computer. When the mobile capability leverages a company’s existing BI infrastructure – and relies on a company’s existing security processes as well – it both adds value and security. Technologies Covered Existing BI infrastructure (SAP Business Objects, IBM Cognos, Oracle OBIEE and Microsoft BI); Roambi Recommended Audience BI Developers; BI Managers Presenters Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder Senturus David Bacerra Vice President Strategy and Business Development Roambi Tom Wilseck Customer Success Team Roambi Outline Architecture Roambi is a mobile presentation layer that exists on top of a company’s existing BI infrastructure. Multiple BI environments can be supported simultaneously, such as: SAP Business Objects, IBM Cognos, Oracle OBIEE and Microsoft BI. If a company has more than one BI environment deployed, all may be presented to mobile devices and use the same Roambi interface. Access and security is managed by the specific BI environments – there is no additional Roambi-only security environment to manage. Access is passed through Roambi to the specific BI environment to that is being connected. Configuration and Connections Multiple mobile devices are configured Connections to multiple Business Intelligence infrastructures are configured Depending upon a user’s security and access that is defined within each separate BI environment, BI content is published and refreshed on the mobile device and presented in a chosen format or view. Presentation Views and Rendering There are currently 10 view options for rendering BI content from an existing BI content store, package, or report: Blink Cardex CataList Elements Layers PieView Pulse Squares SuperList Trends These are chosen from a “carousel” during deployment. Data is pushed to the mobile device from the BI environment and then rendered with the device’s native Roambi application. The much larger files that contain the presentation graphics and images usually created on a server or host computer (and sent to other mobile applications, such as Cognos’ Active Reports) are not sent to the mobile device with Roambi, resulting in a much faster user experience. Leveraging multiple, existing BI infrastructures and sources Portals supported include sources that hold BI reports, documents and cubes directly. Also, xls, xlsx and csv sources are supported. Q&A What are the connectivity options for a company that doesn’t have a formal BI environment and source? Roambi can also pull data from Excel and csv files as well as direct connectivity via ODBC to data bases. Can Salesforce be used as a live source (as opposed to having to extract data and have a duplicate copy of it apart from the source)? Yes – so a SaaS system (in the cloud) is also a valid source What mobile devices are supported currently and what are planned? iOS devices currently. Soon an HTML5 version will be released, so that Android and desktop devices will be supported as well. What are typical transfer times? Many reports and files are in the 5MB or less size range and take a few seconds over WiFi and 4G networks. Over 3G and LTE can take 30-40 seconds or even 1 minute. When sourcing a Roambi mobile rendering from a Cognos report, does the report have to have been previously refreshed in the Cognos environment? The Roambi application assumes that either the report has been run and has data in it; or if it is associated with a query, then the query is executed and the resultant data is used. Is there a specific format that source data needs to be in for Roambi to render? Not just one, there are a number of formats for data: cross-tab, lists, hierarchies, query result sets, etc. What is the approach to data security? Apple’s native on-device encryption. Also, https “in flight” security. Device-side security via PIN for the Roambi application. The application may be locked by a remote user or a remote administrator; and a block-and-wipe capability is also available to the administrator. Does the user need to be on a corporate VPN for access? Yes, but others are available also: such as reverse-proxy servers and installing the Roambi server in the “DMZ” relative to the firewall. How does Roambi handle prompted reports? It can, but using prompts in a Roambi report requires the persistent connectivity with the company data base for the back and forth communication. A better practice is to render a much larger report and use the mobile device’s Roambi processing and rendering capabilities to filter and navigate the values offered in the prompt(s). Can Roambi support drill-throughs? Yes, but the report would need to contain all the levels and details needed for the drilling. What is available for proof of concept projects (POC’s)? Two options: Light-weight, small scope, free POC involving a few examples with no on-site software installation. Mobile Value Case: a fee-based approach for $10,000 - $20,000 that includes on-site installation and multiple views with unlimited user access. The fee can be credited towards the software license.	Features
What’s New in Cognos Version 10.2.1.1 Plus Previews of New Products Cognos Version 10.2.1.1 This overview demonstrates several exciting new functionalities, including end-to-end Visualization workflow, Cognos Workspace on Mobile, Active Reports with Visualizations, Report Booklets, Theme Designer, and embeddable workspaces. We discuss performance enhancements and extended support for big data, along with a preview of several products first announced at the 2013 IBM Information on Demand (IOD) Conference. This includes IBM Concert, which gives users a simplified way to collaborate and work on content,anywhere, anytime. BUSINESS CONTEXT The enhancements in IBM Cognos Version 10.2.1.1 speed business users’ insights into their data by significantly advancing the capabilities that provide interactive visualization, mobile access, improved performance and support for big data. Specifically these enhancements: Amplify mobile business intelligence with new and innovative visualizations allowing users to quickly pinpoint trends in data. Leverage native and optimized web applications for Android and iOS to support a broader range of smart phones and tablets. Get insights quicker than ever before through performance improvements gained from more efficient memory usage, reduced memory footprint and improved use of compression. Gain a more complete view of the business and act quickly off insights with expanded support for big data sources including Hadoop, analytic data stores and real-time streaming data. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Business Intelligence 10.2.1.1, Concert, Analytics Zone RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers; Cognos and BI Support Staff PRESENTERS Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001. He now heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures. Jeff Dean Solution Advisor North America, IBM PRESENTATION OUTLINE Overview of innovations in Cognos Business Intelligence Interactive Visualization: New Features in Version 10.2.1.1. Authoring within Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced. Consumption and assembly in Cognos Workspace. Improved usability with the Visualization library. Mobile: New Features in Version 10.2.1.1 Extended Device Support Support for Android phones and tablets and iPhones. Enhanced Security Integrated with Good Technology’s security platform. Interactive Visualization New and innovative visualizations including interactive and animated charts. Interactive Content Integration with Cognos Workspace. Redesigned Interface Includes how-to videos. Performance Enhancements in Version 10.2.1.1 Mobile for faster report execution. Request optimizations; improves response. Active Reports with faster, more data and reduced memory consumption. Optimized internal structure. Better use of compression. Improved memory consumption. Report rendering faster. Removed redundant calls, reduced unnecessary compression, improved memory usage. Bursting to optimize hardware usage. Burst reports can now be distributed across report servers for better use of hardware resources. Batch for faster running jobs. Batch has been optimized for fast running reports. Improved CPU utilization. Dynamic Cubes for faster and reduced memory consumption. Simplified SQL query structure. Reduced memory footprint. Improved aggregate selection logic. Dynamic Query for faster results. Improved DMR first run performance. Improved TM1 interactive analysis. Configuration for more optimal settings. Improved system defaults. Disk I/O Scalability improves report execution. Files are now cached in memory, which greatly reduces disk I/O activity. Extended support for Big Data in Version 10.2.1.1 Combine data in motion and at rest. General Hive support to access to: Apache Hadoop, Cloudera, Hortonworks, AWS EMR and other distributions using Hive 0.8 or Hive 0.9. Optimized access to: BigInsights via Big SQL and SAP HANA. Additional innovations in Version 10.2.1.1 Cognos Workspace New recommended visualizations to better depict your content. Marimekko charts, Pareto charts, Progressive charts and Radar charts. Improved printing. Use + marks in cross tab to expand items. Hide tool bars. Move tabs and global areas. Cut, copy and paste widgets and duplicate tabs. Cut, copy, and paste widgets from one tab to another, from one workspace to another, or to or from the global area enabling users to save time in creating dashboards. Duplicate tabs provide a convenient way to use one tab as a template for another, saving time and giving workspaces a consistent look and feel. Easy ‘resize to fit content’ icon. Ability to map slider/select values to group items that are alike. Dynamically update the slider/select value filter when the report changes. Bulk Widget Updates Across dashboards. By dashboard. By folder (using SDK). Cognos Workspace Advanced/Report Studio. Show value as percentage. Share sets between reports. Expanded text-based filtering options. Simplified custom grouping (CWA). Improved Excel formatting. Visualization Library Sorting and refining list of visualizations. More information provided on visualizations helping users to determine what best meets their reporting needs. Interactivity Provide drill up/down, drill through, tool tips and selection for server side generated visualizations enabling deeper analysis. General reporting. Chrome/Safari Support Chrome/Safari support for Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced letting users take advantage of these popular browsers. Dynamic Report Booklets Ability to combine multiple reports into a single report booklet, allowing users to reuse and present a large amount of BI content for more effective consumption. Features include: Table of contents can be created with reference to each report. Each report will start on a new page. Update to each report will automatically update the report booklet. All authored prompt pages will run at the start. CSV and XML will only run the first query encountered as they do in a single report. Theme Designer Provides a graphical user interface making it easy to tailor IBM Cognos BI Applications with organizational brand requirements. Replace images, colors or edit HTML to get the organization’s standardized look. Produce multiple themes for users to chose from, or differentiate themes for each tenant or application in a multi-tenancy environment. Supported within IBM Cognos Connection, IBM Cognos Viewer and IBM Cognos Workspace. Downloadable Cognos Theme Designer and its documentation. Dynamic Cubes Modeling Auto-design enhancements in Cube Designer results in better hierarchies. Performance Memory optimization reduced memory footprint and increases performance. Significant reduction in memory required for member cache and query processing. Overall query improvements that will benefit all users. Dynamic Cubes API REST-based API for the development and deployment of Dynamic Cube applications. Customers and partners will now have the ability to programmatically design, deploy and manage. Dynamic Query Focused performance improvements of DMR first run. New monitoring/management of DQ memory usage through Cognos Administration. New Data Source Support DB2 for I, Sybase IQ, MySQL SAP HANA BigInsights 2.1 via Big SQL Administration Content Management External Object Store provides significant reduction on content store size, which improves performance when fetching report results. Archiving repository options: IBM Content Manager 8 IBM FileNet FileSystem Install and Deploy Enhancements Install – select only the languages required, reducing overall installed footprint. Deploy – deploy My Folders content only. Multi-tenancy Multi-tenancy tab within IBM Cognos Administration provides central UI for managing tenants. General tenant administration. More control with tenant onboarding. Option to deploy public content. IBM Concert IBM Concert surrounds TM1 interfaces, offering step-by-step user guidance. Guided Business Processes Personalized task list highlight priorities, and walk users through projects step by step to highlight important time sensitive tasks, and improve efficiency. Focus on collaboration. Act upon insights by easily collaborating and sharing data analysis with anyone, anywhere to build consensus around business decisions. Cloud Deployable, Mobile Enabled Activity streams alert you to changes as well as collaborative insights as they occur across the enterprise. Prioritized tasks can be acted upon sooner.	Features
Interactive Reports and Dashboards for the Mobile Audience IBM Cognos Active Reports Are you looking for a way to reach your growing mobile and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) audience, while leveraging your investment in IBM Cognos? Experienced authors can deliver interactive reports and dashboards to decision makers, regardless of their location or choice of device through IBM Cognos Active Reports. Active Reports build on existing skills in the IBM Cognos Report Studio, creating a minimal learning curve for your developers. Native Apps for Apple and Android devices make consumption and administration of content simple and intuitive. IBM has invested heavily in architectural improvements to make Cognos 10.2.1.1 Active Reports a more viable solution for a growing number of applications. This webinar demonstrates Active Report development in action, including: How Active Reports help you achieve your mobile analytics initiative Fundamental concepts, best practices, and techniques for creating Active Reports via live demonstration How the latest versions of IBM Cognos 10 have significantly improved the efficiency and shortened the development cycle for Active Reports TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos Report Studio 10.2.1, IBM Cognos BI 10.2.1, IBM Cognos Active Reports 10.2.1, IBM Cognos Active Reports 10.2.1.1 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT Cognos and BI Support Staff; BI Report Writers; BI Authors; BI Power Users; BI Report Consumers. PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Learning Solutions, Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 13 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. OUTLINE Reaching the Mobile Audience Who Consumers of analytics that can benefit from access to information via non-traditional channels or access points. What Mobile devices such as tablets (iPads), smart phones (Android, iPhone). Where Out of the office, either connected or disconnected. In the office via non-traditional devices. When NOW: Better devices and infrastructure. Increasing supply of and demand for information. Why Improve time to decision via interactive analytics where they were not previously available. Increase productivity by making key information accessible anywhere, anytime. How Install Mobile server and gateway components. Develop Content specifically designed for mobile consumption. Consume: Point mobile browser at external gateway, and/or install native apps for devices. Administer Secure devices and content. Schedule delivery to mobile recipients. Getting Started Extending your existing IBM Cognos BI solution. Download and Install IBM Cognos Mobile on gateway and each dispatcher. Identify target users and develop a security policy. Establish a content strategy. Which existing content is suitable to be consumed “as-is”? Which existing content can be efficiently modified for mobile consumption? Which high-value requirements justify new development specifically for the mobile audience? Are Active Reports the answer? Getting Started – Infrastructure and Licensing Licensing Existing IBM Cognos customers? You own it. Enhanced Consumer or above license role can access via Mobile. Not sure? Contact Senturus and let us help you save some money and optimize your license investment. Infrastructure and security concerns Consider a dedicated gateway for external users on a separate web server outside the DMZ. Installation is easy: Run the install package on gateway and each dispatcher. Cognos Mobile service integrates with existing services and is centrally managed through your existing Config and Admin consoles. What’s the Big Deal with Active Reports in this New Release? With each new release of IBM Cognos 10, we’ve seen significant improvements in the platform with regard to Active Reports development and consumption. 10.2.1 RAVE: Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine Extends the visualization library making graphical and other visual displays more appealing and interactive, not limited to a fixed Chart library. Visualizations allow for run-time rendering so authors can apply Filter methods to these displays; this reduces development efforts, as well as the size of Active Reports. Ability to track Mobile usage through Audit DB. The new compression feature compresses Active Report controls within the output, producing files that are smaller and open faster. This significantly improves the performance of Active Reports that include large amounts data versus graphical content. Improvements to the Active Report engine streamline performance, and result in improved memory consumption characteristics. 10.2.1.1 With the new IBM Cognos Mobile interface, you can navigate BI content in a more visual way. For instance, you can sort your local content and pause and restart report downloads. Automatic Configuration iPad users can tap on a web location (URL) to automatically configure the IBM Cognos Mobile application to connect to the BI server. This greatly simplifies configuration by eliminating the need to type long URLs and choose configuration settings. Faster Mobile Reports Multi-page reports that are manually executed are retrieved and presented one page at a time, rather than all at once. High-fidelity Reports IBM Cognos Mobile has enhanced its support for HTML reports on mobile devices Enhancements include: Rendering of additional fonts. Page layout. Prompt controls. Drill-through actions. Saved HTML output. The capabilities for IBM Cognos Workspace on mobile devices, along with the drill-through actions between active reports and regular reports, remain unchanged from the previous release. Zooming on Active Reports When viewing active reports on Apple iOS devices, users can zoom in and out using the standard pinch gesture. Apple Push Notifications You can now use Apple push notifications to notifyusers of the IBM Cognos Mobile native iPad application about the availability of new IBM Cognos Business Intelligence reports. The supported notifications include badges and text alerts. Reports can now be distributed to IBM Cognos Mobile users by bursting. Live Demonstration Access Existing IBM Cognos content via PC and via iPad. Use the iPad native App. Build and consume an Active Report on iPad. Senturus Cognos Training Options Just getting started with IBM Cognos? Talk to the experts at Senturus! Senturus training content: all new for 2014. Updated to version 10.2.1 New Courses: Expert Authoring Expanded Cognos Workspace Advanced (OLAP and Relational) Expanded Metadata Modeling Expanded Dimensional Authoring Senturus can deliver tailored training solutions, including private training engagements.	Features
The Challenge of Mobile Business Intelligence Mobile BI Strategy Mobile Business Intelligence Business Context Smartphones and Tablets are only growing in use, and they are used for both personal and work purposes. Companies need to develop a mobile strategy that incorporates business user needs to maximize worker productivity and collaboration. Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline The Newest Wave: As mobile device use increased, business users increased demand for BI on personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Companies are motivated to improve BI deployment to expand the number of non-technical users, improve employee efficiency and attract talent. Key Study Facts: The top motivator for participants (68% of research participants) was the need to provide information to Line of Business users. 70% of businesses have deployed mobile BI, are getting ready to deploy mobile BI, or hope to deploy mobile BI in the near future. A Changing Environment: Smartphones are changing the way in which people work and access their information. The major limitation of the smartphone is its screen size. Tablets are only growing in demand and its larger screen size makes it a viable alternative to the desktop. The Challenge for IT: Personal mobile devices and other technology are being used for both work and life. IT will have to deal with a greater variety of data types and increased security requirements. The key question is which mobile operating systems and which mobile applications will be supported. Business Intelligence will definitely be part of the mix. New Promise for Collaboration: Companies are considering ways to support social networking and business collaboration tools to encourage information sharing and teamwork. Vantana’s research suggests that collaboration capabilities should exist on smartphones and tablets, and be linked to BI analytics for information sharing. Toward a Successful Strategy Organizations should consider business mobility as part of its strategy. There is a huge potential to improve employee productivity and competitive positioning. It is important to involve employee input while developing your mobile strategy to ensure the right BI capabilities are incorporated into your plan.	Business Strategy
IBM Cognos Report Studio Version 10 Tips and Tricks Demos of Maps Feature, All Demos Applicable to Cognos v8 and v10 An in-depth look at some key Cognos report authoring techniques that go beyond the standard "out-of-the-box" functionality. Demonstrations include: Using external data to expand the scope of your reports Leveraging out-of-the-box Maps to create your own customized regional displays Dynamically changing layout based on report output formats (HTML, Excel and pdf) Except for Maps, these techniques are applicable to versions 8 & 10. During the webinar, we also discuss licensing tips for Business Insight mode vs. Business Insight Advanced. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos BI version 10, IBM Cognos Report Studio 10 Recommended Audience BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers; Cognos and BI Support Staff Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus Inc. Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus.	Tips & Tricks
User Friendly IBM Cognos Report Authoring: IBM Cognos 10.2 Workspace Desktop Dashboard Business Users have long needed a dashboard that allows them to easily interact and explore their data. IBM Cognos Workspace is a desktop dashboard that allows business users to do report authoring without assistance from I.T. During this webinar, we explore Cognos Workspace and Workspace Advanced. We demonstrate techniques and evaluate its features. Business Context There are significant improvements in the 10.2 release of IBM Cognos Workspace and IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced (previously Business Insight) that speed "time to deployment" for reports and dashboards. Power business users as well as BI Developers will benefit. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Workspace and IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced Recommended Audience Business Intelligence Report Authors; Business Users Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus Inc. Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline IBM Cognos 10.2 Release Highlights (Oct. 2012) End user experience Both Cognos Insight and Cognos Workspace (formerly Business Insight): More interactive visualizations (filtering and drilling on charts) Top/bottom filtering; expand/collapse; freeze headers Tabbed workspaces IBM Cognos BI Tool Applicability Query Studio Ideal for simple, ad hoc reporting Easy to learn and use, but limited Analysis Studio Dedicated data exploration interface for slice-and-dice functions Not intended to produce reports Report Studio Highly sophisticated professional authoring studio Not intended for ad hoc reporting Full featured and complex - steep learning curve Cognos Workspace Assemble existing content and personalize, collaborate, explore Not an end-to-end authoring solution Enhances the business consumer's experience Amplifies the value of standard reports Cognos Workspace Advanced Nearly complete authoring Unrestricted data exploration Compatible with Report Studio Flexibility similar to PowerPlay client Reporter Mode A hybrid of Query, Report and Analysis Studio Supports complex expressions (calculations) No access to the Query model Demonstration Cognos Workspace Create a Workspace from existing content Enhance the Workspace Extend the analysis with Workspace Advanced Cognos Workspace Advanced Create a multi-display report layout Conditionally format data Filter and prompt for criteria Create an asynchronous crosstab and perform deep data exploration Q&A Topics Licensing review Workspace: "Enhanced Consumer" license or above Workspace Advanced: "Advanced Business Author" license or above Does Workspace completely obsolete Query Studio? No. It's a license expense versus capability trade-off discussion that may have a different answer, company to company. Workspace versus Report Studio? Probably not as RS supports pixel-perfect report results, but is much more complex to learn and use. Publish and Sharing The Workspace is available through the portal for collaboration Exports to html, pdf and Excel are for each widget in the workspace, not for the entire workspace (yet). Challenges, considerations, constraints, "gotcha's"? Clean OLAP and Dynamic Cube sources are important to performance	Tips & Tricks
Income Statement Reporting Challenges with BI Tools Helping IT and Finance to Understand Each Other The income statement is the most widely used financial report in the world. Yet at many organizations, it’s also often a source of tension between the finance and information technology (IT) teams. Finance grows frustrated, as they have not been given the software tools needed to dig into the numbers and slice and dice the income statement in greater detail. Meanwhile, IT also becomes frustrated as they have invested in world-class business intelligence tools — tools that are purpose-built for drill-down and slice and dice — but user-adoption in Finance remains elusive. In this 90-minute session, experts from Senturus discuss and demonstrate key tips and techniques for using general-purpose IBM Cognos Business Intelligence tools for income statement reporting. Specific issues addressed include: The need for: Both revenue and expenses to be displayed as positive numbers in the income statement. Variances to foot across both the rows and the columns of the income statement. Roll-ups to work correctly. Sometimes, roll-ups are additions, sometimes they’re subtractions but they always need to be correct. These requirements to be addressed not just for standard reports but for ad hoc analysis as well. The need to: Compare budget versus actual, with the flexibility to choose which budget version to use. Display positive variances as favorable in some cases, and as unfavorable in others. Slice and dice the income statement by department, business unit, product family, etc. We also share tips and techniques for configuring your IBM Cognos Transformer models to enhance OLAP-based income statement reporting and ad hoc analysis. Additionally, this webinar includes a demonstration of business end user income statement reporting and analysis using Cognos Workspace Advanced. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos BI 10.2.1, IBM Cognos Report Studio 10.2.1,IBM Cognos Active Reports 10.2.1 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES IT Departments; Finance Departments; IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT Cognos and BI Support Staff; BI Report Writers; BI Authors; BI Power Users; BI Report Consumers. Presenters Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001. He now heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures. John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Andrew Wyatt Senior Managing Consultant, Senturus, Inc. OUTLINE Income Statement Fundamentals: The Language and the Math The Basic Language of an Income Statement The language of the income statement often varies by company. The income statement is sometimes called the profit and loss statement (P&L), sometimes the statement of operations, and sometimes the statement of income. It shows the profitability of the company for the period, on the bottom line. The Basic Math of an Income Statement Net Profit = Total Income less Total Expenses Income statement includes break-outs of the income and expenses associated with different types of activities (e.g. primary and secondary activities). In the basic math, the income items are positive, the expense items are negative, and the totals and subtotals are summation roll-ups using straight addition. Straight addition roll-ups are especially important in ad hoc reporting. The Basic Math with Budgets and Variances Budget versus Actual (with Variance) is a very common business requirement, and must be supported in both standard and ad hoc reporting. Business Users need the income statement to indicate whether the Variance is Favorable or Unfavorable. In basic math, the Variance equation is always Actual minus Budget (A minus B). In basic math, the positive numbers are the Favorable variances and the negative numbers are the Unfavorable variances. In the rate cases where the business requirement accepts the mix of positive for income and negative for expense, you are almost done. Challenge #1 Feeling Negative: Keeping It Positive Creates Challenges Keeping it Positive – Challenge 1A: No Rollups As seen, the business requirements almost always mandate that both revenues and expenses be presented as positive values. The major challenge of the “Keep it Positive” requirement is that it removes the ability to use straight addition for summation rollups. Hierarchical rollups no longer work, because those rollups rely on straight summation where the parent value equals the total of the child values. When all the values are positive, summations no longer hold, as additions are required in some places and subtractions in others. This forces both report authors and ad hoc users to create calculated rows for each total and subtotal. Requires tedious formula creation. Not user friendly. Prone to error. Requires accounting knowledge. Keeping it Positive – Challenge 1B: Variance Formulas The need to present both revenues and expenses as positive numbers forces variations of the variance formulas, which equates to four separate variations. This forces both report authors and ad hoc users to figure out which of the four variance formulas to apply, then apply it manually to each row of the report. Cannot call it ad hoc reporting when that is not the case. Requires accounting knowledge that not all report developers have. Prone to error. Tip #1: Delay The Positive – Do the Math First, Then Reverse the Sign The Common Mistake The roll-up and variance formula challenges are the result of using positive values for both revenue and expenses, and trying to accommodate via situation-specific formulas. The challenging reports are either using: A source database that maintains positive values for both revenue and expenses. A technique that converts the negative values to positives. Common Mistake Causes the reporting nightmares. Removes hope of reasonable ad-hoc analysis. Better Way: Leverage the Basic Math The basic math enables consistent, correct: Roll-ups at every level. Representation of favorable and unfavorable variances. The problem with the basic math is that it displays negative numbers when the business requires positive. Solution: Have the reporting software use the basic math behind the scenes, and selectively reverse the sign only when the data is being displayed to the user Tip: Selectively Reverse the Sign via a Rule This report illustrates the concept of the selective sign reversal. The values in the Variance column already correctly represent favorable and unfavorable variances. The positive numbers in the Actual and Budget columns are also already correct. The numbers highlighted in blue are the ones that need their signs to be selectively reversed, after the basic math is complete. Tip: Use the Fundamental Accounting Elements As a rule, once the basic math is complete, selectively reverse the sign when: The value is in an account having Normal Balance Type of Debit, and the value is either an Actual measure or a Budget measure. Result: Correct Signs, Rollups, and Variances Bonus: Works for ad hoc analysis as well. Challenge #2: The Data is Almost Always Sore, and Needs Massaging The Basic Math Needs the Right Data Sources of accounting data from which the Income Statement information is derived include: General Ledger software module (or package). Planning/Budgeting software packages. Spreadsheet-based budget models. Finance Marts or Data Warehouses. Operational Data Stores (ODS). Consolidation software packages. Disclosure Management software packages. Positives and negatives are not always maintained in the data values themselves. The data needs to be organized and harmonized. Five Fundamental Accounting Examples Element: Asset Debit: Increase Credit: Decrease Example Accounts: Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Land, Furniture, Equipment, Patents, and Prepays. Element: Liability Debit: Decrease Credit: Increase Example Accounts: Accounts Payable, Salaries Payable, Prepayments, Income Taxes, etc. Element: Income / Revenue Debit: Decrease Credit: Increase Example Accounts: Sales, Interest Income, Rent Income, Interest from Investments, etc. Element: Expense Debit: Increase Credit: Decrease Example Accounts: Salaries, Rent, Repairs, Insurance, Utilities, and Telecommunications. Element: Equity / Capital Debit: Decrease Credit: Increase Example Accounts: Common Stock, Paid-in Capital, Retained Earnings. Organizing the Data: Scenario #1All Positive Scenario #1: Source data holds both Debits and Credits as positive numbers. Create derived Natural GL Amount field by multiplying Source Amount by -1 whenever the account has a normal balance type of Credit. When the normal balance type is Debit, the derived Natural GL Amount is the same as the Source Amount. For use in the Basic Math approach, create a derived Reversed GL Amount field that is the reverse of Natural GL Amount. Organizing the Data: Scenario #2 Already Mixed Scenario #2: Source data has Debits as positive and Credits as negative. Derived Natural GL Amount field is the same as Source Amount. For use in Basic Math approach, create derived Reversed GL Amount field that is the reverse of Natural GL Amount. Organizing the Data – Decompose Chart of Accounts Harmonizing the Data –Enables the Drillable P&L Realizing the Potential: Income Statements with General-purpose IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Technique for Selective Sign Reversal in Cognos Transformer Settings for Measures: Actual and Budget Make sure you source Actual and Budget measures from appropriate Reversed GL Amount field. Settings for Categories: Account Dimension Don’t Forget Mixed Rollup Accounts Actual and Budget Need to be Measures Putting it to Work: Income Statement Demonstrations Using IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced Demonstrations Row and Column Selection Budget versus Actual Relative Time and Comparisons Expanding Specific Sections Business Unit per Page Asymmetrical Reporting Seasonality Conditional Highlighting Actuals and Forecast by Month Percent of Total Drill-through to Transaction Detail	Business Strategy
Self-Service Business Authoring in a Manage Reporting World IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced During this webinar, we explore ways to take full advantage of the authoring capabilities available within the IBM Cognos 10 platform. Evolving a traditional report consumer into a self-service author is a persistent challenge. We demonstrate features of Cognos Workspace Advanced that can help your organization deliver on a truly self-service reporting solution. In this webinar, we demonstrate: How you can deliver sophisticated reports to a self-service audience while allowing them to make modifications and perform ad-hoc analysis. Creative professional authoring and deployment techniques that take advantage of the bi-directional compatibility between Report Studio and Cognos Workspace Advanced. Traditional, as well as OLAP, report authoring best practices for business authors. Using visualizations to create more appealing reports. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos 10 Workspace Advanced, IBM Cognos Report Studio RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers; Cognos and BI Support Staff PRESENTER Albert Valdez Vice President of Education Services, Senturus, Inc. Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer, and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director, and Vice President, of Education for Senturus. OUTLINE Overview of an approach to Self-Service Analytics The Goal of Self-Service Analytics History Most analytics platforms are based on the traditional author-consumer relationship. Authoring tools are sophisticated and typically not in the realm of the everyday analyst. Specialized skills are required to build and deliver high-value information. Business authoring solutions lack adoption: Too weak Infrequent use Reliance on the traditional information delivery model What’s changed? The world is still complicated. The need for and availability of data are both growing. Platforms are adapting: Self-service capabilities are being introduced to the Consumer audience The Consumer is evolving: Take ownership of some authoring tasks in order to shorten time to decision Collaborate with technicians in order to reduce redundancies and increase productivity An Approach to Self-Service Using IBM Cognos Understand which is the right tool for the job: http://www.senturus.com/resources/choosing-right-tool-job/ Cognos Workspace Advanced can address business authoring needs much better than any tool we had before Professional Authoring and highly technical reporting experts are still necessary: don’t fight it. Collaborate! Publish traditional reports as before, but: Include base and template reports that can be used as catalysts for self-service. Leverage bi-directional compatibility so self-service objects can be enhanced as needed and delivered back to the business. Cognos Workspace Advance Sweet Spots Short learning curve. Unlimited calculation sophistication. Ad-hoc experience and in-line filtering. Supports advanced multi-dimensional (OLAP) data exploration. Bi-directional compatibility with Report Studio. Tight integration with Cognos Workspace. It is NOT “Advanced.” Business Analytics Architecture All authoring tools leverage a metadata package. Metadata is produced using IBM Cognos Framework Manager and is based on one or more physical data sources. A well-designed architecture makes authoring more effective and less labor-intensive. Less data manipulation. Easier to identify and understand. Better query performance. More stable and reliable results. Good Data Architecture = More Effective Reporting	Tips & Tricks
Smarter Analytics for Retailers Adapt to the Information Empowered Customer The relationship between retailer and customer is changing as customers are becoming more knowledgeable and empowered by information provided through the web, mobile technologies and social media. Read this paper to learn how retailers are challenged to adapt to these changes and adjust their business model to stay connected to their customers. Retailers are turning to business analytics to get forward looking insight into their customers’ needs to improve customer satisfaction, strengthen the brand experience and maintain customer loyalty. Business Context Analytics can greatly improve retailers’ customer satisfaction and loyalty when part of a Smarter Analytics solution. Align the organization and IT infrastructure around real-time customer intelligence Integrate predictive analytics into operational processes to identify future behavior and trends Organizations that utilize predictive analytics in addition to business intelligence achieve an average return on investment of 250 percent (source: IDC: The business value of predictive analytics, June 2011). Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Marketing, Operations and Merchandizing Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Insight in the High-Velocity Retail Environment Retailers today are facing more technology-savvy, demanding customers and more sophisticated competitors, which are forcing changes in retail business models driven by three imperatives: 1) Delivering a smarter shopping experience 2) Developing smarter merchandising and supply networks 3) Building smarter retail operations The types of insight that retailers can use to serve their customers better, and ultimately drive business success Pricing insight Customer insight Sales insight Marketing insight Merchandising insight Business success Smarter Analytics for Smarter Retail Align the organization and the IT infrastructure around information to effectively gather, manage, and analyze the growing volume, variety and velocity of data, which drives the need for a scalable integration platform to meet current and emerging data warehousing needs. Anticipate and accelerate actionable insights with systems and storage optimized for analysis and information delivery to understand consumer behavior and build strategy, shifting the analytics process from a purely passive, after-the-fact model, to an active, during-the-fact model. Act with confidence in real time with pervasive and embedded analytics supported by an infrastructure foundation capable of swiftly handling critical actions to drive action. Performance and Organizational Benefits of Smarter Analytics Retailers applying a Smarter Analytics approach enable themselves to harness the full power of analytics on structured and unstructured data, with superior IT economics. The approach allows the retailer to get a holistic view of what is happening with customers, suppliers, partners, and the market, beyond the surface indications of purchasing activity. Retailers Using a Smarter Analytics Approach to Gain Competitive Advantage GS Retail Propels Growth with Customer Insight Intersport is Future-Proofing with an Analytics Advantage Migros Deeper Insight, Better Responsiveness, and Business Success Retailers striving to deliver a smarter shopping experience want to engage their customers on a personal basis, serving them whenever and wherever the customers want, and matching inventory and brand experience across channels. Developing smarter merchandising and supply networks involves gathering customer information continuously at every touch point to manage and deliver assortments based on customer insight. Building smarter retail operations involves inserting intelligence into customer data management and processes to understand and predict sales trends, while improving management across production, product development, and assets to drive operational excellence and lower costs. Retail CIOs and line-of-business managers should consider adopting a Smarter Analytics approach if: The organization typically relies on information that is weeks or days old More management time is spent looking back at historic data than at real-time findings or predicting probable outcomes Analysis is limited to looking at lists of data output, rather than looking at exceptions, proactive alerts, and graphic visualizations of findings	Business Strategy
Asset Management: Using Analytics to Drive Predictive Maintenance Given the current economic climate, there is continued pressure for companies to limit capital and operational costs. Some companies have focused on specific capabilities and technologies to predict equipment or asset failure so they can avoid costly downtime while reducing maintenance costs. Read this Analyst Insight based on responses from 140 executives to learn how they use data and analytics to manage the reliability and predictive maintenance of their assets. Business Context Predictive Maintenance can help companies with assets or manufacturing operations reduce costs and maximize Return on Assets (RoA) for Best-in-Class performance. Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Finance, Operations and Supply Chain Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Forces Driving Predictive Maintenance Reduced Operational budgets 40% Need to Maximize Return on Assets (RoA) 37% Reduced Capital Budgets 28% Rising Material Cost 25% Aging Assets 17% Maturity Class Framework Performance for Best in Class (top 20% of performers) 1.7% Unscheduled Asset Downtime 91% Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) +20% Return on Assets vs. Corporate Plan -31% Reduction in Maintenance Costs Strategic Actions by Best in Class to Maximize RoA Improve long term capital planning with better analytic tools Outsource maintenance activities to third party Manage energy and emissions as part of the maintenance strategy Establishing Predictive Business Capabilities Historical asset data (trends) and real-time data used as actionable intelligence for optimized decision making On-demand asset lifecycle information easily accessible by all employees Centralized knowledge warehouse to store asset performance data from different plants Budget allocated to support reliability centered maintenance activities Leveraging Sustainability Data Visibility into anomalies when assets exceed acceptable performance thresholds Asset data utilized to minimize energy consumption Benchmark the performance of each asset to determine the cost of maintaining versus replacing it with a newer, more energy efficient asset Energy management integrated with overall asset management strategy Technology Enablers Master Data Management Analytics Workflows Dashboards Spare Parts Inventory Optimization Key Takeaways Provide centralized, real-time data Utilize predictive analytics to make educated decisions about future events Provide integration between business systems Consider sustainability as a critical part of a maintenance strategy	Business Strategy
#3 Key to Success in BI: Build Incrementally One of the Ten Keys to Success in BI Starting small and building incrementally is one of the ten most important keys in implementing successful business intelligence projects. John Peterson, Senturus Co-Founder, uses examples of his experience of over 1,400 BI implementations to discuss the importance of carving out projects that are as small as possible but still provide a “wow” factor. This video is a segment from our webinar recording, "Top 10 Keys to BI Success," available for free from our online resources library.	Business Strategy
The Science of Predictive Maintenance IBM's Predictive Analytics Solution With increased cost and productivity pressures, asset-intensive companies are trying to maximize their competitive offerings while reducing operational risks. Leading companies are using predictive analytics to reduce operational downtime and anticipate repair costs. This webinar will provide an overview of IBM’s Predictive Maintenance and Quality (PMQ) solution and how it can keep manufacturing processes, infrastructure and field equipment running to maximize utilization and performance and minimize costs. During this webinar, we will show how you can use powerful analytics and data integration to help: Anticipate asset maintenance and product quality problems Reduce unscheduled asset downtime Spend less time solving production machinery and field asset problems Improve asset productivity and process quality Monitor how assets are performing in real-time and predict what will happen next Presenters John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder Senturus Anuj Marfatia Program Director, Solutions Marketing, Predictive and Business Intelligence IBM	Features
Predictive Threat and Fraud Analytics Systematic Approach to Identify Risk The growth of online transactions and communication, the increased use of mobile devices and the fluctuating economy highlight the many dynamic forms of threat today. In this paper, you will learn about the growing prevalence of threat and fraud and why it is a top priority for businesses. To address the ever-changing landscape, businesses need a systematic approach to identify their own risk. They need insights that identify existing trends as well as future exposure. This paper identifies how to incorporate business analytics into your decision making and how to build a proactive threat and fraud strategy. Authored by IBM, this whitepaper includes examples of how organizations apply IBM business analytics solutions to minimize the negative impact of risk and maximize positive results. Business Context Companies that get ahead of threat and fraud save significant costs while preserving their reputation and customer satisfaction. Organizations that utilize predictive analytics in addition to business intelligence achieve an average return on investment of 250 percent (source: IDC: The business value of predictive analytics, June 2011). Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Risk and Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Key facts about Threat and Fraud trends included in this paper: According to a recent study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the typical organization loses 5 percent of its revenue to fraud every year. Globally, it’s estimated that annual fraud losses exceed $3.5 trillion. Nearly half of organizations that are victimized by fraud are unable to recover their losses. Estimates from National Heath Care Anti-Fraud Association put health care frauds costs in the US at $68 billion annually. Other estimates range as high $230 billion. The total cost of insurance fraud (non-health insurance) is estimated at more than $40 billion annually, costing the average US family up to $700 in increased premiums, according to the FBI. Globally, the total cost of credit card fraud is estimated to be $5.5 billion. In the US alone, ten percent of citizens have been victims of credit card fraud. According to a recent IBM global study of senior executives, 75 percent say that data theft and cyber attacks impact customer satisfaction and brand reputation. With a business analytics-based risk management strategy in place you become able to: Access threat information across the organization in real time to determine the best time to accept the risk or stop it altogether. Make decisions faster and spend less time “putting out fires.” Gain more confidence and trust in decisions that are made. Reduce costs and make better use of resources. Build a stronger organization that is resilient to change and ready to exploit new opportunities. Support business innovation while reducing or maintaining an acceptable level of operational risk. Avoid negative publicity. Reduce Exposure and Minimize Impact Identify organizational threats with business analytics Eliminate insider threats Reduce Credit Card Risk Detect and Prevent Fraud Minimize Inventory Loss Assess network outages Prevent energy Fraud Protect national borders Keep communities safer Manage financial risk Identify next-best action Five steps to a proactive threat management strategy Determine your organization’s current threat management strategy Examine how you are using business analytics today Integrate threat management into business as usual and ensure the positive commitment of all stakeholders. Assess your enterprise and external data Identify opportunities for automation and control.	Business Strategy
TM1 10.2 – Developer Productivity with Performance Modeler Is it Time to Move on From Architect? This webinar includes the latest features of Performance Modeler, and how they can streamline your development and administration efforts. Ken O’Boyle, Senior Planning Architect at Senturus demonstrates the key functionality that is only available in Performance Modeler including: Dimension Attributes Based on the Dimension Type Generated Rules and Processes Scorecards Model Diagrams Feeder Analysis Presenter Ken O’Boyle Senior Planning Architect Senturus, Inc.	Demo
Business Intelligence for Business Users: Insight When and Where You Need It Self-Service Business Intelligence Companies can attain better business outcomes when many different business users can access complete, consistent and trustworthy information the way they want, (e.g., from the web, smartphones, tablet or desktop). Business users want self-service BI, so they do not have to rely on IT for important reports or data. This paper covers how important it is to address the needs of different BI users, so they have insight when and where they need it. Business Context Business Intelligence is used more pervasively by all business user types. A comprehensive BI solution addresses all user needs, when and where they need information. Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Business users and BI: A progression BI Solutions are no longer limited to a select user base. The expansion of business intelligence allowed managers to access to timely, detailed reports needed to do their job. Start anywhere, go everywhere A comprehensive BI solution allows companies the ability to: Assemble and more easily interact with relevant information to understand the business Analyze information to make fact based recommendations. Share and collaborate so everyone is aligned on decisions. Act on what they find to drive better business outcomes Work where they want Over the web On a mobile device On a desktop In other applications Executives need a BI solutions to: Connect with other executives or managers to share insight and gather broader perspective and opinions. View plans and information and make annotations so others can view their comments and suggestions and make adjustments. Track projects and activities and gain instant access to a complete task list. Put their fingers on a source of data or a report whenever they need it with features that easily trace the history, author and path of any information received. Business Managers need a BI solution to provide: Reporting capabilities that provide them with a comprehensive and consistent view of business and operations Features for interacting with those views on their desktop, with a web browser or both Multidimensional data management for reconciling transaction and planning data to create a corporate-sanctioned view of business information An enterprise dictionary to provide meaning A facility for integrating external or standalone data with their corporate information Using automated, ad hoc workflow capabilities, business users can: Interact with their activities Start tasks Match individuals with activities Manage projects and monitor progress Business Analysts need query and reporting capabilities that: Presents them with a complete and consistent view of business and operations, not disparate perspectives that they must later compare and rationalize Helps them access reliable statistical evidence, trends, patterns and predictions easily Expands visibility and intelligence beyond the information at hand Business Analysts need to be able to: Use and save BI content or create sophisticated desktop reports such as briefing books and dashboards in a Microsoft Office application. Refresh Microsoft Office documents with updated information on demand. Share and publish files to a secure BI portal. Access modeling tools that can help them incorporate analysis of a broader range of alternative scenarios to build “what-if” projections. Non-technical users require: A single place they can use as a starting point for understanding information and uncovering insight—and checking on how they are doing A browser-based reporting feature to help them interact with the data they need for actionable insight Automated scorecards and metrics to help them visualize how they are performing based on targets set for role-specific projects and activities. The right BI solution allows users to: Collaborate with other business users. Follow their activities in an automated workflow. Make comments and notes in reports	Business Strategy
BI forward: A full view of your business Comprehensive BI with Predictive Analytics What businesses need from business intelligence (BI) is the full picture – BI should help you not only describe and diagnose your past and current performance, but also predict future performance. Predictive analytics enhances the value of deploying BI reports, dashboards and scorecard capabilities, and identifies future risks and opportunities for business success. Business Context Using the full range of BI solutions can help your company anticipate forward-looking trends and improve overall performance and ROI. Organizations that utilize predictive analytics in addition to business intelligence achieve an average return on investment of 250 percent (source: IDC: The business value of predictive analytics, June 2011). Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Operational and Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Business Intelligence can drive success by helping to: Identify market trends ahead of the competition. Understand customer behavior. Tackle and solve operational inefficiency. Make sound business decisions with confidence. Overcome bad decisions that seem obvious in hindsight. Make sense of the explosion of data and data sources that are currently clouding the business horizon. Predictive analytics takes BI to a new level: Predictive analytics processes historical data, “learns” what has happened in the past and creates models. Predictive analytics gives you the glimpse of the future that is needed for a more complete picture of your business. You can get this forward view of your business without advanced algorithms or Ph.D. skills because the predictive information can be accessed from your dashboard, report or scorecard. The benefits of a forward view of your business: Beat the competition. Transform your business from a reactive operation to a proactive market leader by setting and staying ahead of trends with integrated analysis of text, web and survey data. Reinforce accuracy and confidence in decisions. Move beyond simply understanding past performance by validating business intuition and existing practices and policies with a view into what is likely to happen next. Enrich the data discovery experience. Understand your data better by discovering patterns and trends in your structured and unstructured data. Benefits by role: Executives can use predictive intelligence in decisions made at all levels of the organization—strategic, operational and tactical. Business managers can recognize which factors are influencing outcomes and the relationships therein to pinpoint issues and drive improvements. Business analysts can easily attain a very detailed understanding of the relationships hidden in all your data (numerical and text). They can generate focused predictive intelligence that can improve decision outcomes for measureable ROI. Analytics professionals can use structured and unstructured data to determine relationships and construct models to predict outcomes and future events. System managers can take advantage of non-intrusive integration with operational systems and flexible deployment How forward-thinking BI works: The right BI: Unified workspace Agility and accessibility Hypothesis testing Predictive analytics Desktop analytics Your BI solution should allow you to: Understand what happened Explore why it happened. Predict what is likely to happen next.	Business Strategy
Architectural Options for Using IBM Cognos with SAP Including Alternatives to the Standard Recommendations In this webinar recording, we discuss the underlying architectural challenges of reporting from SAP. We present a number of options for connecting SAP to Cognos, along with pros and cons for each. Included are several lesser known approaches that have been highly successful with our clients – methods that can be implemented today without the high cost and risk associated with SAP’s standard answer to the problem, HANA. Presenter, John Peterson, Senturus co-founder, draws from case studies of how these innovative architectural approaches were implemented successfully for our clients. If you've upgraded to Cognos Analytics, you may be interested in our Cognos Analytics Performance Tuning webinar recording. You will learn how to use the Interactive Performance Assistant feature and tips and tricks to improve the performance of your Cognos environment. BUSINESS CONTEXT Many organizations continue to struggle with getting enterprise BI tools to work well with SAP ECC (R/3) and BW. Too often we find that, despite following vendor recommended practices, companies continue to suffer from poor analytics performance and usability, crippled features, lack of self-service BI, and very high development and maintenance costs. Innovative architectural approaches have been shown to quickly and cost effectively overcome those difficulties and shortcomings. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED IBM Cognos; SAP RECOMMENDED AUDIENCE BI Managers, BI Directors, BI Developers PRESENTER John Peterson Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Outline Basic options using IBM Cognos Use SAP BW Info/Multi-Providers Directly (i.e. Publish InfoCubes thru Cognos FM without Bex queries) Use SAP BW InfoCubes and BEx (Info) Queries Skip SAP BW altogether and build data marts from the SAP ERP (R/3, ECC) source tables a. “Rolling your own ABAP code” b. Using special “connectors” (Informatica, Microsoft…) Use SAP BW Data Storage Object (DSO) + ETL Hybrid Approach Option 1: SAP BW & Cognos via direct connect to InfoCubes PROS Enables full multi-layer model to be created & maintained in Cognos FM. Implication: reports are abstracted from changes in underlying data source. FM Model can be used to “join” additional non-SAP data into reporting layer. Cognos report developers and data modelers have more control. Published packages can (often) contain more subject area breadth allowing for great end-user self-service. Can be fast if queries pass limited sets of parameters. Multi-providers may be used to “join” other BW objects (e.g. DSO’s) CONS Business rules end up residing in SAP & Cognos. Need for dual data modelers. Performance, particularly during prompting, not optimized due to MDX and query rendering limitations. Cognos has no roles in data security when SAP security and authentication is used. Row level should be set by SAP Infocube (best practice). Report results can become unreliable due to MDX translation issues, etc. Option 2: SAP BW & Cognos via BEx PROS Reporting off InfoCubes is the most straightforward method for reporting out of SAP BI. Recommended by IBM. All of the business rules reside in SAP. No need for dual modeler resources. BEx queries allows passing variables to Cognos for prompting purposes – fast (see Cons in Option 1 re: alternative) BEx queries can be augmented and supplemented without breaking Cognos reports. Also, one BEx query can be setup to serve multiple reports. CONS No ability to add “abstraction” layers in FM model. BEx queries are published thru “as is”. Any changes made in FM will be lost if query is republished. Changes on a BEx query requires reloading all metadata from the source Potential performance issues must be addressed in SAP system Row level security must be controlled in SAP. Often has licensing implications. “Joining” of multiple subject areas must be handled in SAP, not FM Implication: Published BEx query packages are often limited to specific subject areas (less flexible reporting) Option 3: SAP & Cognos via ETL and “connector” PROS Complete control over data warehouse layer Allows use of EDW as data integration hub, as well Not limited by SAP BW capabilities No need to use SAP BW as repository for non-SAP sources Mappings provided by vendors (Informatica, Microsoft…) Virtualization/federation helps demystify SAP table structures & relationships Connectors can fully generate ABAP code (less dependent on ABAP programmers) CONS Requires reverse engineering the table and column relationships in ECC But at least, the connectors give you a significant headstart Potentially higher cost due to additional datamart(s) required Requires special connectors due to non-SQL nature of ECC Additional ETL software required (connectors), some at a cost Some connectors can introduce significant performance issues Option 4: PROS Has same benefits of Option 3 in terms of open architecture and data warehouse Enables full multi-layer model to be created and maintained in Cognos FM. FM Model can be used to “join” additional non-SAP data into reporting layer Cognos report developers and data modelers have more control Loading database and cubes can be very fast Not as dependent on ABAP programmers Does not require historical data to be put into SAP or BW Does not rely on SAP user security (and licensing) Opening up DSO table data to Cognos reduces load on direct ECC reporting and improves end-user access and control CONS Does not leverage SAP expertise and pre-built InfoCubes Requires understanding DSO tables and the ability to add them Requires greater understanding of open-architecture DW systems and Cognos Potentially higher cost than SAP BW due to additional datamart(s) required RECOMMENDATION: Hybrid Architecture (Option 4) Additional benefits: Existing base of users with Cognos depth Need different security than what SAP BW provides Avoid pulling historical data through SAP BW Data and requirements constantly changing Speed of report development Limited resources Desire to re-use existing Cognos reports/logic/skills Need different security than what SAP BW provides Case Study specifics (Ariat International) Desire to re-use existing Cognos reports/logic/skills Reduced SAP user licensing needs. Did not have to hire resources for the migration of historical data. There was no separate history migration project, and yet they still have access to all the history. Avoided using ECC for operational reports, which improved SAP performance. About 90% of the operational reports leverage SAP BW, with flexibility for business users to write ad hoc reports in Query Studio. No training costs for SAP report user as they were already trained in Cognos ad-hoc query tools Reduced SAP user licensing needs. Did not have to hire resources for the migration of historical data. There was no separate history migration project, and yet they still have access to all the history. HANA: Potential Implications PROS May significantly enhance multi-provider report performance due to in-memory query rendering (i.e. overcomes negative MDX performance impact) Non-BEx Query FM Model can be repointed to Hana without breaking Cognos reports CONS BI Benefits & challenges posed by Hana still unknown at this time Hana does not use summary tables, so Cognos queries relying on them would need to be remapped or lost. Hana changes the KEY ID and Leaf level pointers to the new InfoCube, thus requiring remapping OPEN QUESTIONS Still lots of unknowns and untested items re: Hana and BI at this time Typical Recommendation from SAP Traditionally: Use SAP BW and BEx (as front-end) Now: Use SAP BW and SAP Business Objects BICS... SAP also now often recommending Hana instead Typical Recommendation from IBM Cognos Use Option 2 – SAP BW InfoCubes connected to Cognos via BEx queries Carefully create BEx queries prior to report development Think of BEx Query Designer as Cognos FM Modeler Make BEx queries broad so a single query can support multiple reports and drill-down/drill-thru (if possible) Use row level security in SAP Pass sign-on info from AD/Cognos to SAP via user group mapping Senturus Recommendation Seriously evaluate Option 3 and Option 4 beforesimply following the standard recommendations We have become very strong supporters of hybrid architectures The mappings and complex lookups are maintained in your ERP vendor’s system (usually the primary operating system and system of record for organizational information Your company has control over company-specific items, such ashierarchies, other source systems, additional transformations, reporting & analytics, etc.	Training
Overview of User Interface Tools in Cognos 10.1 What Is the IBM Cognos 10 Platform all About? Want to know which interface tools your users will have available to them in Cognos 10.1? Curious to know exactly what your licenses entitle you to? This deck presents the IBM Cognos 10 Platform in the context of a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution with simple visuals and concise descriptions. Developed by senior solutions architects to help you get the most out of your investment or to help you evaluate your decision to take your performance management initiative to the next level.	Features
Predictive Threat and Fraud Analytics Meeting the Challenges of a Smarter Planet The growth of online transactions and communication, the increased use of mobile devices, and the fluctuating economy highlight the many dynamic forms of threat today. In this paper, you will learn about the growing prevalence of threat and fraud and why it is a top priority for businesses. In order to address the ever-changing landscape, businesses need a systematic approach to identify their own risk. They need insights that identify existing trends as well as future exposure. This paper identifies how to incorporate business analytics into your decision making and how to build a proactive threat and fraud strategy. Read examples of how organizations apply IBM Business Analytics solutions to minimize the negative impact of risk and maximize positive results. Business Context Companies that get ahead of threat and fraud save significant costs while preserving their reputation and customer satisfaction. Organizations that utilize predictive analytics in addition to business intelligence achieve an average return on investment of 250 percent (source: IDC: The business value of predictive analytics, June 2011). Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Risk and Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Key facts about Threat and Fraud trends included in this paper: According to a recent study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the typical organization loses 5 percent of its revenue to fraud every year. Globally, it’s estimated that annual fraud losses exceed $3.5 trillion. Nearly half of organizations that are victimized by fraud are unable to recover their losses. Estimates from National Heath Care Anti-Fraud Association put health care frauds costs in the US at $68 billion annually. Other estimates range as high $230 billion. The total cost of insurance fraud (non-health insurance) is estimated at more than $40 billion annually, costing the average US family up to $700 in increased premiums, according to the FBI. Globally, the total cost of credit card fraud is estimated to be $5.5 billion. In the US alone, ten percent of citizens have been victims of credit card fraud. According to a recent IBM global study of senior executives, 75 percent say that data theft and cyber attacks impact customer satisfaction and brand reputation. With a business analytics-based risk management strategy in place you become able to: Access threat information across the organization in real time to determine the best time to accept the risk or stop it altogether. Make decisions faster and spend less time “putting out fires.” Gain more confidence and trust in decisions that are made. Reduce costs and make better use of resources. Build a stronger organization that is resilient to change and ready to exploit new opportunities. Support business innovation while reducing or maintaining an acceptable level of operational risk. Avoid negative publicity. Reduce Exposure and Minimize Impact Identify organizational threats with business analytics Eliminate insider threats Reduce Credit Card Risk Detect and Prevent Fraud Minimize Inventory Loss Assess network outages Prevent energy Fraud Protect national borders Keep communities safer Manage financial risk Identify next-best action Five steps to a proactive threat management strategy Determine your organization’s current threat management strategy Examine how you are using business analytics today Integrate threat management into business as usual and ensure the positive commitment of all stakeholders. Assess your enterprise and external data Identify opportunities for automation and control.	Business Strategy
IBM Cognos 10.2 Under the Hood What’s New in 10.2 Learn what the new IBM Cognos 10.2 release means to different Business Intelligence stakeholders – report and data consumers, authors, modelers, administrators, and IT managers. The webinar includes a new features overview with several product demonstrations, a question and answer session, and an explanation of the increasingly complex role-based licensing model. View this recording to see how the IBM Cognos 10 platform has improved in the areas of Enhanced end-user experience through Cognos Insight and Cognos Workspace Understand the new naming conventions and integration points Improved authoring capabilities with access to macro functions and the Prompt API Big Data challenges addressed with the extension of the Dynamic Query Mode and introducing Dynamic Cubes Business Context Improved Business Intelligence report and dashboard development efficiencies and end-user capabilities means faster and more effective information in decision-makers hands more quickly. Realization and timeliness of the business benefits are accelerated with the IBM Cognos 10.2 release. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos 10.2; Business Insight / Business Workspace; Cognos Insight; Dynamic Query Mode; Dynamic Cubes Recommended Audience BI Managers, BI Developers, BI Report Writers, BI Authors, BI Power Users, BI Report Consumers Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus Inc. Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline NEW FEATURES FOR COGNOS 10.2: Workspace User Experience For BOTH Cognos Insight and Cognos Workspace (formerly Business Insight): More interactive visualizations (drilling, filtering on charts) Top/bottom filtering, expandcCollapse, freeze headers Tabbed Workspaces For Cognos Insight: Enhanced data import Import directly from existing packages “Smart” metadata Time rollups More integration with BI High-fidelity publish (requires TM1) Dynamic Query Mode Expanded data sources from original release to include MSAS; SAP Netweaver; IBM DB2 and InfoSphere; SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2012; IBM Netezza; Oracle 10g, 11g; Teradata; Salesforce.com; Siebel; SAP R/3; IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes In-memory OLAP cubes load data directly from relational data warehouses Part of Dynamic Query Mode, leverage 64-bit framework Enables OLAP-style analytics over terabytes of warehouse data Leverages in-memory and in-database aggregate awareness Modeling is achieved via GUI interface using Cube Designer Report Studio Access to macro functions in the Expression Editor components Easy access to powerful functions, much like what you see in Framework Manager Better control of dynamic security at the report level Easier access to advanced Prompt syntax Fully documented and exposed Prompt API No longer need to “hack” into source code Fully supported Samples included with Javascript Set dynamic default prompt values Validate prompt values Static repeater table control for Active Reports Makes the repeater control interactive Supports repeating grids of custom content such as images or buttons New export to Excel options Standard Excel 2007 now supports 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows (requires advanced server configuration) Excel 2007 data Lightweight, list only, no formatting to native .xlsx format Other Compelling New Features Improvements to Mobile Push notifications Multi-page reporter trickle Multi-key bursted reports Cognos configuration validation utility New archiving features Cognos style management utillity Cognos Insight Documentation Accelerators Demonstration Drag and drop external data for analysis Crosstab and charts Multiple widgets in a CI workspace Save as .cdd file and distribute Cognos Workspace (previously Business Insight) Cognos Insight comparison to Cognos Workspace Licensing Update New Features of Cognos 10.2 – which are free and which are for a fee New user types with Cognos 10.2 License upgrades Q&A Topics Is Cognos Statistics still a separate install? (Yes, it is still a separate install; but being discontinued after this release; to be replaced by SPSS and the new features within the enhancements to charting) Is a dimensional source (dimensionally modeled relational (DMR) data base or a cube) required for drilling? (Yes.) Is Cognos Insight included in existing licensing? (Yes, the CI Standard Edition is included with TM1 Contributor licenses, BI Author and BI Professional Author.) Can a user with a free CI version read a .cdd file that was created by someone with a Standard, Enterprise Edition? (Yes.) Can a PowerPlay cube be a source for Cognos Insight? (Yes. If the PowerPlay cube is published as a Cognos package, then that package can be a source for Cognos Insight.) Compatibility with Excel versions? (Yes: Excel 2007 since 10.1; but Excel 2010 will be at some point in the future.) What is the best tool for enterprise dashboard development and distribution? (Using the portal for distribution and Cognos Workspace for development is probably the best combination, especially for high resolution work.)	Features
Active Reports – New Features Cognos 10.1.1 Active vs. Standard Reports and the New Features of the Cognos 10.1.1 Active Reports Release Timely distribution of small to medium sized, targeted, interactive performance reports to mobile devices greatly improves the effectiveness of business decisions and speeds the response potential for decision makers. IBM Cognos has expanded the reach of Active Reports in the 10.1.1 release. During the webinar, Senturus explains the Active Reports strategy: when to use Active Reports and when standard reports are more appropriate. Active Report demonstrations included are: Creating an Active Report using a deck Data iterators and swipe gestures Active Report output in a Business Insight Workspace. The webinar begins with a review the other major new features of Cognos 10.1.1 and clearly explains which features are included at no additional charge and the cost of those that require license trade-up. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Active Reports 10.1.1; Cognos BI 10.1.1 Recommended Audience IBM Cognos Report Authors, Consumers, and Users, including Executives, Managers and Analysts; Business Intelligence Managers; IT, Cognos and BI Support Staff Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus, Inc Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline Cognos New Features 10.1.1 Mobile support for Active Reports, including native support for the iPad Importation of Active Reports from email (new to Cognos Mobile) Active Report access from Cognos Insight Active Reports New Features 10.1.1 Data Decks Control and Variable objects (instead of prompts and parameters) Data iterators and default value selections Value slider Master-detail relationships Bi-directional connections Mobile swipe gesture support Active Reports Limitations Size limitation No drill-down No data level security Licensing Update New Features of Cognos 10.1.1 – which are free and which are for a fee New User Types with Cognos 10.1.1 License Upgrade Opportunities Active Report Development Example Deployment to Business Insight Workspace	Features
#4 Key to Success in BI: 80/20 Rule One of the Ten Keys to Success in BI Understanding what is really required -- and what is just nice to have -- is one of the ten most important keys in implementing success in business intelligence projects. For example, an additional 1% accuracy can double the size of a project. John Peterson, Senturus Co-Founder, uses examples of his experience of over 1,400 BI implementations to discuss the importance of appropriate project scope. This video is a segment from our webinar recording, "Top 10 Keys to BI Success," available for free from our online resources library.	Business Strategy
Dynamic Cubes in Cognos 10.2 IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes Deeper Dive Cognos Dynamic Cubes is an extension of IBM Cognos Dynamic Query that leverages substantial in-memory data assets as well as aggregate awareness in order to achieve high performance interactive analysis & reporting over terabytes of warehouse data. The shift in IBM's OLAP solutions is described, plus an in-depth look at IBM Cognos 10.2 Dynamic Cubes. Discussion and demonstrations include: What the world of OLAP looks like in 2013 The different technologies that are available in the IBM Cognos world How the Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) factors into an OLAP choice Infrastructure Requirements and Deployment Proven Practices What infrastructure is required to host Dynamic Cubes What Senturus has learned about sizing, configuration, and deployment strategies that work How to best leverage in-memory caching IBM Cognos 10.2 Cube Designer Import metadata and Create Dimensions Create Measures and Calculations Define a Cube Publish a Dynamic Cube Data Source Business Context Many business information analysis and visualization needs require the interactive manipulation of very large amounts of data. These processes have been made much more effective and responsive with the provision of in-memory and aggregate aware methods, specifically Cognos Dynamic Cubes and the Dynamic Query Mode. Business users can now use these techniques for gaining information insights to support their operational and strategic decisions. Technologies Covered Cognos BI 10.2 – Dynamic Cubes and Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) Recommended Audience IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT Cognos and BI Support Staff; ETL developers Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus, Inc Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline Analytic Cube Options, Architecture and Applicability Transformer PowerCubes Relatively small-scale OLAP Rapid development; deployment Great for departmental, or enterprise solutions, if data volume is low to moderate Cubes need to be regularly updated, but are portable TM1 Do you need to do write-back? Real-time budget vs. actuals Strong budgeting, forecasting features built-in Excel interface, Performance Modeler, Cognos Insight DMR No need to build separate cubes Familiar modeling interface (Framework Manager) Reliant on data source performance Can leverage DQM Dynamic Cubes Large-scale enterprise data warehouse True MDX authoring and analytics at the front-end In-memory caching and aggregates In-Database aggregate-awareness Must use DQM Performance can be tuned NEW FEATURES FOR COGNOS 10.2: Workspace User Experience For BOTH Cognos Insight and Cognos Workspace (formerly Business Insight): More interactive visualizations (drilling, filtering on Charts) Top/Bottom Filtering, Expand/Collapse, Freeze Headers Tabbed Workspaces For Cognos Insight: Enhanced Data Import Import Directly from Existing Packages “Smart” Metadata Time Rollups More integration with BI High-Fidelity Publish (requires TM1) Dynamic Query Mode Expanded Data Sources from Original Release to Include: MSAS; SAP Netweaver; IBM DB2 and InfoSphere; SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2012; IBM Netezza; Oracle 10g, 11g; Teradata; Salesforce.com; Siebel; SAP R/3; IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes In-memory OLAP cubes load data directly from relational data warehouses Part of Dynamic Query Mode, leverage 64-bit framework Enables OLAP-style analytics over terabytes of warehouse data Leverages in-memory and in-database aggregate awareness Modeling is achieved via GUI interface using Cube Designer Report Studio Access to Macro Functions in the Expression Editor Components Easy access to powerful functions, much like what you see in Framework Manager Better control of dynamic security at the report level Easier access to advanced Prompt syntax Fully documented and exposed Prompt API No longer need to “hack” into source code Fully supported Samples included with Javascript Set dynamic default prompt values Validate prompt values Static Repeater Table Control for Active Reports Makes the Repeater Control Interactive Supports repeating grids of custom content such as images or buttons New Export to Excel options Standard Excel 2007 now supports 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows (requires advanced server configuration) Excel 2007 Data Lightweight, list only, no formatting to native .xlsxformat Other Compelling New Features Improvements to Mobile Push notifications Multi-page Report Trickle Multi-key Bursted Reports Cognos Configuration Validation utility New Archiving Features Cognos Style Management Utility Dynamic Cubes Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) - Cognos version 10.1 Memory resident DMR Model Dynamic Cubes released in Cognos version 10.2 Allows aggregations based off the DQM technology High Performance analytics over growing datavolumes Integrates into existing Cognos 10.2 platform with both Analysis Studio, Report Studio Scalability Limitations - None Scalable to hardware limits - Terabytes Additional characteristics and topics Dynamic Cube Architecture Dynamic Cube Lifecycle Dynamic Cubes vs. DMR Aggregate-aware Pre-requisites Cube Designer Data sources and importing metadata Project validation Model dimensions Model hierarchies Model levels Properties Model measures Mapping between dimensions and measures Deploying and publishing dynamic cubes Access dynamic cubes through IBM Cognos Report Studio Aggregate Advisor optimizes In-Memory and In-Database Performance Licensing Update New Features of Cognos 10.1.1 – which are free and which are for a fee New User Types with Cognos 10.1.1 License Upgrade Opportunities	Tips & Tricks
Going Mobile with Cognos 10 Roadmap for Mobility with IBM Cognos and BI in General Mobile rights are included for your Cognos Enhanced Consumer or higher licenses. During this webinar recording, we show the new mobile features of the 10.1.1 release and review the other major new features of Cognos 10. Also, we explain which features of Cognos 10 are included at no additional charge and which require license trade-up.	Features
INCOME STATEMENT REPORTING Tips & Tricks IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Tools The income statement is the most widely used financial report in the world. In this 90-minute session, experts from Senturus discuss and demonstrate key tips and techniques for using general-purpose IBM Cognos Business Intelligence tools for income statement reporting. Specifically, we share tips and techniques for configuring your IBM Cognos Transformer models to enhance OLAP-based income statement reporting and ad hoc analysis. We also demonstrate business end user income statement reporting and analysis using Cognos Workspace Advanced. We help finance users understand the data challenges IT faces, and help IT understand the fundamental accounting concepts that require unique technical solutions. Issues addressed within this webinar include: The need for: Both revenue and expenses to be displayed as positive numbers in the income statement. Variances to foot across both the rows and the columns of the income statement. Roll-ups to work correctly. Sometimes, roll-ups are additions, sometimes they’re subtractions but they always need to be correct. These requirements to be addressed not just for standard reports but for ad hoc analysis as well. The need to: Compare budget versus actual, with the flexibility to choose which budget version to use. Display positive variances as favorable in some cases, and as unfavorable in others. Slice and dice the income statement by department, business unit, product family, etc. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos BI 10.2.1, IBM Cognos Report Studio 10.2.1,IBM Cognos Active Reports 10.2.1 RECOMMENDED AUDIENCES IT Departments; Finance Departments; IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT Cognos and BI Support Staff; BI Report Writers; BI Authors; BI Power Users; BI Report Consumers. PRESENTERS Greg Herrera President and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001. He now heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures. John Peterson CEO and Co-Founder, Senturus, Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Andrew Wyatt Senior Managing Consultant, Senturus, Inc. OUTLINE Income Statement Fundamentals: The Language and the Math The Basic Language of an Income Statement The language of the income statement often varies by company. The income statement is sometimes called the profit and loss statement (P&L), sometimes the statement of operations, and sometimes the statement of income. It shows the profitability of the company for the period, on the bottom line. The Basic Math of an Income Statement Net Profit = Total Income less Total Expenses Income statement includes break-outs of the income and expenses associated with different types of activities (e.g. primary and secondary activities). In the basic math, the income items are positive, the expense items are negative, and the totals and subtotals are summation roll-ups using straight addition. Straight addition roll-ups are especially important in ad hoc reporting. The Basic Math with Budgets and Variances Budget versus Actual (with Variance) is a very common business requirement, and must be supported in both standard and ad hoc reporting. Business Users need the income statement to indicate whether the Variance is Favorable or Unfavorable. In basic math, the Variance equation is always Actual minus Budget (A minus B). In basic math, the positive numbers are the Favorable variances and the negative numbers are the Unfavorable variances. In the rate cases where the business requirement accepts the mix of positive for income and negative for expense, you are almost done. Challenge #1 Feeling Negative: Keeping It Positive Creates Challenges Keeping it Positive – Challenge 1A: No Rollups As seen, the business requirements almost always mandate that both revenues and expenses be presented as positive values. The major challenge of the “Keep it Positive” requirement is that it removes the ability to use straight addition for summation rollups. Hierarchical rollups no longer work, because those rollups rely on straight summation where the parent value equals the total of the child values. When all the values are positive, summations no longer hold, as additions are required in some places and subtractions in others. This forces both report authors and ad hoc users to create calculated rows for each total and subtotal. Requires tedious formula creation. Not user friendly. Prone to error. Requires accounting knowledge. Keeping it Positive – Challenge 1B: Variance Formulas The need to present both revenues and expenses as positive numbers forces variations of the variance formulas, which equates to four separate variations. This forces both report authors and ad hocusers to figure out which of the four variance formulas to apply, then apply it manually to each row of the report. Cannot call it ad hocreporting when that is not the case. Requires accounting knowledge that not all report developers have. Prone to error. Tip #1: Delay The Positive – Do the Math First, Then Reverse the Sign The Common Mistake The roll-up and variance formula challenges are the result of using positive values for both revenue and expenses, and trying to accommodate via situation-specific formulas. The challenging reports are either using: A source database that maintains positive values for both revenue and expenses. A technique that converts the negative values to positives. Common Mistake Causes the reporting nightmares. Removes hope of reasonablead hocanalysis. Better Way: Leverage the Basic Math The basic math enables consistent, correct: Roll-ups at every level. Representation of favorable and unfavorable variances. The problem with the basic math is that it displays negative numbers when the business requires positive. Solution: Have the reporting software use the basic math behind the scenes, and selectively reverse the sign only when the data is being displayed to the user. Tip: Selectively Reverse the Sign via a Rule This report illustrates the concept of the selective sign reversal. The values in the Variance column already correctly represent favorable and unfavorable variances. The positive numbers in the Actual and Budget columns are also already correct. The numbers highlighted in blue are the ones that need their signs to be selectively reversed, after the basic math is complete. Tip: Use the Fundamental Accounting Elements As a rule, once the basic math is complete, selectively reverse the sign when: The value is in an account having Normal Balance Type of Debit, and the value is either an Actual measure or a Budget measure. Result: Correct Signs, Rollups, and Variances Bonus: Works for ad hoc analysis as well. Challenge #2: The Data is Almost Always Sore, and Needs Massaging The Basic Math Needs the Right Data Sources of accounting data from which the Income Statement information is derived include: General Ledger software module (or package). Planning/Budgeting software packages. Spreadsheet-based budget models. Finance Marts or Data Warehouses. Operational Data Stores (ODS). Consolidation software packages. Disclosure Management software packages. Positives and negatives are not always maintained in the data values themselves. The data needs to be organized and harmonized. Five Fundamental Accounting Examples Element: Asset Debit: Increase Credit: Decrease Example Accounts: Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Land, Furniture, Equipment, Patents, and Prepays. Element: Liability Debit: Decrease Credit: Increase Example Accounts: Accounts Payable, Salaries Payable, Prepayments, Income Taxes, etc. Element: Income / Revenue Debit: Decrease Credit: Increase Example Accounts: Sales, Interest Income, Rent Income, Interest from Investments, etc. Element: Expense Debit: Increase Credit: Decrease Example Accounts: Salaries, Rent, Repairs, Insurance, Utilities, and Telecommunications. Element: Equity / Capital Debit: Decrease Credit: Increase Example Accounts: Common Stock, Paid-in Capital, and Retained Earnings. Organizing the Data: Scenario #1 All Positive Scenario #1: Source data holds both Debits and Credits as positive numbers. Create derived Natural GL Amount field by multiplying Source Amount by -1 whenever the account has a normal balance type of Credit. When the normal balance type is Debit, the derived Natural GL Amount is the same as the Source Amount. For use in the Basic Math approach, create a derived Reversed GL Amount field that is the reverse of Natural GL Amount. Organizing the Data: Scenario #2 Already Mixed Scenario #2: Source data has Debits as positive and Credits as negative. Derived Natural GL Amount field is the same as Source Amount. For use in Basic Math approach, create derived Reversed GL Amount field that is the reverse of Natural GL Amount. Organizing the Data – Decompose Chart of Accounts Harmonizing the Data –Enables the Drillable P&L Realizing the Potential: Income Statements with General-purpose IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Technique for Selective Sign Reversal in Cognos Transformer Settings for Measures: Actual and Budget Make sure you source Actual and Budget measures from appropriate Reversed GL Amount field. Settings for Categories: Account Dimension Don’t Forget Mixed Rollup Accounts Actual and Budget Need to be Measures Putting it to Work: Income Statement Demonstrations Using IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced Demonstrations Row and Column Selection Budget versus Actual Relative Time and Comparisons Expanding Specific Sections Business Unit per Page Asymmetrical Reporting Seasonality Conditional Highlighting Actuals and Forecast by Month Percent of Total Drill-through to Transaction Detail	Tips & Tricks
Measuring User Adoption of your Cognos BI System Implementing a Cognos Audit Database One of the keys to business intelligence success is user adoption; do you know who is using your BI system? Of all those Cognos reports you have to administer, how many are really being used? Do system updates, migrations or outages require undue efforts due to the large amount of reports that need to be moved or recovered? By implementing an audit database, you will be able to gauge the success for your BI system and tell which reports are really being used, how often and by whom. During this webinar we show you how easy it is to implement an audit database and deploy the Cognos-supplied audit reporting package. We teach how to create custom, dynamic audit reports using Report Studio. We also demonstrate how to create an Agent using Event Studio that can trigger an alert to administrators when specific events occur. Business Context Knowing the details of the BI system usage supports informed decisions that improve performance, increase user adoption, help plan future capacity needs, and put on-going administration and maintenance efforts where they are most beneficial. Details such as identifying bottlenecks, under and over used system resources, unused reports, problem queries or reports, users in need of training, etc. are some of the results possible with standard and custom reports from the audit data base. Technologies Covered Cognos Audit Database; Event Studio; Report Studio Recommended Audience Cognos BI Developers; Cognos BI Administrators Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus, Inc Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline Track Cognos BI Usage in order to: Identify what’s used and what’s not (and in what volumes) Support capacity planning and bottleneck resolution Identify where retraining would be useful Configure an Audit Database SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Informix, Sybase URL_XML data source Java Development Kit (JDK) and Runtime Environment (JRE) Training Demonstrations Create a database in SQL Server (named: Audit) Configure IBM Cognos 10 for database logging Deploy the vendor-supplied sample Audit package Installing the separate samples package is needed for access to Audit’s Framework Manager configuration, etc. Administration => System => Dispatcher (each one) => Set Properties => Audit Settings Minimal, Basic, Request, Trace, or Full Webcontent and deployment folders Data base connection (so SQL server db Audit) Create custom reports using the Audit package Create an Event Studio agent to automatically alert when a user logs in Alert setup How to eliminate repetitive alerts for the same event Q&A Topics: Alerts for scheduled reports that fail Troubleshooting queries relative to the data base being accessed (using the data base log versus auditing the native query) The report description is not in the audit data, but is in the content store Studio identification in audit data Audit report specification changes PowerPlay auditing capabilities comparison in version 10 versus version 7 Data about reports that haven’t run is available via the url_xml source only (there is no data in the audit tables for reports with no activity) Multiple dispatchers use the same audit data base Sufficiency of the sample audit reports	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos Mobile Reporting on the iPad Considerations and Recommendations Consuming Active Reports on a iPad can be easy. Designing those reports takes some thought. Learn from our hands-on experience as Senturus shares some practical considerations, limitations and recommendations for Active Reports and reporting on the iPad. Demonstrations and Q&A are included.	Tips & Tricks
Cognos 10 Under the Hood A Pragmatic Review of the New Features of Cognos 10 Senturus reviews all the major new features of Cognos 10 from a pragmatic viewpoint. This presentation includes a matrix which clearly lays out which new features require additional fees and which ones are free for supported Cognos 8 customers. Demos of Business Insight and Active Reports are shown. Over 30 questions are addressed in the Q&A. The presentation ends with guidance on how to maximize the value of business intelligence by setting a solid data foundation.	Features
Cognos Advanced Report Authoring & New Features In Report Studio v10 Learn the Helpful New Features Added in v10 and Create an Active Report Cognos Report Studio 10 is full of new features that simplify report authoring. In this webinar recording, see demos on how to create a conditional drill-through, freeze column headers, prompt for a date range in a dimensional report and drill-through to details in an ad-hoc studio while using Cognos Report Studio version 10. Also, see a demo of creating an Active Report with data-driven controls. Jump directly to any topic using the table of contents on the left of the screen.	Tips & Tricks
Self-service BI Keys to Success Plus an Unbiased Look at QlikView Many companies – even those who consider themselves successful with BI – have been disappointed with the degree to which their business users have adopted “self-service” BI. Self-service BI is the situation in which business decision-makers are readily accessing, analyzing and reporting on virtually all the information they need -- without regular assistance from the IT group. In this chapter of the Senturus “BI Demystified” series, we discuss the keys to success for self-service BI. This webinar recording also includes an unbiased, under-the-covers look at QlikView. The goal of the QlikView demo is to provide information sufficient for you to decide for yourself whether QlikView can enable self-service BI in your organization. Business Context Slow user adoption of Business Intelligence (BI) solutions and capabilities can delay or even prevent a business from realizing the benefits of putting data access, visualization and discovery in the hands of decision makers and analysts. Multi-purpose tools and an understanding of the keys to success can jump-start that adoption and speed benefits. Technologies Covered Self-service BI architecture; QlikView Recommended Audience BI Professionals; BI Developers; BI Power Users Presenters John Horner, Armanino McKenna, LLP Our guest speaker is John Horner. John is a renowned expert with 15 years of experience working within the business intelligence and data warehousing industry including five years of hands-on experience with QlikView. John leads the BI Practice at Armanino Consulting, a Senturus Business Partner. Greg Herrera Co-Founder and Chairman, Senturus, Inc Greg originally founded Senturus in 2001. He now heads sales, recruiting, marketing, human resources, and new ventures. Outline The keys to Self-Service BI Success are explained in detail with examples: Organize the data Don’t build what they ask for; build what they need Organize the team Shoot early and often Attempt one-tool-fits-all, but don’t die by it Watch your costs QlikView Utilization with and without other enterprise data sources (warehouses and marts) Multi-purpose tool: Data Staging (ETL tool) Data Integration Data Warehousing Data Provisioning Metadata services Visualization and Presentation QlikView Functional Demonstration – Developers Actions and View Main Connect Extract Provision Calendar Cleanup Script Save QlikView Functional Demonstration – Server Deployment and End User’s View Dashboarding Ad hoc Search and Analysis: Data discovery Filtering Q&A Topics QlikView volume issues and constraints	Features
Migrating a Cognos Instance between Authentication Sources Stress Free Cognos Migrations with Motio Migrating a Cognos instance between authentication sources can be a scary experience, it's not as simple as moving from point A to point B. A namespace transition can have a profound effect on your Cognos environment’s content and configuration - e.g. the security policies and owners on all Cognos content (objects, scheduled executions, email recipients, group memberships, My Folders, etc.) all depend on CAMIDs from a Cognos namespace. Some forces that drive the need for migrating a Cognos instance from one authentication source to another are: Migrating Cognos 8 / 10 authentication from Series 7 Access Manager to LDAP or Active Directory Consolidating multiple installations of Cognos Corporate policies which mandate consolidation of identity information Upgrading Cognos to a version which no longer supports your legacy security source During this webinar, we will how to utilize Motio’s technology to make a Cognos migration a stress free journey. Business Context Business user security and ease of access to enterprise information, reports and BI infrastructure is enhanced with a centralized user identity approach. Reducing security risk often mandates a change from multiple, legacy security systems to centralized LDAP or Active Directory systems. A Motio software-assisted migration that is efficient, timely and stress-free from one authentication source to another can minimize business user access interruption and be done with minimal impact on IT resources. Technologies Covered Motio; Cognos authentication source; LDAP; Active Directory Recommended Audience IT Professionals; IT Developers; DBA’s; Security Administrators; System Administrators Presenters Steve Reed-Pittman Senturus Consultant Steve leads the installation and upgrade team at Senturus. He has installed, and configured, and optimized hundreds of Cognos instances from Cognos Series 7 through Cognos 10 on the Windows, UNIX and Linux environments. Lance Hankins Chief Technology Officer, Motio Outline Migration Scenarios Access Manager (SunONE LDAP) -> Active Directory Access Manager (SunONE LDAP) -> newer LDAP(e.g., Oracle Directory Server, IBM Directory Server) Migration of users between Active Directory domains (e.g., consolidating from multiple domains to one) Cognos Security ID’s (CAMID) are assigned for: Every security policy Every object’s owner Every object’s contact Schedules Schedule Recipients Burst Slices Cognos Namespace Membership Each User & their Content My Folders Preferences Portal Tabs Watch Items Framework and Transformer models if data level security has been deployed Migration Options Changing the authentication source causes the Cognos software to change all of the internal CAMID’s. Therefore the migration options are: Manually remap each ID in Cognos Connection Write custom code to migrate using Cognos SDK Use a packaged namespace migration tool (e.g., Motio) Motio Cognos Security Migration Option 1: “Persona IQ” (licensed software) WITHOUT changing the CAMIDs of users, groups & roles Supports Migrating From / To : Access Manager Active Directory LDAP Persona IQ Requires less than five minutes of Cognos downtime. ZERO changes to the Cognos Content Store or FM / Transformer Models Empowers application support personnel while still adhering to corporate authentication standard Option 2: “Motio Namespace Migration Service” (consulting) Software-assisted, consulting engagement that moves the security namespaces from one instance to another. The Motio software is not left with the client with this option. Q&A With a change from Access Manager to Active Directory, does the access to My Folders change? Under Option 1 (Motio’s Persona IQ), no it does not (as the CAMID values remain unchanged). Under Option 2 (Motio’s Migration Service), the My Folders folders are copied and relinked to the new security namespace (and then the old My Folders are deleted). After a migration, does a new Cognos user have to also be added to Persona IQ? No. Once the migration is completed, a new Cognos user who is already in the enterprise’s Active Directory system, does not need to be added to Persona IQ. (They will be authenticated to Active Directory, even though Cognos is looking at the Persona IQ data base.) In the demonstration, Active Directory was the authentication source. Does it also perform as the authorization source after the migration? No. The security namespace (Active Directory, LDAP, Access Manager, etc.) is the authentication source (who is the user) and that is what is migrated. The authorization source (what can the user access and what can the user do) is still contained in the content store. When Series 7 is used to manage user classes, can they be migrated as well? Yes, but if there are a very large number (e.g., 20,000), it may be preferred to leave them in the Persona data base and continue to manage them there. Otherwise, they can be mapped into Active Directory groups or roles (where they’d be managed after the migration). Does the Motio software work with home-grown authentication sources? No. What level of network access is needed to accomplish the migration? No special network access credential is needed, but access to the namespaces involved and to the Cognos dispatcher is required. In the conflict identification step of the migration, will a source security system entry of John Lock be matched to a target system entry of Lock, John? A number of pre-defined as well as custom mapping criteria can be used to match and to identify conflicts. For example, use of some or all of: first name, last name, id, combined fields with prefixes and suffixes (and delimiters) can be used. Can the software help with a migration from Active Directory to Tivoli Security? Not at this time, but might be available in the future. Can Persona IQ handle multiple Active Directory namespaces concurrently, including single sign-on (SSO)? Yes, both SSO and multiple Active Directory instances can be accessed (as multiple, top-level nodes). After migration is complete, how long does the intermediate Persona IQ data base need to be maintained? It is permanent and persists within the Cognos security system (and looks like an additional security provider to the ones initially provided in the Cognos software when installed: Series7, LDAP, Active Directory).	Features
IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes Deep Dive In-Depth Look at Capabilities and Demos An in-depth look into the Dynamic Cubes capability that is available with IBM Cognos 10.2. Details of the technology are presented that enables Dynamic Cubes and the advantages and value that the new capability provides. By using 64-bit in-memory technology that builds on the proven IBM Cognos dynamic query architecture, Dynamic Cubes are a compelling solution that allows leveraging existing data warehouse infrastructure to provide more analysis on greater volumes to a larger audience with better reliability and responsiveness. The following capabilities and tools are demoed IBM Cognos 10.2 Cube Designer Deploying and reporting of Dynamic Cubes Dynamic Query Analyzer and Aggregate Advisor Business Context Some of the challenges facing business intelligence reporting and business analytics delivery include: Very large volumes of data are often needed for meaningful analysis. Analyzing and visualizing patterns in the data with respect to many business dimensions and attributes may be necessary for valuable business insights. The number of business users that need access to large data volumes has increased beyond the small, traditional “power user” group. The traditional OLAP solutions are no longer responsive enough. Poor query performance can limit user adoption. These challenges can make achieving a robust business analytics vision difficult if not impossible. Dynamic cubes that use 64-bit in-memory processing can overcome these challenges and provide significant, new capabilities while leveraging a company’s existing data warehouse infrastructure. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Bi 10.2; IBM Cognos Dynamic Query Mode (DQM); Dynamic Cubes; Cube Designer Recommended Audience Cognos BI Managers, BI developers, report developers, data modelers, ETL developers Presenters Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus, Inc Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. John O’Rourke Senior Solutions Architect, Senturus, Inc John has over 20 years of IT experience. He has been working as a Senior Solutions Architect with Senturus since 2004 helping clients that include Kaiser Permanente, Franklin Templeton Investments, Sephora, Fremont Bank, and more. He has an in-depth knowledge of the entire BI stack from server hardware, database design, ETL, and metadata modeling. Outline NEW FEATURES FOR COGNOS 10.2: Workspace User Experience For BOTH Cognos Insight and Cognos Workspace (formerly Business Insight): More interactive visualizations (drilling, filtering on Charts) Top/Bottom Filtering, Expand/Collapse, Freeze Headers Tabbed Workspaces For Cognos Insight: Enhanced Data Import Import Directly from Existing Packages “Smart” Metadata Time Rollups More integration with BI High-Fidelity Publish (requires TM1) Dynamic Query Mode Expanded Data Sources from Original Release to Include: MSAS; SAP Netweaver; IBM DB2 and InfoSphere; SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2012; IBM Netezza; Oracle 10g, 11g; Teradata; Salesforce.com; Siebel; SAP R/3; IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes In-memory OLAP cubes load data directly from relational data warehouses Part of Dynamic Query Mode, leverage 64-bit framework Enables OLAP-style analytics over terabytes of warehouse data Leverages in-memory and in-database aggregate awareness Modeling is achieved via GUI interface using Cube Designer Report Studio Access to Macro Functions in the Expression Editor Components Easy access to powerful functions, much like what you see in Framework Manager Better control of dynamic security at the report level Easier access to advanced Prompt syntax Fully documented and exposed Prompt API No longer need to “hack” into source code Fully supported Samples included with javascript Set dynamic default prompt values Validate prompt values Static Repeater Table Control for Active Reports Makes the Repeater Control Interactive Supports repeating grids of custom content such as images or buttons New Export to Excel options Standard Excel 2007 now supports 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows (requires advanced server configuration) Excel 2007 Data Lightweight, list only, no formatting to native .xlsxformat Other Compelling New Features Improvements to Mobile Push notifications Multi-page Report Trickle Multi-key Bursted Reports Cognos Configuration Validation Utility New Archiving Features Cognos Style Management Utility Dynamic Cubes Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) - Cognos version 10.1 Memory resident DMR Model Dynamic Cubes released in Cognos version 10.2 Allows aggregations based off the DQM technology High Performance analytics over growing datavolumes Integrates into existing Cognos 10.2 platform with both Analysis Studio, Report Studio Scalability Limitations - None Scalable to hardware limits - Terabytes Additional characteristics and topics Dynamic Cube Architecture Dynamic Cube Lifecycle Dynamic Cubes vs. DMR Aggregate-aware Pre-requisites Cube Designer Data sources and importing metadata Project validation Model dimensions Model hierarchies Model levels Properties Model measures Mapping between dimensions and measures Deploying and publishing dynamic cubes Access dynamic cubes through IBM Cognos Report Studio Aggregate Advisor optimizes In-Memory and In-Database Performance Licensing Update New Features of Cognos 10.2 – which are free and which are for a fee New User Types with Cognos 10.2 License Upgrade Dynamic Cube Designer Example (62:40) Q&A Topics Cube Designer and Dynamic Cube Server: 32-bit and 64-bit processors Publishing to My Folders versus Public Folders Dynamic Cubes versus Transformer / Transformer Cubes versus PowerCubes Flushing and the Data Cache and the Result Set Cache Scripting language is part of the Cube Designer platform Dynamic cube environment migration (development to production) Multiple and stand-by dispatchers Cognos 8.x OLAP cubes have to be rebuilt into dynamic cubes (no migration path) Real-time cubes with TM1 (Dynamic cubes are refreshed in memory, not real-time) DQM for existing Report Studio packages Dynamic cubes as a source for Business Workspace Advanced (previously Business Insight Advanced) Virtual cubes merge multiple dynamic cubes and handle data at any level of granularity Dynamic cubes access data from a relational star schema data base (required pre-requisite) Dynamic cubes can use SQL server as a data source Dynamic cube approaches and alternatives instead of the Relative Date Wizards of Transformer Joins from data marts and surrogate keys MDX is a the Multi-Dimensional Expression language used to query data from an OLAP cube or DMR (Dimensional Model Relational) that is generated off of an RDBMS (Relational Data Base Management System) Charts and Tables Cube Architecture and Primary Use Cases TM1 Dynamic cubes OLAP Over Relational (OOR) PowerCubes Report Studios and Cubes IBM Cognos Report Studio IBM Cognos Analysis Studio IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio IBM Cognos PowerPlay Client IBM Cognos Workspace IBM Cognos Insight	Features
Secrets to Managing Dimensions, Attributes & Hierarchies Case Study and Demonstration of IBM Cognos Business Viewpoint Some key dimensions of businesses are always changing: companies reorganize, finance and marketing departments keep different product hierarchies, sales territories are realigned. Changing these dimensions within the company’s business intelligence system can take days or even weeks involving the business managers and IT personnel. While helping clients overcome these challenges, Senturus has found that IBM Cognos Business Viewpoint gives the business user the self-service of hierarchical management they need while offering control and stability. During this webinar recording we give a case study of how Business Viewpoint was implemented for one of our clients and show a demonstration of the product. Business Context The business benefits of dimension ownership and management by business data owners in a shared, visible and auditable way are: Replacement of manual, error-prone or untimely methods with transparent and automated processes. Approved, shared viewpoints across BI and Performance Management environments and availability of structures to other systems and IT. Reduction in the reliance on IT personnel and their availability for business changes. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Business Viewpoint Recommended Audience BI Business Users; BI Professionals; BI Administrators; BI Developers Presenter John Peterson Co-Founder, Senturus Inc. John is the company's thought leader and visionary. John directs the delivery of all projects with Senturus, providing the bridge of technical and business understanding. Outline Business Requirements Dimension hierarchy maintenance Alternate hierarchies Attribute maintenance Absolute need for full self-service BI for business users Dimension Maintenance Options: Pro’s and Con’s In Source systems But all source systems have built-in limitations and usually a fixed number of user-defined fields available. In Data marts / warehouses Senturus recommendation: This is the best place for maintenance (so all downstream cubes and reports benefit), but IT usually owns the DBMS layer and the business owns the business dimensions. Often there isn’t a business-like interface available for easy maintenance In individual data cubes (that have been refreshed from DM/DW) But then all cubes will need to be individually maintained so that synchronicity and timeliness is a major challenge In individual reports (that have been generated from data cubes and/or DM/DW) But then all reports that depend on a dimension that has been changed will need individual maintenance that is both costly and typically untimely In external files (e.g., In Excel after a report or file above is exported) But then multiple users and departments will probably not be looking at an enterprise, conformed dimension in the same way, leading to misunderstandings and poor communication (e.g., organization structure, product category hierarchy, customer groups, etc.) Business Viewpoint Objectives and Methods Create and Maintain: Business personnel create and maintain dimensions (with multiple hierarchies and attributes) centrally create, edit, manage, compare, import All line item dimensions required for Performance Management (chart of accounts, cost center, product etc) Assemble multiple hierarchies, views or versions to support the performance management process Notifications by role as changes occur Business Rules – validate user entry IT personnel maintain data integrity via system & database control Govern and Collaborate: Business personnel govern and collaborate with transparency and audit ability Workflow collaboration, multi user contribution Audit who makes changes and what changes are made Version control and roll back Security for dimensions, users and user roles Lineage of maintenance history back to the source Add comments to changes Share and Synchronize: Dimensions and their hierarchies and attributes are shared and synchronized Create, edit, manage, compare, import All line item dimensions required for PM (chart of accounts, cost center, product etc) Assemble multiple hierarchies, views or versions to support the performance management process Notifications by role as changes occur Business Rules – validate user entry Data integrity control Business Viewpoint Licenses “Mixed license” approach: a server component and a user role component: Server component: Starter or Enterprise version User Role component: Data Stewards and Contributors	Business Strategy
Better Inventory Investment Decisions for Increased ROI GMROI Metric Provides Valuable Insights for Inventory Decisions Every dollar invested in inventory counts, and there are always trade-offs to be made when choosing which is in fact the "best" product or product line to stock. Gross Margin Return on Inventory (GMROI) is a valuable-and sometimes overlooked-tool that can help companies decide how to "get the most bang from their (inventory) buck" and understand how to manage inventory so as to increase company sales and profitability. Read this short whitepaper to learn how to make better inventory investment decisions.	Business Strategy
Cognos Business Insight Comparison of Standard vs. Advanced Licenses A quick comparison of which features of the Cognos Business Insight Standard mode are included in the Cognos Enhanced Consumer license, versus which features of Cognos Business Insight Advanced mode are included in the Cognos Advanced Business Author and above licenses. Outline Business Insight Standard Mode (included in the Cognos Enhanced Consumer License) is a self-service dashboard assembly solution allows users to leverage existing content (reports) and assemble them into their own personalized workspaces, or dashboards provides personalization and basic analytical functionality directly within the workspace is designed for consumers that want to enhance their experience with existing reports allowing them to customize display types and palettes, perform basic calculations and filtering Business Insight Advanced Mode (included in the Cognos Advanced Business Author and above licensing) is a self-service Report Authoring solution allows users to modify existing reports using the full functionality of a business authoring tool allows users to author their own reports using intuitive interface features and gestures including advanced presentation, layout, formatting, complex calculations, and filtering provides an ad-hoc user experience which allows the authors to interact with the data while they are developing reports using intuitive, integrated OLAP features such as drill-down, slice-and-dice, and top/bottom filtering combines the best features of ad-hoc (Query Studio), multi-dimensional analysis (Analysis Studio), and professional authoring (Report Studio) reports built in BIA are consumable via the Cognos Viewer, which is part of the consumer or enhanced consumer license. Could also be delivered via PDF, HTML, XLS to recipients BIA does not have all the functionality of Report Studio which is part of the Professional Author License or above	Features
Making Business Insight Dashboards Available via IBM Cognos Portal Tab Easy to Follow, Step-by-Step Instructions This technique describes how in IBM Cognos Business Intelligence 10.1 users can make business insight dashboards appear in IBM Cognos portal page portlets. Users with Enhanced Consumer rights or greater can complete this technique using the standard IBM Cognos 10 sample materials.	Tips & Tricks
Integrating IBM Cognos Data into MS Office Cognos for Microsoft Office & CAFE with Client Case Study and Tips & Tricks Is exporting your enterprise data to Excel getting old? Are you tired of updating your Powerpoint charts with the new month’s data? Why not integrate your IBM Cognos Business Intelligence platform directly with your Microsoft Office tools? Cognos Analysis for Excel (CAFE) is a powerful embedded analytics engine that works directly inside of an Excel worksheet so “spread-heads” can intuitively work with live enterprise data while leveraging powerful and familiar Excel features such as formulas, lookups, and cell-based calculations and references. You can explore and slice-and-dice data using the CAFE interface and reference live data from local expressions. IBM Cognos for MS Office allows you to embed any report object, such as a chart or crosstab, directly in an MS Office document, presentation, or workbook. Simply open the file to refresh the data – no more manually embedding values or images into your standard briefing books or desktop reports! During this webinar one of our clients speaks about how her organization implemented these tools and was able to eliminate redundant, manual processes. We also cover licensing and implementation factors. Business Context Reasons why many business prefer MS Office for final reports and distribution to business end users: Most business analysts are very familiar with the MS Office suite of tools Office tools allow us to do things that do not seem possible from within the IBM Cognos suite Cell-based expressions, vLookup, pivot tables, etc. Integrating data from Cognos with other data objects and sources for final presentation Deliver to recipients in a familiar format But manually exporting data from BI sources to Excel and other MS Tools is painful: Labor intensive for IT and/or business staff Significant time delays, especially getting needed data to business decision makers for exploration and analysis Low value for business analysts Takes time away from analysis Therefore, integrating BI data with Excel and other MS Office products for direct, refreshable updates may be the best solution. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Analysis for Excel (CAFE); IBM Cognos for MS Office Recommended Audience Business Analysts; BI End Users; BI Developers Presenters Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus Inc. Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Elcenora Martinez Senior Director, Business Intelligence, Host Hotels Outline Cognos Analysis for Excel (CAFÉ) versus IBM Cognos for MS Office and Studios Typical steps for CAFÉ: Extract enterprise data from IBM Cognos, Export to Excel Copy to master workbook Perform necessary calculations and other operations to get the data in shape for final analysis and distribution Typical steps for IBM Cognos BI and then MS Office: Run standard IBM Cognos report Export to Excel and/or copy report object into presentation or document Update final deck or document for distribution When CAFÉ makes sense: Performing spreadsheet analysis that uses data from one or more sources where the data need to be updated routinely Integrating data from multiple sources You need to perform complex calculations that cannot be performed from within the IBM Cognos Studios When to stick with the IBM Cognos for MS Office and Cognos Studios: If you want to perform dynamic data exploration, look at PowerPlay Studio/Client, or Cognos Workspace Advanced! If you need dynamic prompting, drill-through, automated delivery, dynamic alerts – consider Report Studio or Cognos Workspace Advanced (CWA) CAFÉ Tips and Tricks (and Cautions): Cube data is retrieved by creating COGVAL formula which is made up of a series of arguments Each argument is the equivalent of a Dimension or Measure in a Cognos Cube Arguments are dragged and dropped into Excel and appear as a COGNAME formula Syntax Matters! The first 2 components of a COGVAL formula MUST be: System Name Package Name After 1 & 2, the user can choose the order of COGVAL arguments Best Practice – be consistent with the order of the additional arguments and consider the context of ALL the dimensions that may impact your result All Components of any COGVAL formula must be from the same Cube Calculations: Do not create a formula in a cell containing a COGVAL Make sure all cell references in your COGVAL formula point to cells with COGNAMEs Use color shading to identify which rows/columns are calculations as opposed to COGVALs Common Formula Errors: Missing System or Package Name (#ERR_INVALID_MEMBER) Missing one key argument Be aware, the COGVAL formula will still return a value, but it will be incorrect Best Practice – try to only use Absolute Reference for System and Package Name Use Mixed References for columns or rows that you want to maintain when copying a COGVAL formula in your worksheet Data is not updated automatically when opening an Excel document with CAFÉ links – you must click the Refresh tool Best Practice – do not insert or delete rows or columns when connected to the Cognos server otherwise your entire worksheet will return #ERR_INVALID_ME License Pricing CAFÉ can be licensed on an Authorized User or Processor Basis $918/ Authorized User or $830/PVU Volume discounts may apply IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office is available to all users licensed Consumer or above Contact us at info@senturus.com to get answers to any of your Cognos Licensing Questions	Tips & Tricks
Predictive Analytics Explained and IBM SPSS Demo Predictive Models: What They Are, How to Use Them and Demo of SPSS Many organizations have made big investments in business intelligence, deploying sophisticated reporting systems and performance dashboards. Yet for most companies, translating “interesting insights” into quantifiable business benefits is more the exception than the rule. Predictive analytics can be the next logical step in the evolution toward achieving dramatic improvements to the bottom line. In this webinar recording, Eric Zankman demystifies predictive analytics by explaining what predictive models are, how to develop them and how to apply them within a customer management framework to create measurable ROI. Components of a comprehensive analytics approach are explored: Creating a customer data mart with predictive analytics in mind Building predictive models Segmenting customers Developing champion/challenger strategy tests Establishing processes for continuous learning and improvement Reaping the benefits of predictive models The second half includes a demo of IBM SPSS Modeler. Business Context Predictive analytics can greatly improve profitability when part of a comprehensive analytics solution A well-designed data mart is the first step toward effective predictive analytics Organizations must be committed to ongoing strategy testing to maximize their benefits Technologies Covered Predictive Analytics, IBM SPSS Modeler Recommended Audience Business executives, managers and analysts who are responsible for devising and implementing a range of strategies that would be applied to different customer, product or other market segments to improve profitability. Presenters Eric Zankman Mr. Zankman is an analytics and business intelligence consultant with a 20-year track record of improving profitability for some of the world’s largest firms by applying data mining, predictive modeling, customer segmentation, experimental design, and optimization. Mr. Zankman heads the predictive analytics practice for Senturus. He has founded Zankman Solutions, a provider of analytics consulting services, and served as Analytics Practice Leader, Coordinator of CRM Knowledge Center, and Senior Subject Matter Expert at American Management Systems (AMS), a global business and IT consulting firm. Mr. Zankman has given numerous presentations at major industry conferences related to customer analytics. He has authored several white papers and thought leadership articles, including a Gartner publication on customer loyalty. Mr. Zankman earned a BS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Arik Killion Client Technical Professional, IBM Business Analytics, SPSS Outline PREDICTIVE MODELS General Definition Empirically-derived algorithms used to predict future outcomes Customer Analytics Definition Predicts future customer actions Combines individual attributes that are strong predictors Produces an assessment score for each customer Model Uses Customer Analytics Direct Marketing Underwriting Usage Stimulation Cross-sell / Up-sell Retention / Churn Customer Value Operational Analytics Risk Management Credit Policy Decisions Channel Preference Portfolio Management Threat and Fraud Analytics Fraud Detection Collections Write-offs / Recoveries Predictive Model Timeline Observation Period / Observation Point Performance Period / Forecasts Part of a Comprehensive Analytics Solution Customer Data Mart Predictive Models Customer Segmentation Champion / Challenger Strategy Tests Model, Segmentation and Strategy Execution Strategy Test Evaluation New Champion Strategy Back to Step 4 (continuous learning and improvement) Predictive Model Development Methodology Define business goals Specify model objective function Design/build modeling database Partition modeling data Derive potential predictors Analyze predictor strength Perform sub-population analysis Build model algorithms Evaluate model performance 10. Deploy model Champion / Challenger Strategy Improvement Methodology Develop a “champion” strategy and “challenger” strategies for each segment Execute strategy tests and analyze results after a defined test period Perform model validation (controlling for treatment) Deploy new champion strategy with quantifiable business improvements Create new round of promising challengers Example Application: Customer Churn Reduction Develop predictive models for customer value and churn Identify customers with high value and/or high churn propensity for tailored treatments (e.g., special retention campaigns, VIP service, liberal fee-reversal policies) Conduct champion/challenger tests to identify the best treatments for each segment Implement new champion and develop next set of challengers Demonstration: IBM SPSS Modeler Q&A Topics Groups and Point Assignments For scoring models, there are tools within SPSS that help define the number of groups for an attribute (e.g., the breadth of each group: Customer Age groups of <1 yr; 2 to 3 yrs; 3 to 5 yrs; 6 or more) and the number of points that should be assigned to each group for scoring purposes. Consulting Validation for Data Readiness Senturus does offer this “discovery” call or visit as a service and it usually takes a few hours. Modeling Technique Choice Criteria Statistical Regression and Point Scoring models work well for binary outcome situations (e.g., a customer cancels an account or doesn’t; a customer defaults or doesn’t; etc.) Decision Trees work well for multi-outcome situations Neural Nets work well for a resulting list of suspects (as for fraud) as opposed to an off/on or yes/no evaluation for each customer Customer Involvement Usually significant over the 2 to 3 month implementation period for domain expertise; model validation; segmentation implementation; strategy determination, testing and strategy changes Model Implementation Challenges Business Use and Customer treatment (for example) Model Validation Frequency: at least quarterly is recommended How is SPSS software implemented: hosted or on-premise? Both (see links in the slide deck) Does SPSS require a data warehouse? Not necessarily because the observation data can come from any source, but a customer DW – for example – provides other reporting and analysis benefits and is an excellent source for SPSS for it supports changing the combination and population of attributes that SPSS analyses. Are the SPSS demonstrated charts and graphs available in Cognos 10 BI suites? No. The SPSS data would have to be brought into Cognos BI, some calculations added, and the native Cognos charts and graphs would then display the SPSS data. Is in-data base analytics recommended for SPSS? Yes, this is one way SPSS has been architected. Most data bases have internal algorithms that can be turned on and utilized by SPSS for analysis. (As opposed to the older, perhaps “standard” approach of extracting data from the data bases and handing that data to SPSS to store and analyze.) Can data marts and warehouses support predictive modeling? Yes, but there are analysis and sampling requirements for making observations and getting attribute values that usually require multiple snapshots and date stamping them so that values can be obtained for a specific point in time. Such as the values on a day that a customer defaults on a payment, or the values on the day a customer cancels an account, or the first day of each month to obtain trended historical values in the observation period.	Features
IBM Cognos 10 Framework Manager in Action Demonstrations of New Features See demonstrations of the Cognos Framework Manager Version 10 Metadata Modeling techniques including: using the Model Design Accelerator using session parameters, parameter maps, and query macros to implement row-level security on user attributes dimensionally modeling relational data. Plus we review all the other major new features of IBM Cognos 10 and we explain which new features are included at no additional cost and which require trade up fees.	Tips & Tricks
What’s New for Report Authors in Cognos 10.2 Report Studio New Features Senturus’ IBM Cognos 10.2 Under the Hood webinar series continues with a deep dive into Report Studio, the go-to report development solution for professional authors. These new Cognos Report Studio features are demonstrated: Using the new Query Macro components to resolve complex prompting challenges as well as implement row and object-level security in reports Exploring several examples of the new open Prompt API which will enable authors to implement Prompt validation Dynamic date range selection based on relative dates In addition, several hot, new authoring tips & tricks are presented by our expert team of developers. These are new techniques we learned in the field, they are not out of the box. Business Context New report development features increase the productivity for report development. Speedier development means earlier realization of the business benefits of timely decision support information. It also means shorter IT queue times for information service requests from business users. Technologies Covered Cognos 10.2; Report Studio Recommended Audience BI Report Authors; Report Developer Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus, Inc Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline Cognos 10.2 New Features Recap Workspace User Experience For BOTH Cognos Insight and Cognos Workspace (formerly Business Insight): More interactive visualizations (drilling, filtering on Charts) Top/Bottom Filtering, Expand/Collapse, Freeze Headers Tabbed Workspaces For Cognos Insight: Enhanced Data Import Import Directly from Existing Packages “Smart” Metadata Time Rollups More integration with BI High-Fidelity Publish (requires TM1) Dynamic Query Mode Expanded Data Sources from Original Release to Include: MSAS; SAP Netweaver; IBM DB2 and InfoSphere; SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2012; IBM Netezza; Oracle 10g, 11g; Teradata; Salesforce.com; Siebel; SAP R/3; IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes In-memory OLAP cubes load data directly from relational data warehouses Part of Dynamic Query Mode, leverages 64-bit framework Enables OLAP-style analytics over terabytes of warehouse data Leverages in-memory and in-database aggregate awareness Modeling is achieved via GUI interface using Cube Designer Report Studio New Features Access to Macro Functions in the Expression Editor Components Easy access to powerful functions, much like what you see in Framework Manager Better control of dynamic security at the report level Easier access to advanced Prompt syntax Fully documented and exposed Prompt API No longer need to “hack” into source code Fully supported Samples included with Javascript Set dynamic default prompt values Validate prompt values Static Repeater Table Control for Active Reports Makes the Repeater Control Interactive Supports repeating grids of custom content such as images or buttons New Export to Excel options Standard Excel 2007 now supports 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows (requires advanced server configuration) Excel 2007 Data: Lightweight, list only, no formatting to native .xlsx format Other Compelling New Features Improvements to Mobile Push notifications Multi-page Report Trickle Multi-key Bursted Reports Cognos Configuration Validation utility New Archiving Features Cognos Style Management Utility Demonstrations include: Create an optional parameter for use in a slicer Use parametized slicer to filter a dimension that doesn’t appear on a report’s “edge” Change the data item selection based on who is running the report Demonstrate the prompt API sample reports Licensing Update New Features of Cognos 10.1.1 – which are free and involve a fee New User Types with Cognos 10.1.1 License Upgrade Opportunities Q&A Are the performance improvements available from upgrading from Cognos 8 to Cognos 10 only available if there is also a change from 32-bit to 64-bit processing? No. There are significant performance improvements from the architecture and methods changes in Cognos 10. So even if you don’t use Dynamic Query Mode (DQM), there is benefit from Cognos 10 over Cognos 8. Are some of the features shown in the demonstrations also available in Active Reports? Probably (except for prompts), but not all of them have been tested. Because the Active Report is rendered on the server and then distributed as an MHT file, additional server-side processing would not be possible once the report is distributed. Also, Active Reports do not use prompts, but use Active Report Controls – which is different and not demonstrated today. Are the features of Cognos Workspace available when running in the native iPad application? Probably, but not sufficiently tested yet. When consuming a report through the iPad app, it’s functioning as a browser, so more testing is needed to be sure. What license type is needed to consume (as opposed to design and create) dynamic cubes? No additional or special or upgraded licenses are needed for consuming dynamic cubes. Is the new, freeze column header feature available in Report Studio? No, this is only available in the widgets of Cognos Workspace and Cognos Insight. Other Report Studio methods still need to be used to get this type of behavior in Report Studio. One option is to create the report in Report Studio and then push it into a widget in Cognos Workspace where the freeze column header can be used. When moving from Cognos 10.1 to Cognos 10.2, are reports or dashboard affected significantly? No, there has been minimal affect – assuming that there are no or very few custom objects imbedded in existing, standard reports. Use the Lifecycle Manager to create a parallel upgraded instance for validation. Is there a new feature to support column sorting for Report Studio? Not really (as there is for Active Reports which support dynamic column sorting). The prior method of passing a sort parameter in a drill-through request – which results in re-querying a self-drilling report – provides the same result . . . but it’s not a new feature, just a prior work-around. Is there a preference for using a query calc versus a calculated measure? The query calculation is always recommended as it provides access to the full expression editor.	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos TM1 version 10.1 Demos of New Functionality IBM made significant changes to TM1 in the version 10.1. See demos of the new functionality including: Graphical user interface which makes modeling more efficient and intuitive Managed workspaces - where individuals each have their own dashboard to work with the data, remotely contribute to an enterprise plan and share their personal data Full integration to the Cognos business intelligence environment	Features
Scorecarding with IBM Cognos Metric Studio Understand the Strategic Impact of Metrics and How to Track These Performance Indicators Implementing a scorecarding solution is a long-term objective of many organizations, regardless of size. Scorecards are not just a new way to present performance management information, but part of a larger strategic initiative. IBM Cognos Metric Studio integrates your existing data assets with a powerful, full-featured, scorecarding interface which provides tools that allow executives, line managers and other stakeholders to align their day-to-day activities with larger strategic objectives. See how Metric Studio can be leveraged to Track performance indicators across the enterprise, assign ownership and accountability Implement a balanced scorecard, record and track activities associated with metrics (actionable scorecarding) Understand the strategic impact of metrics	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos TM1 10.1 Performance Modeler Deep Dive In-Depth Demo of Functionality Gain an in-depth understanding of the TM1 modeling technology, Performance Modeler. You can see version 10.1 technology in use and determine if it is right for your organization. In this webinar recording, you will see demos on how to use Performance Modeler functionality including working with cubes from Cognos Insight and developing rules without coding.	Features
IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning Tips: D-Cube Allocation Eliminate the Need to Open or Change D-Links From Forecast to Forecast Learn a best practices approach that eliminates the need to open or change D-Links from forecast to forecast or at year-end. In this webinar recording, we'll teach you how to place business rules in easily maintained D-Cubes and to code the D-Links to use the D-Cube Allocation technique for dimensional mapping. Once developed, the D-Links do not need to be opened or changed from forecast to forecast or at year-end. Learn how to seed new rolling-forecast versions with a dynamic combination of actual and prior forecast data; convert calendar year data to fiscal year data; reorganize the history of consolidated or closed departments; and reclassify miscellaneous or closed account expenses into planned accounts in less time and without having to open and maintain D-Links.	Tips & Tricks
How to Install Cognos Insight Free Trial on Windows 7 Step-by-Step Instructions A five minute demonstration that shows the step-by-step instructions on how to install Cognos Insight 30 day Free Trial. We share a few tips to make the install go smoothly.	Tips & Tricks
Unconstrained Enterprise Planning Preview for TM1 10.2 and Case Study During this webinar, we demonstrate IBM's TM1 Enterprise planning tool-including an overview of version 10.2. We show how TM1 can be used to perform complex planning such as revenue planning, capital planning and retail assortment. We discuss TM1's exceptionally fast performance for large, sophisticated models and data sets. Plus, we share a case study on how one of our clients implemented TM1 and the impact it had on their business.	Features
Installing Cognos 10: Tips and Tricks from the Trenches How to Streamline an Upgrade Upgrading to and installing Cognos 10 is a lot smoother once you have done it hundreds of times. During this webinar recording, we share the common issues and how-tos to streamline an upgrade. The presentation covers Cognos 10 BI Server core components, common installation issues, Cognos 10 search index required post-install and navigating the maze of 32 vs 64 bit.	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos Insight Demo and Datasheet Released in March 2012: More End User Capabilities Without IT Assistance IBM Cognos Insight empowers users to solve problems on their own without relying on IT assistance. End users can import, merge and update data without scripting; create custom dashboards and applications; and perform "what-if analysis." This 12 minute video demonstrates analytic capabilities of Cognos Insight by demonstrating how a business analyst creates a Cognos Insight file, how IT publishes the output file and applies security, and how a regional manager updates the plan in Cognos Insight through a TM1 contributor. The second part to the demo illustrates how a to get data into Cognos Insight and publish to the BI server. The datasheet highlights the Insight capabilities.	Features
Automate the Close & Consolidate Processes Demonstration of IBM Cognos Controller Relying on spreadsheets, and even ERP systems, for consolidation tasks, such as multiple chart-of-accounts, foreign currency translation, and journals and reporting, is cumbersome, error prone and lacks compliance with government regulations. CCRF, which stands for "Close, Consolidate, Report and File," is a process that encompasses the use of best-of-breed software and a more focused flow of information from the very transactions that are posted all the way to reporting information in a productive, collaborative and efficient manner. Gary Kantz, expert in CCRF with over 29 years of experience in the Office of Finance, addresses how to automate the Close and Consolidate processes and gives a demonstration of IBM Cognos Controller.	Features
Using Analytics to Drive Predictive Maintenance Avoid Costly Downtime and Reduce Maintenance Costs Given the current economic climate, there is continued pressure for companies to limit capital and operational costs. Some companies have focused on specific capabilities and technologies to predict equipment or asset failure so they can avoid costly downtime while reducing maintenance costs. Read this Analyst Insight by the Aberdeen Group based on responses from 140 executives to learn how they use data and analytics to manage the reliability and maintenance of their assets. Business Context Predictive Maintenance can help companies with assets or manufacturing operations reduce costs and maximize Return on Assets (RoA) for Best-in-Class performance. Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Finance, Operations and Supply Chain Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Forces Driving Predictive Maintenance Reduced Operational budgets 40% Need to Maximize Return on Assets (RoA) 37% Reduced Capital Budgets 28% Rising Material Cost 25% Aging Assets 17% Maturity Class Framework Performance for Best in Class (top 20% of performers) 1.7% Unscheduled Asset Downtime 91% Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) +20% Return on Assets vs. Corporate Plan -31% Reduction in Maintenance Costs Strategic Actions by Best in Class to Maximize RoA Improve long term capital planning with better analytic tools Outsource maintenance activities to third party Manage energy and emissions as part of the maintenance strategy Establishing Predictive Business Capabilities Historical asset data (trends) and real-time data used as actionable intelligence for optimized decision making On-demand asset lifecycle information easily accessible by all employees Centralized knowledge warehouse to store asset performance data from different plants Budget allocated to support reliability centered maintenance activities Leveraging Sustainability Data Visibility into anomalies when assets exceed acceptable performance thresholds Asset data utilized to minimize energy consumption Benchmark the performance of each asset to determine the cost of maintaining versus replacing it with a newer, more energy efficient asset Energy management integrated with overall asset management strategy Technology Enablers Master Data Management Analytics Workflows Dashboards Spare Parts Inventory Optimization Key Takeaways Provide centralized, real-time data Utilize predictive analytics to make educated decisions about future events Provide integration between business systems Consider sustainability as a critical part of a maintenance strategy	Business Strategy
Beyond BI: Predict Future Performance Predictive Analytics What businesses need from business intelligence (BI) is the full picture – BI should help you not only describe and diagnose your past and current performance, but also predict future performance. Predictive analytics enhances the value of deploying BI reports, dashboards and scorecard capabilities, and identifies future risks and opportunities for business success. Business Context Using the full range of BI solutions can help your company anticipate forward-looking trends and improve overall performance and ROI. Organizations that utilize predictive analytics in addition to business intelligence achieve an average return on investment of 250 percent (source: IDC: The business value of predictive analytics, June 2011). Recommended Audience Senior Executives; Operational and Finance Managers; IT Managers; Business Intelligence Managers; Business Analysts Outline Business Intelligence can drive success by helping to: Identify market trends ahead of the competition. Understand customer behavior. Tackle and solve operational inefficiency. Make sound business decisions with confidence. Overcome bad decisions that seem obvious in hindsight. Make sense of the explosion of data and data sources that are currently clouding the business horizon. Predictive analytics takes BI to a new level Predictive analytics processes historical data, “learns” what has happened in the past and creates models. Predictive analytics gives you the glimpse of the future that is needed for a more complete picture of your business. You can get this forward view of your business without advanced algorithms or Ph.D. skills because the predictive information can be accessed from your dashboard, report or scorecard. The benefits of a forward view of your business Beat the competition. Transform your business from a reactive operation to a proactive market leader by setting and staying ahead of trends with integrated analysis of text, web and survey data. Reinforce accuracy and confidence in decisions. Move beyond simply understanding past performance by validating business intuition and existing practices and policies with a view into what is likely to happen next. Enrich the data discovery experience. Understand your data better by discovering patterns and trends in your structured and unstructured data. Benefits by role: Executives can use predictive intelligence in decisions made at all levels of the organization—strategic, operational and tactical. Business managers can recognize which factors are influencing outcomes and the relationships therein to pinpoint issues and drive improvements. Business analysts can easily attain a very detailed understanding of the relationships hidden in all your data (numerical and text). They can generate focused predictive intelligence that can improve decision outcomes for measureable ROI. Analytics professionals can use structured and unstructured data to determine relationships and construct models to predict outcomes and future events. System managers can take advantage of non-intrusive integration with operational systems and flexible deployment How forward-thinking BI works The right BI Unified workspace Agility and accessibility Hypothesis testing Predictive analytics Desktop analytics Your BI solution should allow you to: Understand what happened Explore why it happened. Predict what is likely to happen next.	Business Strategy
Beyond Gross Margin: Insight into Profitability 20-40% of Your Products and Customers are Losing Money - Do You Know Which Ones? All customers and products are profitable at the gross margin level, but the reality is 20-40% of them are losing you money. During this webinar recording, we show you how to gain insight into the true drivers of profitability across your enterprise. See how Acorn's Profitability and Cost Management software allows for the allocation of costs to specific products and customers.	Features
Streamlining Financial Statement Reporting Demonstration of Cognos FSR In this webinar learn how to reduce costs and increase accuracy of your financial reporting. See a demonstration of IBM Cognos Financial Statement Reporting (FSR) which provides collaborative reporting and electronic filing of financial reporting documents (10-K, Annual Reports, Regulatory Reports etc.) This webinar is one part of a series of Senturus webinars in the Close, Consolidate, Report and File (CCRF) series, IBM Cognos 10's major new initiative.	Features
Framework Manager’s Design Accelerator – Cognos 10 How FM's Model Design Accelerator Can Reduce Relational Metadata Model Development Time Increase productivity for data model development.The data model is the BI foundation for performance management, operational and financial reporting. Metadata Modelers now have even more tools to guide them through proven design practices in IBM Cognos 10 Framework Manager. The Framework Manager Model Design Accelerator is a feature of IBM Cognos 10 that can significantly reduce the development cycle times for relational metadata models. The following techniques are demonstrated for developers Using the Model Design Accelerator Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) best practices Row-level security best practices Other major new features of IBM Cognos 10 are reviewed. The new features are explained, indicating which new features are included at no charge and which new features require license trade-up. Business Context Increased productivity for data model development. The data model is the Business Intelligence (BI) foundation for performance management, operational and financial reporting. Speedier development means earlier realization of the business benefits of timely decision support information. It also means shorter IT queue times for business’ service requests for data access. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Framework Manager 10; Cognos BI 10 Recommended Audience IBM Cognos BI Developers; Business Intelligence Managers; IT Cognos and BI Support Staff Presenter Albert Valdez Director of Education Services, Senturus, Inc Albert has spent the last 12 years as a technical trainer focused on business intelligence and performance management. Before joining Senturus, he was a Senior Education Specialist at Cognos for five years. He is an IBM Cognos Certified Trainer and has his lifetime CTT and certification from CompTIA. Since 2007, Albert has acted as a Senior Consultant, Solutions Architect and Director of Education for Senturus. Outline The IBM Cognos Framework Manager 10 demonstrations will cover the following techniques: Use the Model Design Accelerator to start one, new Star Schema (as compared to FM’s Metadata Wizard).(NOTE: For additional fact tables and stars, use the classic metadata import and relation generation techniques.) Steps: Build the fact table Build the query (dimension) subjects Generate the model Including using the: Model Tree Model Accelerator Workspace Explorer Diagram For these functions: Relationship Editing And observable in these layers: Physical layer Business layer (and Star Schema Groupings) made up of subjects and shortcuts Implement a common row-level security requirement using: Parameter map Session parameters and user session parameters Leverage Query Macros to make the solution dynamic Implement Dimensionally Modeled Relational models Create Regular Dimensions and Measure Dimensions Understand how to use level attributes Metadata Modeling Best Practices are reviewed: Use a multi-tiered design Establish query item properties and relationships early on (in the first tier) Plan your design with consideration to how the IBM Cognos query engine generates SQL Model Query Subjects as either a Dimension or a Fact Relate Facts to one another through one or more Conformed Dimensions Review and carefully define Determinants Define Package and Object-level Security Create a user-friendly Presentation Use Dimensional Modeling techniques where appropriate Licensing Update New Features of Cognos 10.1.1 – which are free and which are for a fee New User Types with Cognos 10.1.1 License Upgrade Opportunities	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos TM1 Demo and Financial Planning Best Practices See TM1 in Action and Learn Software Independent FP&A Best Practices See demonstrations of TM1, IBM Cognos financial planning tool. Learn key elements of financial planning best practices and how your organization can implement them. The first half of this webinar is a demonstration of TM1, an IBM Cognos high-performance enterprise planning software for budgeting, forecasting and analysis. The second half of the webinar is a presentation outlining the key elements of financial planning best practices based on experience across hundreds of clients. These best practices are software platform independent.	Features
Business Intelligence Applications-Build or Buy? A Review of Pre-Built BI Applications Pre-built business intelligence applications are sold as the full solution out of the box, but what is the reality of their fit for your business? Traditionally pre-built BI applications have been hard coded to specific ERP systems, but there is a new generation of pre-built applications that allow organizations to configure the application to generate the transformations and reporting specific to the business. In this session, Senturus will review the history and current state-of-the-art of pre-built BI applications and discuss the key success factors as they relate to build versus buy. The session will include a demonstration of the new generation of configurable analytics platforms.	Business Strategy
Building a Business Intelligence Competency Center Establishing a Culture of Best Practice Business intelligence (BI) has become increasingly more strategic in organizations. IT departments are looking for ways to manage and support deployments across divisions, regions, and functions through the standardization of technology. A Business Intelligence Competency Center (BICC) can provide the centralized knowledge and best practices to help make these broader BI initiatives possible. This whitepaper will help you strengthen your understanding, planning and communication of the value of a BICC and its usage in your own organization. In addition, this document may help act as a catalyst to assisting you in establishing an initial plan to define your BICC charter.	Business Strategy
Designing Scorecards with IBM Cognos Metric Designer Tips for Developers IBM Cognos Metric Studio integrates your existing data assets with a powerful, full-featured, scorecarding interface which provides tools that allow stakeholders to align their day-to-day activities with larger strategic objectives. During this webinar, we discuss: Managing performance with scorecards Why use Metric Designer to build the metrics application Define a metrics application using Metric Designer Populate objects in Metric Studio using Metric Designer extracts Populate metric values using Metric Designer extracts	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning V10 and Beyond EP's Latest Features and a Comparison of EP and Cognos TM1 As Cognos IBM has two planning products: EP and TM1, what is the future for EP? What does the new EP Version 10 offer? How does EP stack up to TM1? Why do some customers switch from EP to TM1? During this webinar, we demonstrate EP's latest enhancements and the support plan for the future. Included is a live demonstration of TM1 and a compare and contrast of EP and TM1. A current EP customer, Trimble Navigation, speaks about their experience with their TM1 pilot.	Features
Cognos Multi-Dimensional Dashboarding : Best Practices Learn Best Practices for Creating Interactive Dashboards in the Cognos Portal Using cubes and other dimensional sources in IBM Cognos dashboards can be a challenge to even the most skilled report authors. Learn best practices for creating interactive dashboards in the Cognos portal. See demonstrations using: Report Studio Cognos Connection Multi-dimensional expressions (MDX), Cognos portlets Inter-portlet communication techniques. All techniques covered are applicable to all versions of Cognos 8 and Cognos 10.	Tips & Tricks
Automated Planning System Requirements Kick-start Assessment tool to determine the appropriate planning solution for your organization Build a comprehensive Business Requirements Document using the data gathered from this requirements kick-start. This document provides an explanation of the 16 areas that should be assessed in deciding on an appropriate planning system for an organization. The answers to these questions will also define the optimum scope/level of effort for a planning solution project. This assessment is technology independent.	Business Strategy
12 Elements of FP&A Best Practices The do's and don'ts with examples A in-depth discussion of the 12 key elements of financial planning best practices, including dos, don'ts, examples and benefits, plus hear real life case studies. In the second half of the webinar we will give a demonstration of a financial planning software tool: IBM Cognos TM1.	Business Strategy
Transforming spreadsheets: planning, budgeting and forecasting IBM Cognos Express Whitepaper Transforming Spreadsheets This paper describes how midsize companies can transform their spreadsheet-only processes to create flexible and timely plans, budgets and forecasts. It outlines recommendations for implementing a complete performance management system using IBM Cognos Express, an integrated reporting, analysis and planning solution purpose-built for midsize companies.	Features
IBM Cognos 10 Demo: Predictive Analytics Integration of predictive analytics and SPSS functionality One of the most interesting features of Cognos 10 is the integration of Predictive Analytics and SPSS functionality. During this webinar you will witness how you can add new value to your Business Intelligence and Performance Management solutions by incorporating Predictive Analytics. Learn what is SPSS and how it fits into the Cognos platform, what predictive and statistical tools come bundled with Cognos 10 at no cost, and which are extra, see a live demonstration of SPSS and Cognos 10 working together, and much more.	Features
Scorecarding with IBM Cognos 10 Guest Speaker: Greenville Hospital System Greenville Hospital System speaks about how they are using IBM Cognos 10 to develop a robust scorecarding solution for key business stakeholders. The webinar also includes Senturus defining scorecarding and performing a demonstration of IBM Cognos 10 Metric Studio.	Features
Improving Your Marketing ROI Implementing Marketing Analytics Best Practices Direct marketing is becoming more and more a part of every marketing organization. And with the move to direct marketing, and the multiple channels and providers an organization typically uses, complete measurement becomes critical. From optimizing spend, to justifying budgets, to keeping up with other departments executive reporting, an organization needs to understand the effect of each and every directing marketing campaign. This webinar includes reviewing why measurement is critical in direct marketing, showing common mistakes in determining what to measure, developing a direct marketing analysis maturity model and determining where your organization falls within the model, how to improve your analysis to move towards direct marketing NIRVANA, and a demonstration of how to accomplish this with today's technology.	Business Strategy
The Pain of Closing the Books (and Prescriptions to make it painless) Improving the Close-to-File Process Whitepaper This whitepaper written by Gary Kantz, a recognized expert in the area of Financial Consolidation and Reporting, speaks to how you can take the pain out of your close. Gary addresses "CCRF" - Close, Consolidate, Report and File - a systematic process that focuses on the flow of information, which once optimized, is automated with best-in-class software. CCRF reduces the close processes from weeks to days, and sometimes just a matter of hours.	Business Strategy
Best Practices in OLAP Modeling with Cognos Transformer Demos of Techniques that Make Cognos Transformer a Valuable Part of BI Business intelligence solutions deliver tremendous value to organizations as long as people use them. User adoption is the primary key to success because the vast majority of BI value comes from the improved decisions it enables. Our experience across hundreds of projects has shown that user adoption rates are highest when online analytical processing (OLAP) is part of the solution. In this recorded webinar, you will learn best practices in OLAP modeling using Cognos Transformer including: The value of online analytical processing (OLAP) A reference business intelligence architecture How to synchronize Transformer and the data source Customizing the Transformer model using sub-dimensions and relative time categories Resolving conflicts when using multiple data sources Setting measure properties and comparing roll-up options plus applying basic cube security OLAP enhancements in Cognos 10	Tips & Tricks
Microsoft SSAS Which version of Analysis Services should I use? Multi-dimensional or Tabular? Choosing the right version of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services-- multi-dimensional or tabular --is key because once you start developing, you will not be able to easily “migrate” the work to the other version. You pretty much need to start over. During this webinar, Senturus discusses the importance of choosing the correct version—multi-dimensional or tabular--of Microsoft SSAS for your analytic needs. We review the various features and benefits that each version provides. This one hour webinar could save you countless hours by helping you choose the right product before you start developing. Business Context There are significant differences between the two data base design options available for Microsoft SSAS; and switching between them after development starts is very problematic. Knowing the differences and applicability before starting is critical to efficient and productive development efforts. Technologies Covered Microsoft SSAS Recommended Audience Microsoft SSAS Users and Developers Presenter David Shroyer David is a Senturus consultant with over 12 years of experience implementing BI solutions with the Microsoft stack. He has provided training and/or consulting to over 60 companies nationwide. David’s past experience includes working at ProClarity, which was later purchased by Microsoft. David had an MBA from California State University of Sacramento. Outline BACKGROUND: SSAS Multidimensional MSOLAP debut with the release of SQL Server 7.0 SSAS was completely overhauled with the release of SQL Server 2005 This new version allowed for “sub cubes” with the Scope statement. This radically increased the functionality of the cubes SSAS 2008R2 and 2012 have primarily been concerned with query performance and scalability SSAS Multidimensional is positioned as a “Corporate BI” tool PowerPivot With the release of Excel 2010 came an add-in called PowerPivot PowerPivot uses a local instance of Analysis Services with the new xVelocity engine The xVelocity in-memory engine can greatly increase query performance PowerPivot is a client based tool. All data is stored in the Excel workbooks. PowerPivot does not have any security, other than securing a workbook on the file system PowerPivot is positioned as a “SelfService BI” tool SSAS Tabular With the release of SQL Server 2012 came the “server version” of PowerPivot which is a “tabular” instance of SSAS on the server Models can be created directly on the server or PowerPivot models can be imported Languages Multidimensional cubes use MDX for calculations, security, and queries Tabular uses DAX for calculations and queries. It is also MDX compliant, which means that MDX based tools, like Excel, can query Tabular cubes MODELING: Multidimensional Modeling Based on a traditional star schema methodology. This includes dimension tables and fact tables. (Kimball methodology) Multidimensional models can include advanced calculations and sophisticated business logic. Tabular Modeling Organizes data into related tables Because tables do not need to be designated as “dimensions” or “facts” the development time is less with tabular because all related tables serve both roles Data Considerations One to Many Relationships – Both models handle these out of the box. Although with tabular you can only join on ONE field Many to Many Relationships – Multidimensional handles this out of the box. Tabular does not allow for M2M relationships but you can “work around it” by using DAX calculations Standard Hierarchies: Multidimensional needs to have hierarchy attribute relationships to be defined. The cube then uses those hierarchies to precalculated “totals” at those levels Tabular does not need any defined relationships. Because it is “in-memory” there is no need for pre-calculated aggregations Ragged Hierarchies: Multidimensional provides support for ragged hierarchies by hiding any missing values in the hierarchy Tabular does not support ragged hierarchies Parent/Child Hierarchies: Multidimensional allows for parent/child hierarchies out of the box. These are useful for supervisor/employee dimensions as well a chart of accounts dimension Tabular does not support the definition of parentchild hierarchies; however, the DAX language provides a set of functions that allows users to explore parent-child hierarchies and to use these hierarchies in formulas. Unary Operators: Multidimensional offers out of the box support for unary operators. This is very important for chart of account hierarchies Tabular does not support unary operators Semi-additive Measures: Multidimensional has built in aggregation functions Tabular handles these measures but you need to use separate DAX functions for each level such as ClosingBalanceMonth Additional Features: Perspectives – available in both models Translations – only available with multidimensional Actions – only available in multidimensional Drill-through – available in both models Write-back – only available in multidimensional Role Playing Dimensions – not available in Tabular Formatting Measures – Tabular does not allow for custom formatting Display Folders – Tabular does not allow for display folders Naming the All Level – Tabular does not allow for the naming of the All Level Calculations: Both models have a wide variety of calculation possibilities Multidimensional allows for extra calculation properties such as font color and background color based on logic Multidimensional allows for calculations that are not located on the measures dimension Shell Dimensions: In multidimensional you can create “shell dimensions” which can store “global” calculations This is often used for Date Calculations such as year over year variances and YTD These can also be used for unit of measure conversions and other global calculations Date Calculations Adding a date calculations dimension to a cube can make creating dashboard type reports very easy With tabular you have two choices You build your date calculations into the measures dimension – Qty, Qty LY, Qty LY Var, Qty LY Var %, Sales, Sales LY, etc Or you create a faux shell dimension and include massive nested IIF statements to trap for every possible intersection. (which is just not reasonable) This also causes problem in that you can only format a measure so shell dimensions are just not suited for Tabular MDX vs. DAX MDX (Multi-Dimensional Expressions) is used in Multidimensional and it is a language of hierarchies and dimensions DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is used in Tabular and it is more columnar based One of the reasons why Microsoft invested heavily into the xVelocity technology was because they felt that MDX was too difficult for the average DBA MDX can be hard to conceptualize but it has the advantage of being able to navigate hierarchies Percent of Parent calculation in MDX Percent of Parent calculation in DAX Named Sets: In multidimensional named sets allow you to retrieve common sets of members that can be used in reporting, such as “current day”, “current month”, or “last 12 months” Named sets are not available in Tabular but you can duplicate some of their functionality using attributes and SQL date functions Named sets are critical for automating date selection in dashboards Data Storage: Multidimensional stores data in data partitions and then it creates aggregations within the partitions Compression is normally 3X to 4X Tabular loads data into memory so there is no need for aggregations Compression is normally 10X Scalability: Multidimensional can scale to billions of records. This is accomplished through the use of data partitioning Tabular is limited by the amount of memory on the server The lower the cardinality of the data the more records can be fit into memory Processing Performance: Multidimensional has dependencies which can make cube processing somewhat tricky All dimensions must be processed before the fact tables Updating of dimensions drops all aggregations and therefore they need to be recalculated Full process of dimensions drops the data Tabular is just a “collection of tables” so there are no processing dependencies Therefore it is much more flexible when it comes to processing You can partition the data within the tabular model so that you don’t have to process the full data set each day but the partitions cannot be processed in parallel Query Performance: Multidimensional query performance is dependent upon the partition design and the aggregation design Tabular query performance does not need to be tuned Generally tabular will provide for better query performance especially if the users are pulling large amounts of detailed data Security: Multidimensional bases security on members within a dimension Tabular bases security on rows in a table Both versions support dynamic security Multidimensional also allows for visual totals and allows users to use drill-through Microsoft Client Tools: Microsoft Excel can connect to both models. Although the query performance benefits of Tabular are lost when you query with MDX PerformancePoint can only connect to Tabular with the use of a custom data source PowerView can only connect to Tabular Most third party products can connect to both models because Tabular is MDX compliant Q&A Topics: PowerView: Cannot be used with Multidimensional. Only can use PowerView with Tabular (for now). Using integer keys (rather than text) facilitates getting the maximum compression from both Multidimensional and Tabular options. IBM’s future plans for the Multidimensional and Tabular options.	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Security Best Practices Over 16 topics discussed and demonstrated The Security model in Cognos can be a challenge to even experienced system administrators. Successfully implementing all of the relevant areas of security requires effective planning and a deep understanding of how each component will affect the user experience. This webinar includes the following discussions and demonstrations: Cognos security model overview Implementing Single Sign-on (SSO) with Active Directory and Internet Information Services (IIS) Optimizing the Cognos environment Using free tools from Motio to investigate User and Object policies Row-level security best practices Understanding Cognos Data Sources, Connections and Sign-ons Motio deployment utilities Using Motio for managing Groups and My Folders Migrating permissions Serving both internal and external users within a single Cognos environment How to set up the internal Cognos gateway Limitations and workarounds for adding portal tabs to a group Monitoring how much memory Java uses under Cognos Configuring the Notification Store (required when using multiple servers) Single Sign-on (SSO) with LDAP 16) Setting the Sort Buffer	Tips & Tricks
The Business Value of Business Intelligence How to get good, timely data from your enterprise reporting system Do you wonder why it is so hard to get good and timely data from your enterprise reporting system? Why are business people unable to use ad hoc analysis to answer their business questions? This webinar covers real-world case studies on companies who have made the switch to self-service BI and analysis. These organizations now enjoy timely, reliable, and accurate information and the ability to better predict and drive corporate performance.	Business Strategy
Cognos Enterprise Planning Tips and Techniques Part II Valuable techniques for administrators, developers and end users This recording includes demonstrations of the following Cognos Enterprise Planning tips and techniques: How to automate Access Table updates and make them dependent upon the type of data contained in each month and on the Contributor tab How to provide planned data summaries for Publish and Export that have additional business dimensions that are not used for planning, a.k.a. turning an attribute into a dimension How to use E-list IDs so that D-list items are not considered new which causes automatic delete and add actions within Contributor How to plan expense allocations	Tips & Tricks
Trends and Best Practices in Performance Management Top factors that enable companies to outperform their peers In this presentation, Senturus discusses trends and best practices in performance management. Included is an examination of a segment of companies that outperform all others - to the tune of 20X higher earnings growth rates than the others. The session includes an examination of the research findings that disclose the factors that enable these companies to outperform. Finally, it includes a prescription for the things your company can do to achieve the same levels of outperformance.	Business Strategy
More Cognos Report Studio Advanced Authoring Techniques 5 more demonstrations including creating a briefing book, conditional drill-through report, and more The webinar includes demonstrations on creating briefing books using a table of contents and bookmarks, creating a conditional drill-through report, advanced prompting with dimensional data, setting up drill-through to Query Studio, freezing column headers in a list report. Jump directly to the any topic using the table of contents on the left of the screen.	Tips & Tricks
IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor How to deploy TM1 Contributor, create pick lists, use sandboxes for sophisticated analysis You will learn how to deploy a TM1 Contributor application and will see the advantages of Contributor versus TM1 Web. The webinar also shows how to create pick lists to ensure data integrity in text cells along with how to use Sandboxes to evaluate multiple scenarios and for sophisticated what-if analysis and followed by interactive question and answer session.	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Enterprise Planning Tips and Techniques Modify your model, allocate expenses and more This Cognos Enterprise Planning tips and techniques webinar presents specific modeling techniques that add control and flexibility as well as resolving some common finance planning challenges. Learn how finance model administrators, without structure changes and without opening D-Links or D-Lists, can modify their model, allocate expenses, and more.	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Framework Manager Metadata Modeling Tips & Tricks Use of determinants, parameter maps, query macros, and implementing row-level security Understand the use of determinants and their importance. Enhance your metadata by leveraging parameter maps and query macros. See a demonstration of implementing row-level security based on user attributes and dimensional modeling of relational query subjects.	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Multi-Dimensional Dashboarding: New Techniques New techniques and demonstrations During this webinar, we create reports in Report Studio using dynamic dimensional authoring techniques. Use dimensional functions such as topCount, tuple, and descendants. Use slicer member sets to filter dimensional queries. Use parameters in dimensional queries to define prompting. Create in-report prompting. Create a custom portal page using Cognos Viewers and Cognos Navigator Portlets. Synchronize prompting and drill-down using inter-portlet communication. Deploy Portal Tabs to other users using administrative capabilities.	Tips & Tricks
Cognos Report Studio Advanced Authoring Techniques Five demonstrations including prompt-driven dashboards, queries, merging results and more The webinar includes demonstrations on prompt-driven dashboards, performing market basket analysis using queries, merging results using a set operation, enabling users to select report display type at run time, and defining relative-time periods using dimensional data.	Tips & Tricks
How Shutterfly Cut 5 Days Off Their Close Eliminate manual preparation and make faster, better business decisions Tom Cadden, Shutterfly Senior Manager of FP&A, tells how his company makes faster, better business decisions in a competitive, dynamic marketplace. Shutterfly was able to shorten its close cycle by deploying a planning system, building a data mart to consolidate ERP and plan data, and building a front end dashboard for plan contributors. Learn how you can compress your close cycle, eliminate manual preparation, and provide business owners a highly efficient tool for analysis, planning and reconciliation...all using your existing systems.	Business Strategy
Microsoft Business Intelligence: Too Good to be True? Comparison of Microsoft BI with traditional BI leaders Microsoft Business Intelligence software is significantly less expensive than that of the traditional BI leaders, but how does Microsoft's BI functionality compare? During this webinar, we compare Microsoft Business Intelligence with traditional BI leaders, we assess Microsoft BI across key factors, and we give a functionality tour of Microsoft BI. David Buckey, Senior Data Base Adminstrator of the Jamba Juice Company shares his experience with Microsoft BI.	Features
Managing Labor Data to Drive Profitability Using business intelligence to maximize profit and service Labor is the #1 controllable cost. Managing labor costs well can drive millions of dollars to the bottom line.The challenge is that labor data resides in many places: payroll data, HR, ERP/GL, timecard and scheduling systems; and tools are not available to "slice and dice" the data. During this webinar, Senturus shows you how to overcome these challenges and truly analyze your labor allocation for maximum service and profit. Guest speaker, Kevin Hogge, CFO of CRC Health Group, shares his company's experience in labor management. Senturus also shares a case study with a retail sector client.	Business Strategy
Is The Cloud Ready for your Financial Reporting? Ten key factors to consider Cloud computing clearly has great potential, but is it ready for your sensitive planning, budgeting and forecasting? In this webinar we discuss security, productivity gains, cost of ownership, scalability and more. This webinar includes a demonstration of Anaplan - a cloud-based corporate performance management solution developed by the same people who originally developed the on-premise solution, Cognos Enterprise Planning. TECHNOLOGIES COVERED Anaplan	Features
Affordable Analytics and Planning IBM Cognos Express Demonstration This webinar is a discussion and demonstration of an affordable, easy-to-implement business analytics system solution for replacing Excel spreadsheets. An enterprise planning platform eliminates the limitations, inefficiencies and dangers of the reliance on spreadsheets used for financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidations, analytics and reporting. The IBM Cognos Express solution, which delivers the reporting, analysis, dashboard, planning, budgeting and forecasting capabilities at an affordable price, discussion and demonstration includes Reviewing the dangers and inefficiencies inherent in spreadsheets (to help make the cost-benefit case to management for changing from Excel to an enterprise planning platform). Showing the simple steps that can be taken to minimize risk and deliver greater business efficiencies. Demonstrating how to extend the familiar spreadsheet-based user interface for better budgeting, planning and forecasting in an enterprise-wide platform. Business Context Excel spreadsheets and workbooks have severe limitations in the areas of ease of consolidation, central control over formulas and structure, security and workflow. There is significant business benefit to eliminating Excel workbook management time and risk and replacing spreadsheets with an enterprise-wide, centrally controlled planning and analysis platform. Cognos Express packages many of the Cognos Enterprise components for 100 users or less on a single server, providing analysis, planning and reporting capabilities that eliminate all of the spreadsheet limitations. Technologies Covered IBM Cognos Express Recommended Audience Business analysts and planners; IT business analysts; Planners Presenters Jim Frazier Vice-President of Sales, Senturus Brad Greene Senior Consultant, Senturus Ivan Aguilera IBMNorth America, Channel Enablement Specialist,Business Analytics Outline Spreadsheet limitations: Limited security and work flow Difficult to audit and validate Awkward to share and distribute Changes in business rules, calculations and structure can involve major retrofit rework efforts and result in errors (especially for large numbers of distributed workbooks that are not under central control) Not easy to integrate with multiple data sources Not easy to consolidate multiple workbooks once they are distributed to other departments, divisions and business units IBM Cognos Express characteristics: Spreadsheet-like interface Centrally managed business rules, calculations and structures result in quick, efficient and accurate consolidations Centrally managed dimensions and hierarchies result in consistent structures for all users all the time Integrated planning, budgeting and forecasting Integrated reports and dashboards IBM Cognos Planning Options Individuals, working independently: Cognos Insight Windows only, installed on individual computers Gather, structure and visualize data, gaining business insights from multiple sources Work groups, working together: Cognos Express Single Windows 2008 server, maximum of 100 users Centrally managed data and planning models Managed workflow Acquire data, analyze, visualize, plan and report Organizations, working as an integrated whole: Cognos Enterprise Multiple platform support, unlimited users Historical, real-time, future plans and predictive results Cost effective scale, enterprise-wide unified workspace Demonstration highlights: Data import from Excel (or csv) Dimensional model creation Publish to Cognos Connection for Cognos Insight or Web (Contributor) access with security and workflow Dashboard and report creation with multiple graphing options Multiple scenario (sandbox) planning using direct input and breakback (spreading) Product information: The IBM Cognos iPad mobile application is available from iTunes (free) An individual copy of the IBM Cognos Insight program is available (free) Q&A What are the components of Cognos Express? Cognos Insight Cognos Workspace (previously: Business Insight and Business Insight Advanced) Cognos TM1 Cognos Mobile Framework Manager Report Studio Query Studio Advisor Transformer (because Cognos Express uses TM1 as the DBMS) Analysis Studio Through a one-stop Cognos Express Manager that provides access to users, security, data sources, configuration options, etc. What Cognos components are NOT included: How is Cognos Express administered? Transformer (because Cognos Express uses TM1 as the DBMS) Analysis Studio How is Cognos Express administered? Through a one-stop Cognos Express Manager that provides access to users, security, data sources, configuration options, etc.	Features
Windows 7 Requires Cognos Planning Upgrade The issues, the solutions, and the new features in the Cognos Planning upgrade. If your company is like many others, you are probably moving to Windows 7 as a standard platform for desktops and laptops. But you may not be aware that all but the latest version of IBM Cognos Planning does not run on Windows 7. (The same is true for Windows 2008.) What to do? Is there an upgrade path? What are the impacts to users and my other systems? What about my planning applications and models, will they need to change? During this session Senturus will answer these questions. You will learn about the system requirements for this upgrade, as well as the significant new features that it offers. The session includes: Overview of "What's New" in Cognos Planning 8.4.1, system requirements, upgrade effort & potential impacts, migration approaches and integration with Cognos Business Intelligence 8.4.1. 30 minutes.	Features
Optimize your BI and IT Resources Demonstration of Innotas' IT Governance and Project Portfolio Management solution Senturus discusses the common pitfalls associated with managing BI Projects and reviews best practices gathered from our experience in leading hundreds of corporate performance management projects. Our partner, Innotas, demonstrates their IT Governance and Project Portfolio Management solution which provides the visibility to optimize your resources and obtain a faster ROI with BI and any IT related projects.	Features
Cognos for Business Users Get the information you need without waiting for I.T. by using Interactive Dashboards Cognos For Business Users In this session our experienced instructor covers the analytical capabilities available to business users within the Cognos business intelligence suite, including: isolating trends, comparing actuals versus plan, slicing and dicing, drilling down, charting, creating custom subsets and more. You will also understand how to save your analyses and incorporate them into your own custom dashboard.	Tips & Tricks
Straight Talk about Cognos Insight Demonstrations of Cognos Insight for Planning and BI Straight Talk The facts you need to know about Cognos Insight - its features, capabilities, limitations and uses. The first half of the webinar is a demonstration of Cognos Insight for Planning including data import details, structure changes and prototyping plus a discussion of the business planning use cases for Cognos Insight and the TM1 10.1 architecture. The second half of the webinar is a demonstration of Cognos Insight's business intelligence capabilities. Also covered are the Cognos Insight Community, analyticszone.com, and a comparison of Cognos Insight and Business Insight.	Features
Next-Generation Forecasting Performance management and rolling forecasts Faster, more accurate forecasting is essential in todays business environment, where new profit opportunities emerge quickly and require rapid, strategic decision making. Rolling forecasting supported by performance management applications such as IBM Cognos TM1 can provide the kind of on-demand information and instant recalculations you need to react to changing market conditions.	Business Strategy

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