With so much attention centered on the augmented intelligence (AI) functionality in Cognos Analytics 11.1, you may have missed the other new features. In this on-demand webinar, we take you beyond the AI hype and review some of the enhancements to admin and developer functionality.
Our in-house Cognos Analytics expert Todd Schuman got special hands-on access to the yet-to-be-released on-prem version and was able to evaluate capabilities not available in the publicly available cloud version.
Todd discussed his favorite 11.1 admin enhancements including
- Improved integration of admin capabilities that allow for customizations in profiles, color palettes, user roles and more
- The new, more efficient reporting UI which lets you accomplish simple tasks with fewer clicks
- A fix that fans have been clamoring for: the ability to pin the context toolbar
- The pros—and cons—of the new visualizations
- Update on releases and roadmap for 11.0 and 11.1
- More robust data modules with dependencies and tables with unions, joins, intersections
Presenter
Todd Schuman
Practice Lead – Installations, Upgrades and Performance Tuning
Senturus, Inc.
Todd has over 16 years of business analytics experience across multiple industries. He 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.
Read moreQuestions log
Q: Can we install Cognos Analytics 11.1 on top of 11.0.13?
A: Yes, 11.1 can be installed on top of any 11.0.x environment.
Q: What is Cognos Analytics 11.1 general release availability for on-premise?
A: CA 11.1.1 was released for on-premise Nov 23, 2018.
Q: Is there any way to get a test account for Cognos Analytics 11.1? And how long is the trial good for?
A: Yes, you can get a free trial that is good for 30 days.
Q: Is Cognos Analytics 11.0.x EOL on the IBM support site?
A: Yes, 11.0.x will EOL by 2020, but that does not mean that is the end of support.
Q: Can Open ID still connect using active directory groups for security?
A: Yes, Open ID can be setup to use Active Directory Federated Services (ADFS).
Q: Is Transformer still supported? Are there any plans to retire it?
A: Transformer is still fully supported. There have been no enhancements or changes since 10.2.2, but IBM has no plans to retire it.
Q: Can I apply a profile for current users as well as new users in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: No, after users log in, their profile is no longer attached to the default profile setup. You can change by user manually as an administrator.
Q: Have you tested the option to use the legacy UI? Would you recommend we use it?
A: We have not tested this; however, we would not use it unless there was a specific need.
Q: Can portal pages be edited in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: Not that we are aware of, if you use the legacy UI it might be possible.
Q: We noticed reports we migrated from Cognos 10 to 11 come over in non-interactive mode. We changed them to be interactive, but they do not launch in interactive mode from portal pages. Is there a way for us to change all report to interactive?
A: All reports migrated into Cognos Analytics default to non-interactive mode and need to be manually changed to run in interactive mode. New reports created in 11 default to interactive mode. Motio PI has a way to convert all or a large amount of reports from non-interactive to active at once.
Q: Is it possible for us to upload large Excel files to run in conjunction with data sets in Cognos Analytics 11.1? We currently use external tools such as SharePoint.
A: You can upload a file but large is subjective. If you have a specific use case, please contact us at 888-601-6010 ext. 1 and we can discuss it with you.
Q: Will charts work on cloud since charts are based on CQM in Cognos Analytics?
A: Charts should work the same on cloud and on-premise.
Q: If we use new visualization in Cognos Analytics 11.1, they are exported to Excel as an image. Has this been addressed?
A: The new visualization objects are really only for HTML rendering. We recommend using legacy charts if you need to export to Excel (or conditional object frames based on output type).
Q: Is Cognos Analytics 11.1 going to support MS Edge browser? Some admin pages in 11.0 don’t work in Edge.
A: We don’t know yet since the completed software environment support for 11.1 is still not officially released.
Q: We see Cognos Analytics 11.0.13 is available, would you recommend we download this version?
A: No, 11.0.13 is the latest (and last) release of the 11.0 generation, it is not the same as Cognos Analytics 11.1 which is still not available for download.
Q: We noticed Cognos Analytics 11.0.10 (and probably higher) had a problem with Event. It could only be successfully run by an Administrator. Has this been fixed?
A: We are not aware of any bug with Event. IBM no longer posts fix lists, but the fixes can be found if you do a web search to see if it was addressed in a later release.
Q: In Report with DQM mode enabled at server and package, can we do report join/union from multiple packages instead of using data module in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: We don’t think so. We recommend you create a data set from each package first, then join via data module and then create a data set from the resulting data module.
Q: Where are the report properties located in Cognos Analytics 11.1? Is the query 1 analyzer tool still available?
A: Report properties are in the same places in 11.1 as they were in 11.0. Click on the ellipse (3 dots) and select properties.
Q: Under Manage > Licenses, can we remove user names who are no longer part of the company in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: Users need to be removed from the groups and need to log back in after the change has been made to update the license total.
Q: Do dashboards allow for drill through and exporting/printing in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: Yes, this was added in 11.0 and should still be available.
Q: With the updates to data modules in Cognos Analytics 11.1, is the need for Framework Manager eliminated? What are the benefits of FM vs. data module?
A: Data modules continues to be powerful, but will never be a 100% replacement for FM. We recommend you use data module for small data blending projects and use FM for large modeling projects with version history.
Q: Can you describe how to use relative date like MTD or YTD in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: We have not had a chance to use this feature yet, but we will write a blog of the video after we have explored it.
Q: Is there a custom order functionality available in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: No, this is still a high request on the RFE site. Hopefully it will be available next year.
Q: Are there any new features with extensions in Cognos Analytics 11.1 to allow customization of the home view?
A: The customization features are the same as 11.0. Custom home views can be setup for different user roles.
Q: Will Cognos Analytics 13 EOS be released in 2020?
A: We are estimating EOS for 11.0.x will be released December 2020. That does not mean IBM will ultimately drop support at that time. Support depends on the number of holdover installs, we suspect that date could change.
Q: Is it possible to create a module using packages in Cognos Analytics?
A: Yes, but you will need to join the package to another data source as package to package is not currently available.
Q: We are interested in a best practice for setting security on Cognos Analytics 11.1 to support self-service security. Does Senturus have resources in this area to help us?
A: We can help you with self-service security. Contact Client Services at Senturus at [email protected] or 888-601-6010 ext. 1.
Q: Can we apply column level security in data sets in Cognos Analytics?
A: Not currently, this is another reason why Framework Manager is not going away just yet.
Q: Is there a hardware sizing estimation document or tool available for Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: No, not yet, we are eagerly awaiting.
Q: Can we install Cognos Analytics 11.1 on top of Cognos BI 8?
A: You have to migrate from 10.x to 11.x and from there you can do an over the top upgrade.
Q: Is multi-package support available for authoring report studio reports in Cognos Analytics 11.1?
A: Yes, if your source uses JDBC, you can add multiple packages. You can also blend the packages in a data module, which can then be a source for a report.
Presentation outline
Administration
- New customized options
- Profiles
- Default profile
- Show hidden entries
- Default report formats
- Time zone
- Palettes
- Global/corporate
- Additional feature areas to customize
- System settings
- No more need to use ConfigSetter
- Slider for My Portal Pages
- Enable Cognos 10 UI
- Set items per page
- Accounts now part of people grouping
- Capabilities moves to 11.1 Glass UI
- Contacts, distribution list
- Profiles
Reporting and dashboarding enhancements
- Pin context toolbar!
- Easier access to report settings
- Open/copy to clipboard
- Visual aids to show hidden fields
- Validation
- Show generated SQL
- New visualizations
- New 11.1 specs
- Additional nesting of rows/columns
- JavaScript based
- Very fast
- Some HTML only
- Auto sizing and object placement
- Less need to use multiple tables
- Drag edges of lists, crosstabs, singletons to grow or shrink
- Cleaner UI
- No more buttons for pages, queries, tools, etc.
- Breadcrumb style toolbar on the top to jump to page, query, etc.
- Copy/paste
- Smarts to bring needed queries with reporting object
- Visualization will bring queries (even joins and unions) along
- Better browser support (Chrome, Firefox)
Data modules
- Data prep/clean
- Quick attribute creation
- Build year, month, quarter
- Dependencies
- Tables
- Unions, joins, intersections
Release schedules
- Cognos 11.1.0 Release
- Late November, early December
- Quarterly releases
- 1.1 – spring 2019
- three years on this major build
- 0.13 – R13
- Final release for 11.0
- Early Q1 2019
- Mostly bug and stability fixes
- None of the new features reviewed in this deck
- 2 years of support
