Cognos Analytics

Hello Cognos Community members! 

Imagine if you could customize Cognos Analytics however you wanted with the snap of you fingers! What would that look like? 

If you had 3 wishes, what would those wishes be in order to perfect Cognos for YOU?

What do you currently see as the top challenges or roadblocks that are limiting your ability to make Cognos your go-to Business Intelligence (BI) tool?

We want to know!! :)

Scheduling the refresh of uploaded files!

Scheduling the refresh of uploaded files!

Scheduling the refresh of uploaded files!

Hi Austin,

here are my top 3 points:

1. Modernize Dynamic Cubes and bring them into the Glass UI (e.g. Data Modules)
   It would be great to have the modelling capabilities from the Cube Designer integrated into Data Modules and also do add some features which should be standard (e.g. transfer parts from one DC model to another).
2. Let us customize the whole Reporting UI.
   I'd like to be able to hide every single item from the toolbox for user roles. Also the padlock icon should be able to be hidden as it can cause much trouble.
3. Integrate much desired features into Cognos Administration for which I now have to buy Motio PI or CI for.
   - search and replace in multiple reports
   - easily view user content
   - update the License View to show how many licenses are used in reality
   - many more!

1. Motio CI functionality as part of the Cognos Out of the Box experience. 
2. Modernize the Cognos administration portal. 
3. Education and training that isn't 3 to 5 grand for the hard stuff, i.e., I can learn the difficult parts of Power BI and Tableau much, much easier and cheaper than I can learn the difficult parts of Cognos.   
4. And speaking of Tableau, Prettier Visuals.

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Shawn Peronto
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I only have one:

Ability to more easily determine what data sources are associated with a package.  This was much easier in 10.2.

Hi Austin, 

Adding to all the good features  that have been proposed by others above, I would suggest :

                                1- remove the ugly docker-based implementation of batch v11.x graph/chart viz rendering and include a seamlessly elegant solution within a straight classic Cognos installation. It's a shame to be forced to install a docker on an external win-10 or linux just to be able to generate some v11.x graph/chart viz in batch ...

                                2- upgrade/harmonize the v11.1 graph/chart viz so they could support master-detail like the v11.0 and the legacy viz. It is incomprehensible to still notice that master-detail is not available with v11.1 viz after all these years .

                                3- highly simplify the adding of new custom graph vizs ( js or others formats ...) within reportStudio/Dashboard in the same way as the adding of SVG schematics, by providing within Cognos all the workbench tooling to ease this new custom graph vizs addition for report builders . This will definitively eliminate the critics around the 'not enough fancy vizs within Cognos compared to Tableau/PowerBI' and will allow us to focus the Dev on the real 21st century battle for reporting/dasboarding : NLGenerated / A I assisted / Easily customisable reporting & dashboarding.

Hope I could see those features properly implemented within Cognos one not too far day  ;-D ....
Thank you

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CESAR CARDORELLE
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Hello Austin

I would like to highlight those 3 points:

1. Drill through to a report in a target popup window from a clicked item to quickly visualize the details of a data represented in a report or dashboard. This functionaliy will bring a seamless navigation feature to the product for a better understanding of underlying data, trends e.g. without leaving the original report or dashboard.
2. I would suggest better and creative dashboard and report templates which will guide end users to achieve elegant outputs. Also the chart types and palettes might be richer. A quick idea (i am not sure if this is possible but) an integration to Figma like design tools can be interesting.
3. Dynamic cubes could be modernized and added more functionality.

Thank you very much.

regards

Small thing, but in the old days of Cognos 7 when running a report to CSV the delimiter could be selected (tab, comma, tilde) at report run time.  As far as I know, in Cognos 11, the CSV delimiter is a global setting.   We create some feed files for other systems using Cognos.   Some of these systems can only handle a specific delimiter, and they are not all the same.  I wish that we could select the CSV delimiter at report run-time.

Thank-you

Hi Austin.

Three wishes are not enough ;-)

1) DMR in Data Modules (A few dimensional functions are already fine. But a 'proper' cube with all dimensional functions would be great)

2) Display of members in the source view in reporting (if DMR is not possible).

3) a powerful assistant that understands German

the current ones are wishes that will hopefully be fulfilled in the short term in the coming versions.

Thx Jens

Member of the Cognos User Group Germany, Austria, and Switzerland - https://www.cognosusergroup.de

A lot has already been mentioned (cgf Motio capabilities) but especially with regard to larger enterprise wide implementations

1) being able to more granular map roles, groups and capabilities to data sources, data modules / packages and folders to avoid toxic combinations and manage better users capabilities (analytics user and explorer should not be a generic role) 

2) make tenants completely independent : so if a user logos on to tenant 1, he is explorer, if he logs on to tenant 2, he is user

3) bring the event studio up to date and integrate either in data modules or reports.

Hello Austin,

if I had a Cognos genie, my three wishes were:

1. Support the HTML title tag in the properties panel (at least for reporting, maybe even for dashboards), so we can have hover-texts without additing HTML-Items to list content.
2. Allow Drill-Through into Dashboards
3. Keep the "old" charts with all their properties and flexibility, but make them SVG instead of JPEG and add % to the size measures in the Size & Overflow dialog.

Let's hope, those longish wishes will not be considered cheating.

Member of the Cognos User Group Germany, Austria, and Switzerland - https://www.cognosusergroup.de

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Thomas Wolf
BI-Manager
Techniker Krankenkasse
Hamburg
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Hi Austin,

attached are mine best of

• Data Lineage for all data sources from data modules and Framework Manager available in Reports and Dashboards.
• Dependency Analysis in Data Modules to identify the usage of data items in Reports, Dashboards, Explorations and Stories.
• Make all features of the software development kit (SDK) available for the REST API. E.g. by building a wrapper.

and many more ;-)

• Modernize Event Studio UI and support  data modules as a data source.
• Data driven alerts in dashboards for all users, not only for mobile users.

• search option in "add datasource" menus when adding data modules and packages in reports and dashboards

Best regards

Kai

areto consulting GmbH

Hi Austin,

I would like an integrated GIT connection, more functionalities in the dashboards that are also available in the Report Studio and a seamless integration of Planning Analytics. 

Hello Austin, 

my 3 points are:

• Cognos should support true responsive design in a simple way so that different screen resolutions can be taken into account automatically. Ideally with drag and drop. 
  * Provide meaningful error messages and get rid of the technical java stack on the detail pages. Get rid of this "cognos requires a member, but the formula provides a measure". The system should suggest corrections or correct automatically in case of type mismatches.
• Fully integrate Cognos Analytics with Planning Analytics, Cognos Controller, Framework Manager, Dynamic Cubes 

Thanks and greetings from Hamburg!

Stephan Ordemann
Consulting Unit Manager

valantic Business Analytics GmbH
stephan.ordemann@ba.valantic.com | M +49 151 180 499 28 | T +49 40 226 32 48 0 | F +49 40 226 32 48 110
Beim Strohhause 17 | 20097 Hamburg
www.valantic.com

Member of the Cognos User Group Germany, Austria, and Switzerland - https://www.cognosusergroup.de

Make it easier to add custom tool tips for both reports and dashboards. 

Allow for the ability to apply specific colors to a new visualization based on logic with the data like you can in the old visualizations.

1. Invest back into PowerPlay/Transformer. Probably the most beloved tool and hasn't been enhanced since the beginning of the century. Ditto for Event Studio.
2. Would love to be able to upgrade the AI/Smarts independent of doing a full system upgrade. most of the time our users just want the enhanced AI/Watson features instead of everything else that comes with a new release.
3. Ability to add comments to reports as we have to do several workarounds for that type of capability.

Nice ask .. love this. Sorry for having more then 3 wishes

1. Corporate Fonts - no more IBMHelvetica please, need to use customer font anywhere
2. Put a watermark on report, dashboard, pdf ... like put "CONFIDENTIAL" anywhere
3. QS (and AS) - we are heavily migrating people to RS ... but that's a pain, while ppl love QS
4. Sales that push as hard as MS PowerBI Sales or SAP Sales on customer side - implement your IBM layoffs at customers
5. Export Roles and Rights of all users Excel file
6. Export all schedules as Excel
7. Get latest report save data with one single API call

Member of the Cognos User Group Germany, Austria, and Switzerland - https://www.cognosusergroup.de

And https://aidaug.org/

1. Integrate FM Packages with Third-Party BI Tools: FM is an excellent modelling tool, and its packages serve as exceptional data sources. The challenge of managing unauthorized integration of tools like Power BI and Tableau in the workplace is common. Facilitating direct access to FM packages for these tools allows us to maintain oversight and ensure consistency across reports-essentially, upholding a single version of the truth. While a pristine Cognos environment is desirable, achieving it can be exceedingly difficult based on my observations.
2. Update CA Administration to Reduce Dependence on External Tools: It's crucial to modernize CA administration to eliminate the necessity for third-party solutions like Motio and Metamanager. This step will streamline operations and enhance efficiency.
3. Enhanced Label Customization in Dashboards: Dashboards should offer the flexibility to assign custom labels to Data Items, similar to the capability in Reporting. For instance, an item labeled "Budget Sales including VAT" could be renamed to "Budget" within a dashboard visualization for clarity and simplicity.
4. Organize Calculations in Dashboards: To avoid clutter, it's advisable to group all calculations within a designated folder in the dashboards. Currently, calculations are merely listed at the top of the data sources pane, leading to a disorganized and cluttered interface.
5. Implement a Multilingual ChatGPT-like Assistant: The development of a ChatGPT-like digital assistant capable of operating in any language would significantly enhance user experience and accessibility, catering to a global user base.

1. Updates to Dynamic Cubes. And no, Cube technology is not oh so nineties as some seem to believe, we still need it :)
2. If you really position Report Studio as a QS/AS replacement we need a fully customizable GUI like we had with C10. So each and every button and every menu entry can be hidden based on security settings.
3. Charts based on the Hichert recommendations. Most of it can be done with the legacy charts, would be great to have that out of the box though, many customers want Hichert style charts
4. better support for relational vs dimensional reporting in Report Studio - eg Slicers should not be available when I work with a relational package. Neither should be dimensional functions in the editor. Always hard to explain this to a customer.

Thx Christian

Member of the Cognos User Group Germany, Austria, and Switzerland - https://www.cognosusergroup.de

1. I'd love for EventStudio to be updated. Right now it's in some type of older format and very slow and prone to issues with updating. Unless there is another way to schedule multiple reports to be sent in one email to multiple people(?)
2. Please add trend lines and some other capabilities that only exist on the legacy "Charts" objects to the v11 / v12 visualizations! 

Thanks!

Provide hover over in Dashboards closer to how Tableau does this

native Gantt charts so I can avoid enabling PowerBI...

FW models that are easily consumable with 3rd party tools....

Hello Austin,

here my wishes:

• The possibilty to edit the column width of tables in dashboards manually.
•  an Event Studio with data module support

Best Regards

A very interesting question - and I think that because you have asked this in mainly a developer community will very much influence the responses you get. If you asked the same question to typical consumers (for which we developers build for) I wonder what the ask would be?

I would also imagine most people on here are enterprise developers, rather than typical desktop MI/BI, which again would influence the answers.

Rather than a few tweaks here and there I think stepping back and wondering what makes my customers step away from the things I produce in Cognos and build their own MI revolves around these key areas...

1. Data augmentation.
   They often want to add their own data alongside what we provide within Cognos. 
   We need a better answer than just upload your data to us via flat files. Maybe the ability to call APIs to place their stuff inside ours - with common filters and the like.
   Alongside this I would add on the fly ad-hoc dimension modelling. For example a user may want to have a different grouping of products, or try a different corporate structure, something that isn't modelled in the data warehouse. Let them build their own versions of standard corporate dimensions which we could augment into the data warehouse. 
   
   
2. No more reports/dashboards.
   There really should be just one tool that is capable of both. Users don't want to be told that they can have all the functionality, just not all in the same tool. And it's something users just don't get - if they want to consume a list it's in a very different interface with very different functionality to where I consume a dashboards.
   Here's a question for you - if a user wants to build a simple bar chart where would you direct them? Should they build a report or a dashboard? As developers we know that we need to ask - how will it be consumed? what's the output format? do you want to schedule it? etc. But a user building their own stuff doesn't care, and to be honest as a developer I shouldn't care either!
   I also think a single tool that does both would be a complete game changer for us as developers. How many of us have asked for prompts in dashboards? or dashboards with more advanced queries? or maybe create a report view on a dashboard and schedule it? This would also allow me to hit the "it doesn't work like powerBI" protests.
   
   
3. AI on workflow / analysis.
   This isn't something that makes people step away from CA, but would be a reason to make them stick around.
   Skimming through the answers no one seems that bothered by the current AI obsession!
   Cognos should be able to suggest to users better ways of working. For example, maybe Cognos should spot that a user logs in every Monday, runs the same reports to html, then exports to XL. Because a typical user doesn't know about schedules, or that they can run straight to Excel. Maybe Cognos could spot these patterns and suggest better ways of working to the consumer. This would give them a much better experience of Cognos and exploit existing functionality that they don't know exists. These enterprise features are the selling point for CA, but user's don't know they exist, let's make the product sell them and at the same time give the user a better experience.
   I also think that AI should be used to guide the analysis. When a user sees a visual in a dashboard maybe the AI could suggest to the user what they could do next. For example, currently insights tell the user sales is unusually low in this area. But so what? In the background AI should be looking at could the user drill here? maybe tell the user its unusually low compared to last month? is it getting worse? suggest a drill?
   
   
4. Reporting Packs and Subscriptions
   A cheeky additional one... Allow users to assemble a report from a library of components and pages.
   Users could then assemble a glossy pixel perfect report containing the bits they want. Rather than a report author struggling to build a report that contains everything.
   With a subscription model - users don't want to log into CA to subscribe to a report. Allow me to subscribe/unsubscribe to a report via email. Even allow customisation of what and when I receive it.
   
   

As a developer rather than a consumer my list would be a bit different. My immediate pain points are:

1. Enterprise dashboards, just like enterprise reports.
   With the same functionality across both tools.
2. Put the module into data modules. 
   Given the limitations in dashboards/reports I still have to build a single data module that has everything in it. Allow me to have fact focused data modules that can be built/maintained in a multi developer environment, that can be consumed on an as needed basis.
3. Commentary / additional data.
   Many workarounds for this, and CA has made a few attempts at this in the past (we once had comments in dashboards, and even comments on saved outputs). But users want this in their nice glossy pixel perfect reports that we can produce so easily in CA...

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Marc Reed
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1) scheduling the refresh of files

2) allow different CSV outputs to have different delimiters

3) provide a tool to search and replace text in objects like reports, dashboards, etc. or at least search

All good suggestions above.

01) Data entry forms. And mobile data entry forms.
02) In Excel, parts of the text can be hidden inside a column. Only after expanding the column, the entire content of the column would become visible. I want the ability to export Excel files where parts of the text would be hidden.
03) We could upload an Excel template to Cognos and then Cognos would use that template as a background when exporting reports.
04) Cognos should be able to provide me with an Excel reports that have pivot tables in them.
05) In 'Cognos for Office', declared Excel tables would not change their names after each data refresh.
06) To eliminate the need to type credentials for Cognos every time I want to use 'Cognos for Office'.
07) Online Wiki where users could create documentation for Cognos.
08) Better prompts. For example, I can't change the size of the 'Select and search' prompt. 
09) In the 'Layout calculation', I can't seem to transform the result of the ReportPath() function into something more readable because there aren't enough text functions. 
10) It would be great to see who is reading/downloading reports and dashboards. Such statistics would be deposited into some data set so that we could make reports from it.
11) Ability to send several different reports in one email, without using Event studio.
12) More supported data sources (less popular databases like FireBird, MonetDB or DuckDB).

As a user, my top wants:

1.  Better formatting options, ie. column widths in tables should be sizable, headers should be easier to add to crosstabs, summation should be more targeted by field, not just all on or all off.
2.  Dashboards that would allow a data download
3.  A simple interface to add data source as a dashboard tab
4.  Report downloads that include the summary of the filters used and data sources as a default (toggle on or off)

Hi Austin,

here are my points:

• more transparency in tuning single cognos services (many properties - few practical examples. e.g. options für parallel query execution, number of connections)
• Possibility to model dimensional hierarchies in data modules (navigation paths are not enough -> many filters)
• more transparency and options for controlling query reuse in reports
• administration options such as those provided by MotioCI (namespace changes, versioning of reports and models -> git integration out of the box)

Best regards,

Albin

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Tribe Lead

Data, FInance & AI

Wuestenrot Technology

Austria

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Don't know if my second posting got deleted or if I missed the "Post" button, but I also recommend to have a look at IBMs own portal for customers to log enhancements:

https://ibm-data-and-ai.ideas.ibm.com/?project=CA

1. De-obfuscate the API running Cognos reports. There are so many custom controls I want to write, but I can't because interactive mode is all obfuscated.
2. An API that will let me interrogate custom XML settings on per dispatcher
3. Simplify connections to JSON datasources.

1) Have a Crosstab in dashboards with same functions as in report studio

2) DMR functionality in DataModules

3) Better prompts in reports and dashboards

Hi Austin,

When I quit report and if my report is not saved, I don't want to have this weird message box (this is the very same message since Cognos ReportNet):

In any other software, when you quit, a dialog box will display a "save" button, easier to understand.

I would like to have an updated Cognos Administration page with new features based on IA.

Best regards,

Hi Patrick,

another very nice touch would be to have syntax highlighting in Reporting query items (already available in dashboard calculations). Waiting for this for ages now.....

I would love to have query folders in the query pane. The base report queries might look like this:

And then here's a quick mockup I made using query folders:

I've got this crazy feeling it wouldn't take long at all to implement...

But I'd also love to have the same thing for data items in queries.

@Paul Mendelson This is under review! https://ibm-data-and-ai.ideas.ibm.com/ideas/CA-I-4303 but another vote wouldn't hurt.

Yeah, it would sure be nice if they would implement this. Just ignore the blank space following this. Don't try to highlight and copy any invisible text that's not there.

IBMers look away! 

Hey Marc. Don't tell anyone I'm telling you this. Inside Cognos open up the dev toolbar and paste this into the console.

localStorage['RSValue'] = localStorage['RSValue'].replace(/<\/settings>/, '<setting name="ShowQueryFolders" value="true"/></settings>');

Then open up report studio and go into the query pane. You should see the folder in the toolbox. The report won't save, so you can't use it yet. Really can't wait for the report parser to be modified to accept it.

Make the dashboard feature much more like Power BI and you'll have a near perfect BI solution. Cognos cant be touched on the reporting front, it could be improved but others have already made some great suggestions so I have nothing further to add. So when I say make it more like Power BI, that means make everything flexible and customizable so that we have the functionality to take dashboards to the next level and innovate. I would say that what Power BI can deliver from a dashboard perspective is like what Report Studio delivers for reporting. Full flexibility = great results, happy developers and most importantly happy customers. More focus on dashboards please, less focus on AI assistant, mainly disappointing so far and has little to no value in the real world in its current state.Please take all the feedback and suggestions from people onboard and give Cognos the love and attention it deserves!!!

I totally agree. And IF the AI assistant should be enhanced the benchmark should be something like ThoughtSpot. 

The big one for me would be the ability to save the generated forecasts, not just as a visualisation. This would enable users to make modifications to the baseline forecast if they wanted. Some write-back capability would be required for this.

 I've noticed that most of the topics have already been addressed; however, I'd like to outline a few additional enhancements that could significantly improve the functionality and user experience of Cognos Analytics:

Reporting Enhancements:

1. Advanced Prompt Control:

   • Implement modern UI designs for prompt controls, including multi-select dropdowns with auto-search and keyword-based reload capabilities without requiring page refreshes.
   • Enable these prompt controls directly out of the box.
   • Expand the range of prompt controls to include toggle and slider prompts, as well as other contemporary UI standard prompt controls in the reporting canvas.

2. Optimization of Master-Detail Queries:

   • Enable parallel processing for master-detail queries across multiple objects (lists, crosstabs, charts) to boost performance, moving away from the current model of sequential execution across multiple containers with master detail optimization

3. Lazy Loading in HTML Reports:

   • Introduce lazy loading to allow for incremental display of results in containers as data is fetched, rather than delaying until the entire dataset is ready. Extend this feature to multiple containers to enhance parallel data loading and report responsiveness.

Dashboard Enhancements:

1. Filter Customization:

   • Allow default values to be set for filters directly within the dashboard settings, including both widget filters and prompt controls.

2. Parameter Maps Utilization:

   • Extend the integration of parameter maps to dashboards and data modules, leveraging functionality currently available from Framework Manager (FM).

Visualization Enhancements:

1. Unified Visualization Features:

   • Merge the functionalities of legacy charts and new visualizations into a single updated version, incorporating all features into one comprehensive package.
   • Include master-detail functionality across all chart types.

2. Enhanced Tooltips and Interactions:

   • Develop tooltips that update dynamically without a page refresh, and enable drill-through reports to appear as pop-ups on hover, which enhances user interaction without navigating away from the current view.

3. PDF Rendering of Visualizations:

   • Implement the capability to render visualizations that are implemented using custom controls in PDF format.

Would love to be able to encrypt file in Excel format. 

Not all of your customers are within a single organization. As a business partner that distributes content to our customers and have a combination of on premise and hosted/cloud implementations, an easier way to automate the installation and configuring both in the Cognos Configuration and Cognos Administration areas would be greatly appreciated as well as importing content that needs to be put in a tenant specific location that is different than where we develop it in (meaning report references, etc need to be updated).

For our cloud implementations, we have been developing an automated deployment on AWS and though much trial and error have got the install part completed, but with the CAPs we have in place, using the SDK or REST APIs aren't super easy and I find the documentation is severely lacking. 

Also, being able to export content natively but not whole folders, similar to how you can do it in MotioCI, but in an improved upon design would be welcomed along with the ability to export/import capabilities for roles would be very helpful.