Cognos Analytics

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Hi Christopher,

IBM will be launching a catalog full of sample content and resources shortly that I think will assist you your pursuit for better dashboards/reports.  At the very least, I think it will be a great source to help draw ideas from.  The aim is to provide content that resonates with different industries, including education.

In my opinion, a lot of the best practices around organizing data, using appropriate visualizations and design are more or less universal and apply as much to education as they would many other industries.   

Some of the challenges I've seen in the past working with education data myself  (both K-12 level and University data) is with organizing and optimizing the data.  A lot of very useful education-specific KPIs are derived through calculations from higher volume data sets and at times several layers of aggregation.  So, it's not as easy as "Total Sales" or some basic metric that can be easily attained by summing a column of data.  Addressing how and where those calculations occur can make a big different in dashboard/report performance which then has a major impact on the user experience.   A solid foundation of great performance is always a great place to start.

In terms of adding some "wow".  There are some interesting features that have been recently released that could provide you with some value.

A couple features I really like are:
1. Forecasting (just flip the switch to turn it on (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/c_ca_forecast_background.html)
2. Schematics (for visualizing floor plans, custom images and the like).  I'm a big fan of this feature as it is quite powerful if you have a use case for it.(Tutorial here:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.dg_custom_vis.doc/ca_developingschematics_intro.html    | Youtube video tutorial/demo here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKvVPS7t8lA )

Cheers,
Derek

------------------------------
DEREK MCINTOSH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 19, 2020 03:36 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Thanks Christopher for posting this question.

Hi Derek,

Is there an ETA when the Sample catalog will be made available? Is the plan to introduce them as part of CA 11.1.6? We would be very interested in exploring them.

Thanks



------------------------------
Sanish John
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri March 20, 2020 02:34 PM
From: DEREK MCINTOSH
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hi Christopher,

IBM will be launching a catalog full of sample content and resources shortly that I think will assist you your pursuit for better dashboards/reports.  At the very least, I think it will be a great source to help draw ideas from.  The aim is to provide content that resonates with different industries, including education.

In my opinion, a lot of the best practices around organizing data, using appropriate visualizations and design are more or less universal and apply as much to education as they would many other industries.   

Some of the challenges I've seen in the past working with education data myself  (both K-12 level and University data) is with organizing and optimizing the data.  A lot of very useful education-specific KPIs are derived through calculations from higher volume data sets and at times several layers of aggregation.  So, it's not as easy as "Total Sales" or some basic metric that can be easily attained by summing a column of data.  Addressing how and where those calculations occur can make a big different in dashboard/report performance which then has a major impact on the user experience.   A solid foundation of great performance is always a great place to start.

In terms of adding some "wow".  There are some interesting features that have been recently released that could provide you with some value.

A couple features I really like are:
1. Forecasting (just flip the switch to turn it on (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/c_ca_forecast_background.html)
2. Schematics (for visualizing floor plans, custom images and the like).  I'm a big fan of this feature as it is quite powerful if you have a use case for it.(Tutorial here:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.dg_custom_vis.doc/ca_developingschematics_intro.html    | Youtube video tutorial/demo here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKvVPS7t8lA )

Cheers,
Derek

------------------------------
DEREK MCINTOSH

Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 19, 2020 03:36 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

My co-worker and I have seen the catalog accelerator and we are looking forward to its release.  Here is information about a event that IBM is having on the accelerator catalog on Thursday this week. 



------------------------------
Jo Marie Sellner
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mon March 23, 2020 11:26 AM
From: Sanish John
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Thanks Christopher for posting this question.

Hi Derek,

Is there an ETA when the Sample catalog will be made available? Is the plan to introduce them as part of CA 11.1.6? We would be very interested in exploring them.

Thanks



------------------------------
Sanish John

Original Message:
Sent: Fri March 20, 2020 02:34 PM
From: DEREK MCINTOSH
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hi Christopher,

IBM will be launching a catalog full of sample content and resources shortly that I think will assist you your pursuit for better dashboards/reports.  At the very least, I think it will be a great source to help draw ideas from.  The aim is to provide content that resonates with different industries, including education.

In my opinion, a lot of the best practices around organizing data, using appropriate visualizations and design are more or less universal and apply as much to education as they would many other industries.   

Some of the challenges I've seen in the past working with education data myself  (both K-12 level and University data) is with organizing and optimizing the data.  A lot of very useful education-specific KPIs are derived through calculations from higher volume data sets and at times several layers of aggregation.  So, it's not as easy as "Total Sales" or some basic metric that can be easily attained by summing a column of data.  Addressing how and where those calculations occur can make a big different in dashboard/report performance which then has a major impact on the user experience.   A solid foundation of great performance is always a great place to start.

In terms of adding some "wow".  There are some interesting features that have been recently released that could provide you with some value.

A couple features I really like are:
1. Forecasting (just flip the switch to turn it on (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/c_ca_forecast_background.html)
2. Schematics (for visualizing floor plans, custom images and the like).  I'm a big fan of this feature as it is quite powerful if you have a use case for it.(Tutorial here:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.dg_custom_vis.doc/ca_developingschematics_intro.html    | Youtube video tutorial/demo here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKvVPS7t8lA )

Cheers,
Derek

------------------------------
DEREK MCINTOSH

Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 19, 2020 03:36 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Derek -

Thank you for the response. I'm looking forward to seeing what content examples are provided with the catalog. As robust as Cognos is, it's not always simple to build dashboards for Higher Education. And I agree that the organization of the data sets is a challenge in H.E. and something not easily changed due to culture.

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri March 20, 2020 02:34 PM
From: DEREK MCINTOSH
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hi Christopher,

IBM will be launching a catalog full of sample content and resources shortly that I think will assist you your pursuit for better dashboards/reports.  At the very least, I think it will be a great source to help draw ideas from.  The aim is to provide content that resonates with different industries, including education.

In my opinion, a lot of the best practices around organizing data, using appropriate visualizations and design are more or less universal and apply as much to education as they would many other industries.   

Some of the challenges I've seen in the past working with education data myself  (both K-12 level and University data) is with organizing and optimizing the data.  A lot of very useful education-specific KPIs are derived through calculations from higher volume data sets and at times several layers of aggregation.  So, it's not as easy as "Total Sales" or some basic metric that can be easily attained by summing a column of data.  Addressing how and where those calculations occur can make a big different in dashboard/report performance which then has a major impact on the user experience.   A solid foundation of great performance is always a great place to start.

In terms of adding some "wow".  There are some interesting features that have been recently released that could provide you with some value.

A couple features I really like are:
1. Forecasting (just flip the switch to turn it on (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/c_ca_forecast_background.html)
2. Schematics (for visualizing floor plans, custom images and the like).  I'm a big fan of this feature as it is quite powerful if you have a use case for it.(Tutorial here:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.dg_custom_vis.doc/ca_developingschematics_intro.html    | Youtube video tutorial/demo here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKvVPS7t8lA )

Cheers,
Derek

------------------------------
DEREK MCINTOSH

Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 19, 2020 03:36 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Hi Christopher 
Here at my company we've built numerous HE dashboards for the UK Education sector here are few highlights...
Principal/Vice Chancellor performance dashboards, National Student Survey, University league tables, Learner analytics dashboards, finance, enrollment, destination analysis, social media sentiment and alumni giving.
A lot of these were developed back in the Cognos 10 days and have been updated to take advantage of the new Cognos Analytics functionality. We have these successfully deployed at a number of universities here in the UK.
Cheers
Nick

------------------------------
Nick Waters
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mon March 23, 2020 02:42 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Derek -

Thank you for the response. I'm looking forward to seeing what content examples are provided with the catalog. As robust as Cognos is, it's not always simple to build dashboards for Higher Education. And I agree that the organization of the data sets is a challenge in H.E. and something not easily changed due to culture.

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com

Original Message:
Sent: Fri March 20, 2020 02:34 PM
From: DEREK MCINTOSH
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hi Christopher,

IBM will be launching a catalog full of sample content and resources shortly that I think will assist you your pursuit for better dashboards/reports.  At the very least, I think it will be a great source to help draw ideas from.  The aim is to provide content that resonates with different industries, including education.

In my opinion, a lot of the best practices around organizing data, using appropriate visualizations and design are more or less universal and apply as much to education as they would many other industries.   

Some of the challenges I've seen in the past working with education data myself  (both K-12 level and University data) is with organizing and optimizing the data.  A lot of very useful education-specific KPIs are derived through calculations from higher volume data sets and at times several layers of aggregation.  So, it's not as easy as "Total Sales" or some basic metric that can be easily attained by summing a column of data.  Addressing how and where those calculations occur can make a big different in dashboard/report performance which then has a major impact on the user experience.   A solid foundation of great performance is always a great place to start.

In terms of adding some "wow".  There are some interesting features that have been recently released that could provide you with some value.

A couple features I really like are:
1. Forecasting (just flip the switch to turn it on (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/c_ca_forecast_background.html)
2. Schematics (for visualizing floor plans, custom images and the like).  I'm a big fan of this feature as it is quite powerful if you have a use case for it.(Tutorial here:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.dg_custom_vis.doc/ca_developingschematics_intro.html    | Youtube video tutorial/demo here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKvVPS7t8lA )

Cheers,
Derek

------------------------------
DEREK MCINTOSH

Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 19, 2020 03:36 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Hi Christopher,

I was at a customer presentation once in New York for Nassau BOCES and was impressed by the work they have done. They started in Cognos 10 and are now modernizing their reports and dashboard with Cognos 11. You can find some of their work here - https://www.nassauboces.org/Page/197

Here is a report they made for guidance counselors as an example - https://www.nassauboces.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=23662&dataid=35999&FileName=IDW%20Bullseye%20Guidance%20Feb%202018%20Final.pdf

Hope that helps!

------------------------------
MOHAMMED OMAR KHAN
Offering Manager
IBM Cognos Analytics
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Wed March 25, 2020 04:47 AM
From: Nick Waters
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hi Christopher 
Here at my company we've built numerous HE dashboards for the UK Education sector here are few highlights...
Principal/Vice Chancellor performance dashboards, National Student Survey, University league tables, Learner analytics dashboards, finance, enrollment, destination analysis, social media sentiment and alumni giving.
A lot of these were developed back in the Cognos 10 days and have been updated to take advantage of the new Cognos Analytics functionality. We have these successfully deployed at a number of universities here in the UK.
Cheers
Nick

------------------------------
Nick Waters

Original Message:
Sent: Mon March 23, 2020 02:42 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Derek -

Thank you for the response. I'm looking forward to seeing what content examples are provided with the catalog. As robust as Cognos is, it's not always simple to build dashboards for Higher Education. And I agree that the organization of the data sets is a challenge in H.E. and something not easily changed due to culture.

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com

Original Message:
Sent: Fri March 20, 2020 02:34 PM
From: DEREK MCINTOSH
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hi Christopher,

IBM will be launching a catalog full of sample content and resources shortly that I think will assist you your pursuit for better dashboards/reports.  At the very least, I think it will be a great source to help draw ideas from.  The aim is to provide content that resonates with different industries, including education.

In my opinion, a lot of the best practices around organizing data, using appropriate visualizations and design are more or less universal and apply as much to education as they would many other industries.   

Some of the challenges I've seen in the past working with education data myself  (both K-12 level and University data) is with organizing and optimizing the data.  A lot of very useful education-specific KPIs are derived through calculations from higher volume data sets and at times several layers of aggregation.  So, it's not as easy as "Total Sales" or some basic metric that can be easily attained by summing a column of data.  Addressing how and where those calculations occur can make a big different in dashboard/report performance which then has a major impact on the user experience.   A solid foundation of great performance is always a great place to start.

In terms of adding some "wow".  There are some interesting features that have been recently released that could provide you with some value.

A couple features I really like are:
1. Forecasting (just flip the switch to turn it on (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.ug_ca_dshb.doc/c_ca_forecast_background.html)
2. Schematics (for visualizing floor plans, custom images and the like).  I'm a big fan of this feature as it is quite powerful if you have a use case for it.(Tutorial here:  https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSEP7J_11.1.0/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.dg_custom_vis.doc/ca_developingschematics_intro.html    | Youtube video tutorial/demo here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKvVPS7t8lA )

Cheers,
Derek

------------------------------
DEREK MCINTOSH

Original Message:
Sent: Thu March 19, 2020 03:36 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

This topic may have already been brushed upon previously, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any thoughts on how to improve, design, or modernize Higher Education Dashboards and Reports? We are currently on Vr. 11.0.12 but looking to upgrade to 11.0.5,  Any thoughts or examples would be helpful

------------------------------
Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
------------------------------
#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Original Message------

Hi Christopher,

I was at a customer presentation once in New York for Nassau BOCES and was impressed by the work they have done. They started in Cognos 10 and are now modernizing their reports and dashboard with Cognos 11. You can find some of their work here - https://www.nassauboces.org/Page/197

Here is a report they made for guidance counselors as an example - https://www.nassauboces.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=23662&dataid=35999&FileName=IDW%20Bullseye%20Guidance%20Feb%202018%20Final.pdf

Hope that helps!

------------------------------
MOHAMMED OMAR KHAN
Offering Manager
IBM Cognos Analytics
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

I think they would love that idea too! I just happened to be at the event and witnessed their solution but am not affiliated with them. I think the best way to connect with them would be to reach out to them directly - https://www.nassauboces.org/Page/10746

------------------------------
MOHAMMED OMAR KHAN
Offering Manager
IBM Cognos Analytics
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri March 27, 2020 02:06 PM
From: Christopher christopher.thomas@ellucian.com
Subject: Higher Education Dashboards

Hello -

Thank you for your response, I would be interested in seeing what they have been able to modernize and possibly collaborate on this?

Original Message------

Hi Christopher,

I was at a customer presentation once in New York for Nassau BOCES and was impressed by the work they have done. They started in Cognos 10 and are now modernizing their reports and dashboard with Cognos 11. You can find some of their work here - https://www.nassauboces.org/Page/197

Here is a report they made for guidance counselors as an example - https://www.nassauboces.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=23662&dataid=35999&FileName=IDW%20Bullseye%20Guidance%20Feb%202018%20Final.pdf

Hope that helps!

------------------------------
MOHAMMED OMAR KHAN
Offering Manager
IBM Cognos Analytics
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson