Data & Analytics Projects – The Recipe for Success

In our professional lives, we use analytics to enhance decision making, automate processes, predict outcomes, and extract business value from the data that we continue to collect each day. As businesses strive to become more analytics-driven and satisfy their hunger for the knowledge that is locked within the data that shape their organizations, true business value is only recognized by those who follow a few key principles in the implementation and deployment of their analytics projects.

Kevin EmanuelAugust 9, 2020Kevin EmanuelComment

Adventures in Data Wrangling

Enter Trifacta Wrangler, an intuitive and intelligent data preparation tool designed to create order from chaos. There’s nothing my spreadsheet-loving self gets more excited about than well-structured data; but before I get too poetic with my Trifacta hero epic, let’s ground our discussion in a case study. Because when it comes to data troubles, I’ve seen things. So how does Trifacta help?

TrifactaMichael HovarJuly 13, 2020Michael Hovar, Data Prep, Case Study, Trifacta WranglerComment

The Value of Cognos Schematics

Cognos 11.1.5 (& newer) allows developers to incorporate custom schematics via scaled vector graphics, which are based on xml. This means that you can modify the xml of the graphic to create reference objects that you can use in order to align your data with parts of the graphic. Let’s step through some of the work that has to be done to make custom schematics work.

Tips for Career Success – Tip 14: Be Boastful

The truth is that successful people possess a balance of both humility and boastfulness. More importantly, they know when to use each. The best advice I can give in this area is to treat humility as a daily way of life attitude. Your gut reaction or instinctive stance should be one of humility. However, also be sure to make your successes known to help get your name out there as a high-performer. Effectively, you need to boast sometimes.

Dustin AdkisonJuly 10, 2020Comment

How to Save Report Outputs to a File System in Cognos Analytics

Oftentimes Cognos report output is needed to be consumed by many users in your organization. You could have them log into the portal and access the output directly but maybe you don’t have the time or expertise to be setting up users to access Cognos directly and then maintain all of those users. You could have the output emailed to them but you don’t want to clog up your mail server with hundreds of attachments. A good option could be to save the report outputs to your internal network or the cloud and have your users access them from there.

Planning Analytics Configuration File Breakdown

In order to initially set up a Planning Analytics server/service/database (hereafter referred to as ‘server’), the server requires a configuration file that contains specific parameters and information about the server. These items cover a variety of functions including system administration, performance tuning, optimization, and security.

Planning AnalyticsEvan McKirdyJune 7, 2020Evan McKirdy, IBM Planning AnalyticsComment

7 Things I’ve Learned Working in Quarantine

This article examines one person’s experiences and lessons learned during the last few months of working from home during quarantine. In it, we will look at practical, social, and psychological advice for managing yourself and your time at home. By reading this article, we hope that you will come away feeling better prepared to not only survive but thrive while working from home.

Dustin AdkisonJune 6, 2020Strategy, COVID-19Comment

Thrive 2020.2 Release

This Thrive release includes a new installation experience designed to streamline the install process and make updates to Thrive Sync and Thrive On-Prem easier than ever. Thrive updates can now be applied via the installer and no longer require manual maintenance of configuration files.

ThriveRyan DolleyJune 3, 2020Update, Thrive Release Notes, New Version, CognosComment

What's New in IBM Planning Analytics - Version 2.0.52

Planning Analytics 2.0.52 brings notable updates including changes to Set Editor, improved scrolling, a new drag & drop procedure, a new toolbar, updates to Default View settings, optimized save & reload book actions, & new book items. Learn how to successfully implement and navigate these changes in Planning Analytics 2.0.52.

Join Query Optimization in Data Modules

Optimization of joined queries in Cognos Analytics is a useful way to improve performance by reducing the data returned by the database. Joins with one-to-many or many-to-one cardinality use key values from the table on the one side of the join to filter rows in the table on the many sides of the join. Like a developer who uses IN, BETWEEN, or a subquery in their custom SQL query, so can the Cognos query engine.

Cognos AnalyticsSonya FournierMay 8, 2020Sonya Fournier, Data Modules, Cognos

Embedding Predictive Analytics Into the Planning Process

Applying AI to your planning process doesn’t mean that HAL 9000 is in the back office churning out next month’s sales numbers while analysts eagerly scribble down the results. In the current sense, predictive planning typically refers to the combination of time series forecasting algorithms and seasonality patterns from historical results to project future outcomes with greater accuracy.

5 Ways Your AI Projects Fail, After Action Reviews and Post-Mortems

The recurring perception that artificial intelligence, AI, is somehow magical and can create something from nothing leads many projects astray. That’s part of the reason that the 2019 Price Waterhouse CEO Survey shows fewer than half of US companies are embarking on strategic AI initiatives – the risk of failure is substantial. In this series, we’re examining the most common ways AI projects will fail for companies at the beginning of your AI journey. Be on the lookout for these failures – and ways to remediate or prevent them – in your own AI initiatives.

Artificial IntelligenceChristopher S. PennMay 7, 2020AI, Christopher PennComment

What's New in IBM Planning Analytics - Version 2.0.49

Planning Analytics 2.0.49 brings three updates worth noting: Dynamic Shapes and Images in Websheets, changes to how Hierarchies are sorted in Workspace, and enabling Security Access for Processes. Learn how to successfully implement and navigate these changes in Planning Analytics 2.0.49.

Drilling Through to Greater Detail with Planning Analytics

Financial analysts will occasionally need to review specific transactions that make up balances if anomalies or outliers are detected in reports. The capability to ‘drill through’ a summary balance into a separate data source containing transactional detail (without logging into a separate system) is one of the many benefits provided by Planning Analytics.

BI Tomorrowland

…As I stood there, rubbing my bruised noggin and craving Dutch apple pie, I reflected on the changes currently underway in the world of BI. The technology oracles have been saying it for some time now, but never had it been more apparent to me than at IBM Data & AI Forum last October that social forces, business practices, and new technologies are changing the way we think about enterprise data.

T-Shirt Sizing Your Cognos 11 Environment

Planning a migration, upgrade or new implementation of Cognos Analytics? One common question is Cognos server sizing--in other words, how many servers will you need and how "large" should they be (CPU, RAM, etc.)? While this is a somewhat complex question, we provide you a chart with a high-level estimate to use in the early stages of your planning.

Cognos AnalyticsChris ChapmanApril 10, 2020Upgrade, Chris Chapman, CognosComment

Flattening the Curve: Coronavirus in the Era of Mature Data Visualization

At PMsquare, we believe in the power of effective data visualization. In this article, we look at how data visualization has evolved to effectively communicate important ideas in life-and-death situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examine the viral “flatten the curve” visual, as well as other visualizations that track the spread of the disease and the potential impact on our world.

Cognos AnalyticsMike DeGeusMarch 20, 2020Data Visualization, COVID-19 Comment

Thrive Release Notes - March 2020

The March 2020 Thrive release focuses on delivering our most frequent customer requests and improving the stability and performance of the application. We’re especially excited to debut a long-requested schedule and job tracking functionality, as well as the ability to customize name/id display in the environment. We hope you love this release as much as we do and look forward to extremely exciting things to come in the remainder of 2020.

ThriveRyan DolleyMarch 18, 2020Update, Thrive Release Notes, CognosComment

Cognos Analytics Exploration Now in Analytics User License

Our goal is for our customers to adopt our latest and greatest capability and to do that we need to make it as easy as possible. So, we are making a change to our licensing and CA Exploration functionality. It will now part of the Analytics User license.

Cognos AnalyticsChris LoechelMarch 16, 2020Update, CognosComment

Thrive March 2020 Release

This release of Thrive brings a host of exciting enhancements to our industry-leading Cognos Analytics management platform. It delivers the most requested user features and gives administrators powerful tools to help manage schedules and jobs.

ThrivePMsquare Cognos Analytics Consulting TeamMarch 9, 2020Thrive Release Notes, Ryan Dolley, CognosComment