I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Todd,

from my perspective I totally agree with you. IT users, Data Specialist/Analysts etc. don't have an issue with learning how to "RS".

The problem might be of a special character here @GEMÜ as most users don't use Cognos very often and even AS was/is a challenge for them. Therefore, I have the problem to find a very smooth transition from AS to RS for those users and that's one of the points where I rely on IBM to allow us to customize the RS UI further and not just a simple on/off switch for the toolbox.

In AS you could enable a split view that showed a chart and the crosstab which most of our users find very helpful. I know that you can create a chart from scratch or use the toolbar in RS, but the icon in the toolbar will replace the crosstab. Again: additional training/tweaking is required.

We have started a long-term project to find out what we can do to replace AS with other tools. I would say, it's not only the 1:1 replacement but also the deeper investigation of the user roles and how they actually want to consume data. We think bout to split our users into more than just one role (we currently have). This would allow us to have real consumers which only use standard reports and guided dashboards, "light" authors who can create dashboards and "real" authors which are also capable of handling RS. But it's a long way still.

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Robert, thank you as well for your thoughts on this. I've been a little surprised that I haven't heard more about this topic, making me wonder if my organization was one of the few using AS in this way. I understand market pressures and competing BI tools may be impacting the direction Cognos is going, but for a while now I've felt like IBM is solving problems I don't have.  

Thanks again!

Hi Todd,

from my perspective I totally agree with you. IT users, Data Specialist/Analysts etc. don't have an issue with learning how to "RS".

The problem might be of a special character here @GEMÜ as most users don't use Cognos very often and even AS was/is a challenge for them. Therefore, I have the problem to find a very smooth transition from AS to RS for those users and that's one of the points where I rely on IBM to allow us to customize the RS UI further and not just a simple on/off switch for the toolbox.

In AS you could enable a split view that showed a chart and the crosstab which most of our users find very helpful. I know that you can create a chart from scratch or use the toolbar in RS, but the icon in the toolbar will replace the crosstab. Again: additional training/tweaking is required.

We have started a long-term project to find out what we can do to replace AS with other tools. I would say, it's not only the 1:1 replacement but also the deeper investigation of the user roles and how they actually want to consume data. We think bout to split our users into more than just one role (we currently have). This would allow us to have real consumers which only use standard reports and guided dashboards, "light" authors who can create dashboards and "real" authors which are also capable of handling RS. But it's a long way still.

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Robert, thank you as well for your thoughts on this. I've been a little surprised that I haven't heard more about this topic, making me wonder if my organization was one of the few using AS in this way. I understand market pressures and competing BI tools may be impacting the direction Cognos is going, but for a while now I've felt like IBM is solving problems I don't have.  

Thanks again!

Hi Todd,

from my perspective I totally agree with you. IT users, Data Specialist/Analysts etc. don't have an issue with learning how to "RS".

The problem might be of a special character here @GEMÜ as most users don't use Cognos very often and even AS was/is a challenge for them. Therefore, I have the problem to find a very smooth transition from AS to RS for those users and that's one of the points where I rely on IBM to allow us to customize the RS UI further and not just a simple on/off switch for the toolbox.

In AS you could enable a split view that showed a chart and the crosstab which most of our users find very helpful. I know that you can create a chart from scratch or use the toolbar in RS, but the icon in the toolbar will replace the crosstab. Again: additional training/tweaking is required.

We have started a long-term project to find out what we can do to replace AS with other tools. I would say, it's not only the 1:1 replacement but also the deeper investigation of the user roles and how they actually want to consume data. We think bout to split our users into more than just one role (we currently have). This would allow us to have real consumers which only use standard reports and guided dashboards, "light" authors who can create dashboards and "real" authors which are also capable of handling RS. But it's a long way still.

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Robert, thank you as well for your thoughts on this. I've been a little surprised that I haven't heard more about this topic, making me wonder if my organization was one of the few using AS in this way. I understand market pressures and competing BI tools may be impacting the direction Cognos is going, but for a while now I've felt like IBM is solving problems I don't have.  

Thanks again!

Hi Todd,

from my perspective I totally agree with you. IT users, Data Specialist/Analysts etc. don't have an issue with learning how to "RS".

The problem might be of a special character here @GEMÜ as most users don't use Cognos very often and even AS was/is a challenge for them. Therefore, I have the problem to find a very smooth transition from AS to RS for those users and that's one of the points where I rely on IBM to allow us to customize the RS UI further and not just a simple on/off switch for the toolbox.

In AS you could enable a split view that showed a chart and the crosstab which most of our users find very helpful. I know that you can create a chart from scratch or use the toolbar in RS, but the icon in the toolbar will replace the crosstab. Again: additional training/tweaking is required.

We have started a long-term project to find out what we can do to replace AS with other tools. I would say, it's not only the 1:1 replacement but also the deeper investigation of the user roles and how they actually want to consume data. We think bout to split our users into more than just one role (we currently have). This would allow us to have real consumers which only use standard reports and guided dashboards, "light" authors who can create dashboards and "real" authors which are also capable of handling RS. But it's a long way still.

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Mike,

you're not alone. I already know a lot of companies that still rely on AS as part of their BI system landscape here in Germany. We all have the same questions in our mind when we look at Cognos 12 and beyond: how do we fill the gap between the removed Analysis Studio and the way to complex Reporting?

It all relates to the groups of users you have that get data out of your Cognos. As logn as they are well aware of their data (structure) you can give them Dashboards and the Exploration capability. but novice data users? No way! As I wrote above, we are at the beginning of a long-term process to find solutions to this problem, and I hope to have more to say about this in the future. In the meantime: CA 11.2.x is the LTS release with QS and AS  still on board - use them.

Robert, thank you as well for your thoughts on this. I've been a little surprised that I haven't heard more about this topic, making me wonder if my organization was one of the few using AS in this way. I understand market pressures and competing BI tools may be impacting the direction Cognos is going, but for a while now I've felt like IBM is solving problems I don't have.  

Thanks again!

Hi Todd,

from my perspective I totally agree with you. IT users, Data Specialist/Analysts etc. don't have an issue with learning how to "RS".

The problem might be of a special character here @GEMÜ as most users don't use Cognos very often and even AS was/is a challenge for them. Therefore, I have the problem to find a very smooth transition from AS to RS for those users and that's one of the points where I rely on IBM to allow us to customize the RS UI further and not just a simple on/off switch for the toolbox.

In AS you could enable a split view that showed a chart and the crosstab which most of our users find very helpful. I know that you can create a chart from scratch or use the toolbar in RS, but the icon in the toolbar will replace the crosstab. Again: additional training/tweaking is required.

We have started a long-term project to find out what we can do to replace AS with other tools. I would say, it's not only the 1:1 replacement but also the deeper investigation of the user roles and how they actually want to consume data. We think bout to split our users into more than just one role (we currently have). This would allow us to have real consumers which only use standard reports and guided dashboards, "light" authors who can create dashboards and "real" authors which are also capable of handling RS. But it's a long way still.

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Todd, I was initially wondering whether the step #1 you listed would have any impact outside the scope of the report object in question, but it looks like the answer to that would be "no", and that additionally, the scope of impact is limited to the user making the change (as if it was a user preference).  So as you suggest, I'd need to document/coach each user on how to make these updates themselves.

This is helping me understand what a path forward might look like, and we'll consider these things as we evaluate our BI tools options.

One thing I still am not sure I understand is how I can grant my traditional Analsis Studio users access to Report Studio but ONLY give them such access for the cube packages?  

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

Hi Todd, I was initially wondering whether the step #1 you listed would have any impact outside the scope of the report object in question, but it looks like the answer to that would be "no", and that additionally, the scope of impact is limited to the user making the change (as if it was a user preference).  So as you suggest, I'd need to document/coach each user on how to make these updates themselves.

This is helping me understand what a path forward might look like, and we'll consider these things as we evaluate our BI tools options.

One thing I still am not sure I understand is how I can grant my traditional Analsis Studio users access to Report Studio but ONLY give them such access for the cube packages?  

Hi Robert,

Yes, the settings I mention require it to be done by the users, but a simple one-page guide on setup doesn't take too long for users to implement as a one-time change. In my experience users haven't had an issue doing this.

As for your other concerns, I agree that there are still additional controls missing around the Reporting UI that need to be tailored but until IBM adds that level of granularity they will have to make do. 

AS doesn't allow multiple objects, so users will also need to be informed that they should avoid adding additional data containers, as the underlying queries will not be the same. 

All of these things are teachable and whether the users like it or not, AS/QS are dead and have been marked for deprecation since 10.2.1 came out over 7-8 years ago.  It's not apples to apples but the functionality is there, it just requires a small learning curve.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Thu June 29, 2023 09:34 AM
From: Robert Dostal
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Todd,

there are a few challenges (at least with CA 11.1.7) that I see with your approach.

The settings you refer to are user dependent. You just set the view to show members only for yourself not for everyone as this setting is not written into the report spec. The same applies for the "Members insert options". It's a shame that this is not part of the role customization feature in Cognos - this would help a lot to align Reporting to the old AS UI.

BTW: the default behaviour of AS is "Insert member with children" ;)

Another point that keeps us from migrating to Reporting is the Toolbox. The role customization in Cognos only lets you enable/disable the whole toolbox but not individual items of it. I don't want user to be able to play around with layout component references, repeaters, prompts, HTML items etc. Not worth to mention the padlock icon which unlocks the layout objects. I can't hide that from user via role customization either.

Next thing is the management of queries. No analytics user wants to deal around with queries but has to take them into account when creating new data containers on a report page. If they don't link all of them to one query, then filtering data only applies to one data container. Additional training is needed which is again an issue the keeps us from switching to RS.

I know what with CA 12 QS and AS are gone and it is presumably a much-needed step forward, but I really miss some customization features that allow us to tweak the RS UI to the needs of a novice data analyst who "just" wants to get some figures out of Cognos.

To sum it up: there's still a gap between AS and RS when we talk about the ease of the studios and the training that is needed to be capable to work with them.

------------------------------
Robert Dostal
Team Leader BI
GEMÜ
Ingelfingen

Original Message:
Sent: Wed June 28, 2023 10:40 AM
From: Todd Schuman
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

Hi Mike,

A lot like users coming from Powerplay to Analysis Studio, there are features and a sense of simplicity that is lost moving from one tool to another.  I've done a bunch of AS/QS to Reporting conversions over the years and here are some tips.

1. Set the package/cube metadata view to "show members" and the insert option to "Insert Children".  This will very closely mimic the user experience in AS.
   
2. Set the default view to "Page Preview".  Again, users don't want to see the design view, so have the data instantly display when a member is dragged onto the canvas
   
3. Strip down the Reporting Interface with a Custom Role.  You can disable anything that might be overkill.  I usually get rid of the idea of queries, pages, prompt pages, etc. and just give them a single page/query which is how AS worked.
   
4. Once you are set up and configured using the above steps, you can bulk update the old QS/AS reports with the bulk converted tool that can switch everything over with a few clicks.
   Bulk conversion of queries and analyses - IBM Documentation

Hopefully, this works for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Todd

------------------------------
Todd Schuman

Original Message:
Sent: Tue June 27, 2023 12:10 PM
From: Mike Comiskey
Subject: Deprecation of Analysis Studio

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?

------------------------------
Mike Comiskey
------------------------------

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle the deprecation of Analysis Studio, specifically for my use case scenario, roughly described below. (I know Query Studio is also being deprecated, but we don't really use that tool).

I work for a state department of education, and most of our users work externally to my org – in schools and districts.  They're report users/viewers, and not content creators. For the past 12+ years we have used cubes built via Transformer and Analysis Studio to provide some of these users with the ability to do ad-hoc analysis for a predefined scope/set of data.

When I first heard about the plans to remove Analysis Studio, I was directed to this document:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SSEP7J_11.2.0/pdf/as_qs_compare.pdf

If I understand it correctly, that document describes functionality available to a user with access to Report Studio (RS), which would not apply to my user base. We would not want to give our users the ability to edit the rest of our reports.  I don't see a way to give a role access to RS but limit the scope (e.g., to a package or folder of content).  Additionally [a smaller point] the interface for Analysis Studio is a bit cleaner/simpler and doesn't require the user to understand cube design details like "Members" or "Levels" which are visible when accessing the cube package via RS. 

We recently upgraded to 11.2.4 (from 10.2.2), and I still feel pretty new to the v11 arena. (And, v12 is out there now).  I know 11.2.4 is a long term support version that I can stay on for a while, but I'm not sure how I will be able to transition functionality for our users.  Have any of you had to deal with a similar situation?