Cognos mobile:

Overview: With today's mobile apps, everyone expects information at their fingertips. Your mobile
workforce is no different. Mobile workers need business intelligence (BI) data to be available on their
smart phones, notebook computers and tablets wherever they are to make information-driven decisions
- even when they're not connected to the web or your network.

The IBM Cognos Mobile solution has been delivering relevant information to smart phone for some time
now. However, engancements to Cognos Mobile now make it possible for users to interact with trusted
BI content on their tablet computers, such as the iPad, Android, and BlackBerry PlayBook, for a rich and
visual experience that enables uninterrupted productivity.

The ability to use existing BI content and a single authoring environment helps IT keep up with the
demands of users to provide them with Cognos Business Intelligence on their device of choice. As a
result, mobile decision-making is simple, reliable, and secure
Rich BI contentin the office or on the go
IBM Cognos Mobile extends interactive Cognos Business Intelligence to a broad range of
mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone and iPad and Android and tablets. With a rich client,
users can view and fully interact with Cognos reports, dashboards, metrics, analysis and other
information in a security-rich environment. Users receive timely, informative and interactive
business intelligence (BI) to support their decision-making, regardless of location. Embedded
"how-to" tutorials provide tips for getting the most out of the Cognos Mobile application.
Cognos Mobile is designed to enable you to:
Experience insight wherever you are with support for a variety of mobile technologies with a
rich, interactive BI interface.
Interact with data online or off with highly visual, interactive reports.
Enable IT to confidently deploy BI to many mobile devices and give them tools to protect against
data loss and theft while enforcing policy compliance


Cognos Active Report
Access and interact with reports offline
Why Cognos Active Report?
IBM Cognos Active Report provides an interactive analytics experience in a self-contained
Cognos Business Intelligence application for browsing and exploring data offline. Report authors
can build reports targeted to users needs, keeping the user experience simple and engaging.
Mobile workers can take their data with them to discover opportunities and analyze trends even
when they are nowhere near a network.

See how to access interactive reports and dashboards offline.
Go anywhere, do anything
Explore information without having to rely on online connectivity. Access the business
intelligence you need while offline for uninterrupted productivity. Provide business intelligence to
individuals regardless of their location, situation or connectivity.
BI you can take with you
With Cognos Active Report, you get truly portable business intelligence. You can fully interact
with dashboards and reports online or offon mobile devices, tablets and notebook computers.
Deliver BI whenever and wherever it is needed
With Cognos Active Report, you can deliver BI to a broad set of users quickly. Professional
report authors create interactive report applications that can be easily burst, scheduled, sent in
an email or picked up by individuals from a private website.
Offline analytics made easy
No training or authoring skills are necessary to view the interactive report or dashboard.
Persistent connectivity is no longer required for obtaining and viewing key business intelligence
data.
Extensible Visualization
Your business isnt static. Your library of visualizations shouldn't be, either. With extensible
visualization, you have access to a growing collection of customizable visualizations. Simply
download them into Cognos Active Report.
When to Deploy an Active Report
By Trevor Schulte, IBM Cognos BI Consultant, eCapital Advisors
With Cognos 10, IBM released a new report type called Active Reports. The Active Report is an archived HTML
(.MHT) file that can empower users in data exploration and analytics. The reports are similar to PDF files as they are
static files with self-serving data. However, unlike PDF files, Active Reports are interactive and engaging. IBM also
released an iPad app, IBM Cognos Mobile, which marries the Active Report and the iPad into a mobile solution.
Inevitably, report developers and data analysts want to know when is the right time to implement an Active Report? I
will discuss the benefits of Active Reports verses standard report deployments as well as the benefits of a standard
report deployment verses an Active Report.
1. Mobile Work Force
As more and more business is done from remote locations, there is a greater need to keep these individuals
informed. Being that data is stored directly in the Active Report, the report can be sent via email burst, sent from a
Cognos Mobile server, or loaded directly through iTunes onto the iPad. The user can then work, disconnected from
the internet, and still navigate their data. This enables mobile users to be self-serving and productive while
disconnected.

(NOTE: No WiFi connection required in the upper left corner)
2. Rapid Decision Making
With the fast pace world of digital information, it is crucial that business, and its decision makers, keep up with the
ever changing topography. An Active Report can be made available to users, so they can quickly analyze critical
data and ask follow up questions; follow up questions that previously would be additional requests to the IT
department. With Active Reports on the IBM Cognos Mobile app, decision makers can collaborate with other
business users via email to facilitate changes.

3. Highly Visual
In this day and age, a meeting may need to be conducted in a short amount of time because of limited access to key
decision makers. By grabbing the attendees attention, meetings can be conducted quicker because the audience is
more engaged. Active Reports can be customized to capture those fleeting moments and keep users engaged
through interactive charting, clickable objects, and energizing color palettes. By appealing to the visual sense of the
audience, the content becomes the focal point of the meeting.

Because these reports have data embedded in them, one can imagine that there are some instances where a
standard report implementation would be a better fit. Below are a few of the topics that fit this model.
1. Sensitive Data
Reports that contain sensitive data are very common across the average business model. Though Active Reports
can be deployed with a 4 digit passcode and the Cognos Server can check the users security credentials if sent via
the Cognos Mobile server, a standard report deployment may be a more suited choice. The Cognos Servers ability
to enforce data level security, as well as data model security, can be a benefit when it comes to privileged
data. Active Reports will certainly work with this data, but it is an industry best practice to stay with a traditional report
deployment.
2. Connected users
There are times when developers want to take advantage of latest technologies and enhanced features. If a report
consumer is going to be at their desk consuming the report transactional level task, an Active Report may be more
robust than necessary. The end user may only want the report to be rendered to the screen and not saved; this
would indicate that the user is looking for a standard report deployment, rather than an Active Report. More often
than not, an ad-hoc report will be a standard report deployment.
3. Detail Level Reporting
Active Reports have found a home in the field, boardrooms, and dashboards. These venues require data to be
selective and compressed. As such, Active Reports strongly lend themselves to summarized data. If business users
are interested in the detailed, granular level of the data, the report may be best fit to a standard report
deployment. Though Active Reports can handle large amounts of data, the files sizes will grow in a direct
relationship. Users may want to consume the summary level data in an active report, and create a drillthrough to
detailed data in a separate report.

Active Reports can empower a mobile workforce, facilitate rapid decision making, and engage users with powerful
visuals. They are an excellent addition to any Cognos deployment. Knowing the right situation for their
implementation will ensure their user adoption and success.

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Knowledge Sharing /
Newsletter /
IBM Cognos 10 Highlights: 10 Reasons to Migrate
IBM Cognos 10 Highlights: 10 Reasons to Migrate
February 16, 2011 Rebecca Ryan Newsletter
Released in October of 2010, IBM Cognos 10 is a vastly improved release and sets the bar high
for integrated business intelligence platforms and performance management.
Here are ten reasons to consider upgrading to (or making an initial investment in) IBM Cognos
10.
Statistics and Predictive Analytics
One of the most significant additions to IBM Cognos 10 is the integration of IBMs SPSS
Modeler. SPSS became part of the equation when IBM acquired SPSS a few years back and
began to incorporate it into Cognos report-authoring area of the Cognos BI platform. Its
Statistics and predictive analytics capabilities give users the ability to gain insights through
analysis of historical and real-time data and then deliver predictive information through
integrated dashboards. Additionally, the application provides key statistical tests so that decision
makers can verify the assumptions that are modeled.
Workflow
It could be argued that management has two major roles: make decisions in a timely fashion and
ensure that the decisions are responsible and credible with a focus on actual data. IBM Cognos
10 provides every user within an organization with the same accountable data. Knowing exactly
where data comes from lets people move beyond the common concerns of whether the data is
accurate into thinking about how to best utilize the information for corporate growth.
Collaboration/Co-working Capabilities
In the world of growing social media and virtual interactions, IBM has recognized that BI is part
of a decision-making process and includes collaborators who need BI capabilities to support that
process. IBM Lotus Connections is a social software for businesses and is now the backbone for
IBM Cognos 10 collaboration. When users are working within IBM Cognos 10, changes and
decisions can be noted. Email alerting is available to notify participants of updates to the process.
Users can view the backgrounds of others on their project team. Additionally, in a world of
increasing compliance requirements, an audit trail of the decision-making process can be
reviewed after the fact if necessary.
Self Service Interface with Easy to Use Reports
One area that IBM has focused on with this IBM Cognos 10 release is improvements within the
offered studio capabilities, particularly with regards to facilitating the authoring process and
making report preparation that much more user friendly. IBM Cognos Business Insight, an
offering within Cognos 10, is an easy to use data consolidation location that provides end users
with the ability to find answers to key business questions. A step beyond Business Insight is
Business Insight Advanced, which gives users the ability to edit already existing reports. They no
longer need to ask report designers for the simplest changes. Now they can individually change a
reports dimension, form, and point of view, without the need to bog down IT departments.
Active Reports
Further on the topic of Easy to Use Reports, IBM Cognos 10 includes self-contained
interactive content, which IBM Cognos calls active reports. The benefit, you ask? If you
travel disconnected or are disconnected at a customer site, active reports allow users to delve into
a portion of the data that has been associated with the report. With its write-back and what-if
capabilities, changes made within IBM Cognos 10 will be synchronized when you reconnect.
Performance Enhancements
Likely expected, this Cognos release includes performance enhancements. They shorten the time
for both cube-building and querying. Utilizing the new Dynamic Query Model engine,
organizations are seeing up to 80% faster query response time on IBM Cognos TM1 cubes. This
feature leverages a caching scheme and query-routing techniques to speed up queries by
directing them to the cache or to an OLAP cube or relational source, whichever is appropriate.
Dynamic query is limited to TM1, SAP and Essbase cubes as of the latest release, but further
cube support is scheduled for upcoming releases.
Mobile
Weve found that mobile functionality is growing in importance and often a non-negotiable
requirement. IBM Cognos Mobile can now support Apples iPhones and iPads as well as
BlackBerrys (and other Windows Mobile devices).
Event Management
Event Management capabilities have seen changes as well. Event authors are now given more
options than before, which allow them to control more aspects of the event. Events can be
managed within Event Studio or within My Inbox and users can be notified through email once
their tasks are created. Additionally, there are three groups of Task users: owners, potential
owners, and stakeholders.
Ease of Upgrade
IBM Cognos original offering, Upgrade Manager, has been recently renamed IBM Cognos
Lifecycle Manager, and the changes go beyond the name. Most importantly, when comparing
two versions of the same report, the process has been expedited and simplified. Customer
references have verified the simplicity too. At the IBM Cognos 10 Launch in Las Vegas in
October, Beta Customer, Boeing was brought on stage to tell the audience that their upgrade
from Cognos 8 to Cognos 10 took 6 days.
Search
IBM Cognos 10 has changed the availability of its search capabilities by bringing it into the
common workspace. The search feature is very well integrated with the entire content store but is
still focused primarily on structured data and related documents.
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Automating deployment:
BENEFITS
1. This one time activity highly reduces the manual effort involved by the IBM Cognos administrators in code
migration process.
2. This approach provides flexibility for the IBM Cognos architects to perform the code deployment themselves by
just running the Event Studio agent in the source IBM Cognos environment.
3. The architecture is defined in such a way that the deployment would be successful, even in case of Content
Manager Fail-overs in any of the configured IBM cognos environments.
4. The emails triggered after the tasks completion provides the status of the deployment.
5. Usage of the above technique will remove the dependency of using other third party tools which are specifically
used for IBM Cognos code migration by the developers and this provides full control of the environment to the
IBM Cognos administrators.

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CONCLUSION
This approach can be further enhanced by integrating with the audit reports and the history of
code deployment performed by the users. This automated process will save time and provides
the flexibility to the application users to migrate their artifacts on their own schedule.