Thanks Mark for providing this insight. It outlines what your base minimum coverage should be when factoring license counts and anything you purchase over is for assurance. I really hope someone from IBM directly responds to this thread and confirms this as well.
Tagging couple of IBMers who I've seen hosting the "Ask Me Anything: Cognos Analytics" events
@RACHEL SU @Kristen Park
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Fawad Jamil
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu February 10, 2022 02:27 PM
From: Mark Fry
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
Hi,
I'm going to throw a bit of a spanner in the works here, and say that you *can* have Cognos send output via email to a recipient without that recipient requiring a license. This came up many times over the years when I worked for IBM, and in every instance the answer came back to the specific wording written in the official license documentation. Per the current documentation, you only need a license as an email recipient if the report being sent to you was generated through the bursting feature within Cognos, or if you need to log in to Cognos to view/retrieve the report. I had a number of internal IBM people (including some Product Managers and Offering Managers) tell me different things over the years, such as you couldn't receive scheduled reports/any reports without a license, but on every occasion when I pushed back on this and escalated to more senior levels, the answer was clarified using the official licensing documentation, which is freely available to view online.
"Bursting Feature Requirement
Each person who is provided an output(s) of the Program through the Bursting feature or who authenticates to the Program must be covered by an appropriate entitlement."
This is copied straight from the current licensing documentation for Cognos Analytics at https://www-40.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/lilookup/D82A3B8F5404959F00258760000B8233?OpenDocument
Cheers!
MF.
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Mark Fry
Technical Consultant
Tech Data
Ramsey NJ
2013788109
Original Message:
Sent: Tue February 01, 2022 08:59 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
Yes, even when they just receive "flat" report outputs, they need a license as the e-mail was generated through Cognos software.
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Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen
Original Message:
Sent: Tue February 01, 2022 08:43 AM
From: Fawad Jamil
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
Back in the days, if I recall correctly, I read IBM terms and it stated that if a recipient is getting interactive content such as an active report, they need a license. Moreover, if the report if its a burst report, all recipients need a license as the parameter/dynamic filter custom tailors the data set for them. The grey area comes regarding what happens to 'flat' reports such as a PDF. The recipient might never log into Cognos whatsoever and is only consuming the report through email. Does it require an Information Distribution license for them or not? CA 11.0.x
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Fawad Jamil
Original Message:
Sent: Tue February 01, 2022 04:16 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
Actually we use this license requirement to bind users to the portal instead of getting many reports via e-mail. ;)
I usually try to "sell" the access to the Cognos Analytics portal as a big advantage compared to just receiving a simple file as the user can use interactive Dashboards and filter the data as required. And from my perspective, it's better to archive generated report outputs in Cognos Analytics instead of cluttering the e-mail accounts of people. But that's just my opinion when you already have lots of viewer licenses in your company.
On the other side I agree with @jonathan chesterton if you just want to send a report to recipients without any contact to Cognos itself. Why not selling a general company license which allows to send e-mails to everyone at a descent fee? I know there where PVU-based licenses once but they couldn't mixed with named-user licenses though.
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Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen
Original Message:
Sent: Tue February 01, 2022 04:08 AM
From: jonathan chesterton
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
I'd second what Robert has detailed.
Its always been a confusing area and one in which I've always thought holds Cognos back when compared to its competitors. Come on IBM let us let loose with the product and send emails off to non Cognos users without the licence overhead ! (watermark the output if you want with "Powered by IBM Cognos Analytics).
Worth noting that if you do opt for some Analytic viewer licences, whilst they can access dashboards and the portal, they cant execute reports, only view saved output.
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jonathan chesterton
NHS Supply Chain
Original Message:
Sent: Tue February 01, 2022 01:07 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
Hi Fawad,
my latest and very clear statement from IBM is: whenever Cognos software is used to generate and send the e-mail to a recipient, a license is needed. If you set up schedules or jobs with e-mail addresses in To, CC or BCC field, all of them need at least the "Analytics Viewer" license. If you send an e-mail to one person directly and this person then forwards the message to ohers only the direct recipient needs a license.
BTW: access to the Coghos portal + dashboards is also includes in the Anbalytics viewer license. See
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.2.0?topic=licenses-default-permissions-based-license-roles
How do you stayupdated about schedules that have been set up by users? We use Motio Pi to export all schedules into Excel weekly. Then we run a quick analysis there about which addresses have been entered by the users.
Hope this helps.
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Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen
Original Message:
Sent: Mon January 31, 2022 04:14 PM
From: Fawad Jamil
Subject: Emailing reports to recipients and Cognos license
I've always been puzzled to get a clear answer on the topic of license requirements for Cognos for emailed reports. In a named user-based license model, if an external user is receiving Excel as an email attachment, does it require a Cognos license? When scheduling a report, the To:, CC:, and BCC: are freeform textbox and do not limit anyone from just using a set domain. If a license is needed, without using 3rd party tools, how can one identify a list of those emails? How should one internally audit the content scheduled from a user's personal folder? I see several posts from community members on this, but not a crystal clear answer from IBM on this. Over the years, the terms and conditions on the licenses have been updated by IBM and this has lost clarity.
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Fawad J
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#CognosAnalyticswithWatson