Cognos Analytics

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

Hi, Interesting question. What are your (minimal) layout requirements for these watermarks (e.g. text, pictures, size, background-only, ...)?

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

This is difficult. One way I can think of doing this is to add a conditional style that checks the report location and then adds the watermark if it's saved in a governed report location. 

Take a look at the attached report. When it's saved in a folder called Governed at the root directory it will show the IBM logo as a watermark, but it will not show in any other folder.

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

hi Paul, thanks, I am going to play with this. Do you recommend to add this to a template and can we make the condititonal style immutable?

This is difficult. One way I can think of doing this is to add a conditional style that checks the report location and then adds the watermark if it's saved in a governed report location. 

Take a look at the attached report. When it's saved in a folder called Governed at the root directory it will show the IBM logo as a watermark, but it will not show in any other folder.

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

You could add it to a template, but it wouldn't be immutable. I'm trying to find another way where it would be automatic. Do you need this in PDF/Excel or only HTML?

hi Paul, thanks, I am going to play with this. Do you recommend to add this to a template and can we make the condititonal style immutable?

This is difficult. One way I can think of doing this is to add a conditional style that checks the report location and then adds the watermark if it's saved in a governed report location. 

Take a look at the attached report. When it's saved in a folder called Governed at the root directory it will show the IBM logo as a watermark, but it will not show in any other folder.

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

Another thought - can you set up another Cognos instance specifically for governed reports? You could override the global css parameters to add a watermark. I'm not seeing a pure css solution. The path of the report isn't available from inside the report, if it was you could do some tricks with css selectors. 

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

I have been thinking of that option as well, not only for the watermark reason. The inconvenience however is that we need to maintain two separate environments with all the additional maintenance and controls for us and confusion for the users. We had a look into setting up different tenants, but that would also not solve the issue. Still we keep it as an option in case no other options are available to differentiate the two. I first start with the example you send me, although not immutable, it can already offer a first way of showing the difference.  

Another thought - can you set up another Cognos instance specifically for governed reports? You could override the global css parameters to add a watermark. I'm not seeing a pure css solution. The path of the report isn't available from inside the report, if it was you could do some tricks with css selectors. 

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

What an interesting challenge. Given nothing can't be forged it really is a tricky problem! As you know, anything you put into a governed report could easily be replicated in a user report. For example, put something into a governed report that shows a trusted servers IP address, a managed report could just add a text box with a maually typed in replica. I think the potential to solve this comes down to who you are trying to show the evidence of a reports lineage to.

Is it that someone running a report needs to know if it's a governed report?

Or is it someone receiving an output who may not even log into Cognos, such as a scheduled emailed attachment, needs to know that it's a governed report?

Even email from addresses can be easily spoofed so a second Cognos instance could be spoofed. 

PDFs offer something called electronic seals that offer a genuine proof of authenticity, but that isn't available within Cognos.

I suppose there is a question about would any of your users who are creating content ever want to try and forge these outputs to look like governed reports. In a public facing system I could understand this being a worry. But in an internal corporate system policies could dictate that users shouldn't do this. Which makes the challenge a little easier.

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

we offer two " flavors" on our reporting portal : governed reports and managed end-user reports. Both flavors can be selected by an organizational unit. As both are created in the report module and look the same, we want to add a non-removable watermark signature to a template (governed reports can only be developed on a test platform) to distinguish these reports online and as saved output from normal reports. Most challenging is to create it in such a way that the watermark cannot be removed at a later stage or added to a normal report. 

Does anyone had a similar demand and was able to solve it or do people have ideas how to configure the Cognos platform to enable this?

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Robert Peter den Heijer
ING Nederland
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