New features of Cognos 10

New things in Cognos 10


Life Cycle Management is the capability to handle upgrades from one version to another. They made a big deal of this at last week’s event. No doubt in an attempt to pre-empt the groans from those in the audience that remember all too well the pain associated with version upgrades in the past. It appears that they have done a lot of work to make this process uneventful. Plus, it’s now possible to run reports and queries in both Cognos 8 and 10 at the same time and then compare the processing differences. This should reduce the testing needed in version upgrades.



Dynamic Query is a new feature that results from performance enhancements. With this feature enabled, reports, queries and cube building are shortened. This is done by caching and query routing techniques. Results indicated performance improvements of up to 30 to 40 percent.



Statistical Integration is the result of SPSS being integrated into the analytics umbrella of Cognos 10. Based on what I saw, the future of this looks impressive indeed. SPSS has added a Modeler capability making it easier for non-statisticians to benefit from predictive modeling in a much broader business context. increasing the potential for improved business performance. Those with the skills to harness its power can get some big benefits quickly.



Active Reports allow users to receive self-contained interactive reports by email. This extends the reach of BI to mobile and offline workers that can work on these active reports and perform what-if scenarios if required. Mobile workers are the fastest growing market segment for BI and making it easier for them to work anywhere keeps the market growing.



Platform Enhancements designed to make life easier for those that have to support the platform. These include optimized query generation, life cycle management and performance enhancements. As BI environments have grown in size throughput has become more of an issue. These enhancements help minimize potential bottlenecks as more users are added to the environment.



Social Networking is achieved with the integration of Lotus Connections and Business Analytics. With Cognos 10, key information can be shared by groups or communities and forms the basis for decision making that connects people to the event. All of this is captured and used to improve decision making practices.