Envisn's IBM Cognos Blog

January 19, 2012 by Rick Ryan - Envisn, Inc.
In an interview two weeks ago, IBM’s new president, Virginia Rometty, cited Analytics as the single most important focus for the technology company going forward. Analytics is what makes it possible to put the flood of Big Data to productive and profitable use. Other areas of IBM’s focus are enabled by Analytics. Smarter Planet is essentially about being able to mine all of the sensor data now available from multiple real time sources. And Cloud Computing makes it possible to access massive data sources from anywhere.

November 18, 2011 by Rick Ryan - Envisn, Inc.
It would be easy to talk about what’s new in Cognos 10 from the recent IBM Information on Demand (IOD) 2011 event in Las Vegas only in terms of new user capabilities but that would miss a big part of what’s going on here. There are new user capabilities that matter but it’s important to focus on the major trends here as well. This article will attempt to do both.

An Innovative Approach to Modeling Complex BI Projects

October 12, 2011 by Rick Ryan - Envisn, Inc.
With the IBM Information On Demand (IBM IOD 2011) event in Las Vegas less than two weeks away many of you may have already made plans to attend and started to schedule your sessions. For those of you still undecided about which sessions to attend, our blog this week may help make up your mind.

September 21, 2011 by Rick Ryan - Envisn, Inc.
Purpose of this blog article is to share with you the following:

August 2, 2011 by Elwood Philbrick - Envisn, Inc.
The purpose of this article is to identify key metrics that administrators should monitor or pay attention to in terms of their production Cognos Content Store. Many of these can directly impact overall performance as well as user satisfaction.

by Elwood Philbrick - Envisn, Inc.
The purpose of this article is to help Cognos administrators address the need for Cognos license tracking and how best to do it. Administrators are usually the ones tasked with Cognos license auditing and insuring compliance with their license agreement.

by Rick Ryan - Envisn, Inc.
Managers or administrators are often faced with the task of consolidating or merging Cognos BI environments. This may result because of mergers, cost savings or simply a desire to have fewer environments to manage. Invariably the consolidation involves users and content that will be merged into a new or existing environment and this requires careful planning and flawless execution in order to be done successfully. The purpose of this article is to help you identify what you need to know and how to plan and execute a successful merger of Cognos environments.

by Elwood Philbrick - Envisn, Inc.
At one time or another many Cognos BI managers or administrators are faced with the task of upgrading their security model. This article will focus on a best case scenario for moving from LDAP to Active Directory (AD) for managing security in Cognos BI.

by Elwood Philbrick - Envisn, Inc.
A frequently asked question is whether IBM Cognos provides any tools for helping administrators manage their BI environment. The answer is both yes and no. IBM Cognos does provide a tool that enables users to browse their Content Store. A link for downloading this tool is at the end of this article.

or The Monster that Keeps Growing

by Rick Ryan - Envisn, Inc.
Do you know how big your Content Store is? Do you know how fast it’s growing? And where, and why? If the answer these questions is no, then you’re not alone. Most Cognos administrators don’t really have their arms around this issue either. Not having the means to easily answer these questions is a big part of the issue; it’s hard to manage what you can’t measure.