As we continue to use Cognos Analytics for more and more reporting, we are seeing that there is some duplication of reporting starting to happen. We are wanting to open up our reporting to be completed more so by end users than the BI group, but we want to make sure we don't end up creating more issues for ourselves with duplicate reports and unused reporting sitting around making it difficult for everyone to identify good quality reports.

Has anyone else had to address these issues or found ways to prevent them? Or any other report management tips and tricks to keep a healthy BI environment in Cognos Analytics?

------------------------------
Your assistance is appreciated.
Thank you,
Nate Landis
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Hi Nate,
Our users are self client, users create their report. I follow the below techniques to manage the Cognos system

Using/Unused report -

Run audit reports once in a year whether users ran the reports?. if not, please move the reports to archive folders and let the users know.
Same way, we manage licenses whether users are effectively using the Cognos to run the report or receive the report by email.


to avoid duplicate reports
recommend using the prompt parameter 
General and nonsensitive reports we keep in some specific folder.
IT folks generate some complex reports and keep the documentation for these reports in the same folder
Approved reports are fully labeled in the proper format based on the department.

Notes:

Users sometimes directly write the reports in the production

So follow the below approach

Nonstandard reports have to save either in the Department_WIP folder or My Folder section.  Admin will not provide support to these reports.
admin can kill the process anytime for nonstandard reports if runs for a long time. 

Thanks,
Ram











------------------------------
Ramanujam Rajagopal
------------------------------

Hello Ramanujam,

The self service setup that you are describing seems to be what we are wanting to move towards. I like how you are approaching the cleanup and folder structure. 

Your response was very helpful! Thank you for taking the time as it is much appreciated!

------------------------------
Nate Landis
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 08:55 AM
From: Ramanujam Rajagopal
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,
Our users are self client, users create their report. I follow the below techniques to manage the Cognos system

Using/Unused report -

Run audit reports once in a year whether users ran the reports?. if not, please move the reports to archive folders and let the users know.
Same way, we manage licenses whether users are effectively using the Cognos to run the report or receive the report by email.


to avoid duplicate reports
recommend using the prompt parameter 
General and nonsensitive reports we keep in some specific folder.
IT folks generate some complex reports and keep the documentation for these reports in the same folder
Approved reports are fully labeled in the proper format based on the department.

Notes:

Users sometimes directly write the reports in the production

So follow the below approach

Nonstandard reports have to save either in the Department_WIP folder or My Folder section.  Admin will not provide support to these reports.
admin can kill the process anytime for nonstandard reports if runs for a long time. 

Thanks,
Ram











------------------------------
Ramanujam Rajagopal
------------------------------

Hi Nate,

using the Audit package you could create some reports to get some Information 

• how long the reports are running,
• about errors,
• how often the reports are used.

Some weeks ago we had have problems with temp space on the SQL Server because one of our Self Service users created some "funny" reports.
Peter

------------------------------
Peter Hess
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 04:54 PM
From: Nate Landis
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hello Ramanujam,

The self service setup that you are describing seems to be what we are wanting to move towards. I like how you are approaching the cleanup and folder structure. 

Your response was very helpful! Thank you for taking the time as it is much appreciated!

------------------------------
Nate Landis
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 08:55 AM
From: Ramanujam Rajagopal
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,
Our users are self client, users create their report. I follow the below techniques to manage the Cognos system

Using/Unused report -

Run audit reports once in a year whether users ran the reports?. if not, please move the reports to archive folders and let the users know.
Same way, we manage licenses whether users are effectively using the Cognos to run the report or receive the report by email.


to avoid duplicate reports
recommend using the prompt parameter 
General and nonsensitive reports we keep in some specific folder.
IT folks generate some complex reports and keep the documentation for these reports in the same folder
Approved reports are fully labeled in the proper format based on the department.

Notes:

Users sometimes directly write the reports in the production

So follow the below approach

Nonstandard reports have to save either in the Department_WIP folder or My Folder section.  Admin will not provide support to these reports.
admin can kill the process anytime for nonstandard reports if runs for a long time. 

Thanks,
Ram











------------------------------
Ramanujam Rajagopal

Hi Peter,

Thank you for responding. We've used the audit package a little bit, but it seems there are a few more utilities that we should start using it for. We initially ran most of our reports on a schedule and set them to view last version, but didn't realize that would prevent reports from showing up as ran by a user in the audit package. 

Thank you for the suggestions!

------------------------------
Nate Landis
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 04, 2020 08:44 AM
From: Peter Hess
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,

using the Audit package you could create some reports to get some Information 

• how long the reports are running,
• about errors,
• how often the reports are used.

Some weeks ago we had have problems with temp space on the SQL Server because one of our Self Service users created some "funny" reports.
Peter

------------------------------
Peter Hess
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 04:54 PM
From: Nate Landis
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hello Ramanujam,

The self service setup that you are describing seems to be what we are wanting to move towards. I like how you are approaching the cleanup and folder structure. 

Your response was very helpful! Thank you for taking the time as it is much appreciated!

------------------------------
Nate Landis


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 08:55 AM
From: Ramanujam Rajagopal
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,
Our users are self client, users create their report. I follow the below techniques to manage the Cognos system

Using/Unused report -

Run audit reports once in a year whether users ran the reports?. if not, please move the reports to archive folders and let the users know.
Same way, we manage licenses whether users are effectively using the Cognos to run the report or receive the report by email.


to avoid duplicate reports
recommend using the prompt parameter 
General and nonsensitive reports we keep in some specific folder.
IT folks generate some complex reports and keep the documentation for these reports in the same folder
Approved reports are fully labeled in the proper format based on the department.

Notes:

Users sometimes directly write the reports in the production

So follow the below approach

Nonstandard reports have to save either in the Department_WIP folder or My Folder section.  Admin will not provide support to these reports.
admin can kill the process anytime for nonstandard reports if runs for a long time. 

Thanks,
Ram











------------------------------
Ramanujam Rajagopal

Nate,

The audit db contains a table called COGIPF_VIEWREPORT, this might contain the information you were talking about in your comment.

Thanks,

Ash

------------------------------
Ashley Kent
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue September 08, 2020 09:42 AM
From: Nate Landis
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Peter,

Thank you for responding. We've used the audit package a little bit, but it seems there are a few more utilities that we should start using it for. We initially ran most of our reports on a schedule and set them to view last version, but didn't realize that would prevent reports from showing up as ran by a user in the audit package. 

Thank you for the suggestions!

------------------------------
Nate Landis
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 04, 2020 08:44 AM
From: Peter Hess
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,

using the Audit package you could create some reports to get some Information 

• how long the reports are running,
• about errors,
• how often the reports are used.

Some weeks ago we had have problems with temp space on the SQL Server because one of our Self Service users created some "funny" reports.
Peter

------------------------------
Peter Hess


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 04:54 PM
From: Nate Landis
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hello Ramanujam,

The self service setup that you are describing seems to be what we are wanting to move towards. I like how you are approaching the cleanup and folder structure. 

Your response was very helpful! Thank you for taking the time as it is much appreciated!

------------------------------
Nate Landis


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 08:55 AM
From: Ramanujam Rajagopal
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,
Our users are self client, users create their report. I follow the below techniques to manage the Cognos system

Using/Unused report -

Run audit reports once in a year whether users ran the reports?. if not, please move the reports to archive folders and let the users know.
Same way, we manage licenses whether users are effectively using the Cognos to run the report or receive the report by email.


to avoid duplicate reports
recommend using the prompt parameter 
General and nonsensitive reports we keep in some specific folder.
IT folks generate some complex reports and keep the documentation for these reports in the same folder
Approved reports are fully labeled in the proper format based on the department.

Notes:

Users sometimes directly write the reports in the production

So follow the below approach

Nonstandard reports have to save either in the Department_WIP folder or My Folder section.  Admin will not provide support to these reports.
admin can kill the process anytime for nonstandard reports if runs for a long time. 

Thanks,
Ram











------------------------------
Ramanujam Rajagopal

Hello Ashley,

Based on a quick check, it looks like you are correct. That will be a good workaround for that issue.

Thank you! That will be helpful for us!

------------------------------
Nate Landis
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue September 08, 2020 09:59 AM
From: Ashley Kent
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Nate,

The audit db contains a table called COGIPF_VIEWREPORT, this might contain the information you were talking about in your comment.

Thanks,

Ash

------------------------------
Ashley Kent
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Tue September 08, 2020 09:42 AM
From: Nate Landis
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Peter,

Thank you for responding. We've used the audit package a little bit, but it seems there are a few more utilities that we should start using it for. We initially ran most of our reports on a schedule and set them to view last version, but didn't realize that would prevent reports from showing up as ran by a user in the audit package. 

Thank you for the suggestions!

------------------------------
Nate Landis


Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 04, 2020 08:44 AM
From: Peter Hess
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,

using the Audit package you could create some reports to get some Information 

• how long the reports are running,
• about errors,
• how often the reports are used.

Some weeks ago we had have problems with temp space on the SQL Server because one of our Self Service users created some "funny" reports.
Peter

------------------------------
Peter Hess


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 04:54 PM
From: Nate Landis
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hello Ramanujam,

The self service setup that you are describing seems to be what we are wanting to move towards. I like how you are approaching the cleanup and folder structure. 

Your response was very helpful! Thank you for taking the time as it is much appreciated!

------------------------------
Nate Landis


Original Message:
Sent: Thu September 03, 2020 08:55 AM
From: Ramanujam Rajagopal
Subject: Report Management Tips and Tricks Requested

Hi Nate,
Our users are self client, users create their report. I follow the below techniques to manage the Cognos system

Using/Unused report -

Run audit reports once in a year whether users ran the reports?. if not, please move the reports to archive folders and let the users know.
Same way, we manage licenses whether users are effectively using the Cognos to run the report or receive the report by email.


to avoid duplicate reports
recommend using the prompt parameter 
General and nonsensitive reports we keep in some specific folder.
IT folks generate some complex reports and keep the documentation for these reports in the same folder
Approved reports are fully labeled in the proper format based on the department.

Notes:

Users sometimes directly write the reports in the production

So follow the below approach

Nonstandard reports have to save either in the Department_WIP folder or My Folder section.  Admin will not provide support to these reports.
admin can kill the process anytime for nonstandard reports if runs for a long time. 

Thanks,
Ram











------------------------------
Ramanujam Rajagopal