Union queries are the most common design pattern I see in Cognos Analytics reports. A fledgling report author will encounter a challenging problem and, one way or another, find a way to solve it with a union query. Brimming with justified confidence, they will apply this technique to increasingly complex data riddles with some success. […]
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Cognos Relative Dates in 11.2
Relative Dates are a powerful feature of Cognos Analytics data modules that enable quick and flexible comparisons between time periods. For example, comparing revenue for the current year version the previous year, or the current week of the month vs the same week last month. These comparisons are popular across all lines of business but […]
The 2021 Gartner BI Magic Quadrant is Broken for Cognos Analytics
It’s that time of year again – time for the Gartner BI Magic Quadrant. Like a bad ex who just won’t back off, Gartner drops their annual market warping report around Valentine’s Day to ruin the mood. I’ve expressed strong opinions in the past about Gartner’s report and methodology and this year will be no […]
Data Modeling for Success: BACon 2020
Getting Started Logging in and creating a folder for your work Because of high interest in today’s session we are using a single 96 core 768 GB RAM Cognos server with anonymous access allowed. This makes logistics much easier but means we don’t have access to the ‘My content’ feature of Cognos. Click here to […]
Cognos Analytics 11.1.6 What’s New
Cognos Analytics 11.1.6 is live! This release features a ton of great quality of life enhancements. Chief among them is a great dashboard UI refresh, a new interactive data table in report authoring and some very welcome changes to data modules. There are also some shifts in IBMs design language with refreshed icons, and a […]
When To Use Cognos Data Sets
I introduced you to Cognos Data Sets in Part 1 of this series and you recognize some intriguing possibilities. You want the massively improved performance, simple presentation for end users and quick road to Cognos modernization that Data Sets offer, but you’re not sure how to start. Well I’m here to help you understand when […]
What are Cognos Data Modules?
Cognos Data Modules are a web-based data acquisition, blending and modeling feature available in Cognos Analytics. They first hit the scene as part of Cognos 11 and are meant to supplement and eventually replace Framework Manager for both self-service and IT data modeling needs. I’ll pause for a second to let you long-time Cognoids hyperventilate […]
What Are Cognos Data Sets?
I’ve explored Data Modules in depth on this blog over the last year with the hope of showing you how awesome data modeling in Cognos Analytics can be if you really embrace it. There is, however, an additional piece of the Cognos data puzzle that you need to understand to unlock the full potential of […]
The Gartner Magic Quadrant is Worthless: Cognos Edition
Be sure to check out an updated version of this blog post for the 2021 Magic Quadrant here! Another February brings another edition of everyone’s favorite yearly head scratcher – the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence! I have expressed some strong opinions on the worth of the Magic Quadrant as a tool for decision […]
The 3 Cognos Query Modes
This is actually a sequel one of the very first blog posts I ever wrote for blueview. While a lot has changed since 2015 understanding the difference between Compatible Query Mode and Dynamic Query Mode is still crucial. With the addition of data sets running on the compute service (aka ‘Flint’) things are even more […]