Archive for the ‘Business Intelligence’ Category
Business intelligence related
Posted by Brad Greene on February 16, 2012
I’ve been all over the place the past couple of months. One interesting project I started during this time is helping prove the viability of using Microsoft’s SSAS cube tech to replace Cognos Transformer. The application is retail and there is quite a lot of data in some of the fact tables (one is nearing a billion rows). Some of the dimensions are quite large but not in the millions fortunately. The challenge for this customer has been that Transformer, being what it is, at these volumes of data, has started to become overwhelmed. Build times are getting ridiculously long and the failure rate, while not high, is enough to be troubling and the recovery from any failure is painful given the long build times. I know there are ways to work around some of the limitations and people have been very resourceful. Go there if you have to I guess. But there are options.
Seeing this I felt compelled to recommend SSAS as the next step. We’re starting to see more Cognos clients in this situation making this decision. The results are just too compelling to ignore. The SSAS tool has become robust, feature rich and is very scalable. Our initial proof of concept confirmed everything we expected. We were able to design and build cubes at the lowest levels of detail, providing a more seamless user experience, and do it with build times that were far, far shorter than those of any comparable Transformer cube.
The combination of SSAS to design and build big, detailed cubes, combined with the BI management and presentation capabilities provided in Cognos is an awesome combination. If you simply do this to deliver cubes to Excel users you are missing the point here. Transformer is just no longer able to handle the increasing volumes of data some companies are collecting. So, fix that by plugging in SSAS, but don’t abandon all the other great things Cognos has to offer. It’s a great marriage.
There is a BUT here. No question that SSAS requires more technical skills than Transformer. Knowledge of the MDX language is mandatory. Technical staff will have a non-trivial learning curve to climb but the alternative is not pretty either. In an environment where SQL Enterprise is already present it may well be an easy decision to make the move to SSAS. Get some help, get some training and do it. This stuff works.
Posted in Business Intelligence, Technology | Tagged: IBM Cognos, SQL Server, SSAS, Transformer | Comments Off
Posted by Brad Greene on December 30, 2011
Ever wonder if things are speeding up when it comes to web integration or infiltration into our personal and business lives? This nice graphic gives you a clue about just how much is going on every minute. I have no idea what their sources are and I didn’t check so I hope I’m not spreading misinformation. Without something to compare to, a lot of these numbers are kind of meaningless, but as raw facts they are still impressive to think about. The blending of personal and commercial is becoming commonplace and astute companies are looking hard at ways to make this growth work for them.
Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers
Posted in Business Intelligence, General News | Tagged: web internet information social | Comments Off
Posted by Brad Greene on September 23, 2011
Want the list of installed components in a Cognos installation? Substitute your server name into the URL below and paste it into your browser. Assumes your are using CGI of course. Change it to cognosisapi.dll if you are using the IIS DLL. You should get a long list that starts out something like the text below.
http://server_name/cognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=cmplst
; Licensed Materials - Property of IBM
; BI and PM: is
; (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2004, 2010
; US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp
[Product Information]
LICENSE_BI_SERVER_version=LICENSE_BI_SERVER-AW32-ML-RTM-10.1.9.0-0
LICENSE_BI_SERVER_name=IBM Cognos License
C8BISRVR_version=C8BISRVR-AW32-ML-RTM-10.1.4707.544-0
C8BISRVR_name=IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Server
LICENSE_BI_SAMPLES_version=LICENSE_BI_SAMPLES-AW32-ML-RTM-10.1.9.0-0
LICENSE_BI_SAMPLES_name=IBM Cognos License
...
...
Posted in Business Intelligence, Tech Tips | Tagged: IBM Cognos | 2 Comments »
Posted by Brad Greene on September 19, 2011
A lot of businesses are finally upgrading or installing IBM Cognos on Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7. The documentation for configuring IIS 7 with Cognos 10 is hard to find and often inconsistent leading to some frustration. I’m not going to document all the steps needed here because there are lots of them and they vary based on whether you happen to have IIS 7 or 7.5 for example. One thing is clear, Microsoft’s effort to tighten up security has resulted in a lot more work being required to get things working correctly. This follows an all too familiar pattern in software development, the more features you add the more complicated to use it gets. Tightening security is one of those “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” issues as well. Almost no one is going to be happy. You might be more secure but you also might not be up and running for a few days!
Just a point of clarification on one item. The WebDav feature/service/role is required and is not automatically included with the IIS 7 install. If you have IIS 7.0 you will probably have to download the module from Microsoft’s web site and install it using the Administrator account. If you have IIS 7.5 then all you need to do is enable the WebDav role from Server Manager. If you do not install or enable WebDav you will most likely get a “405 – Method Not Allowed” error in Cognos Report Studio when trying to browse the images directory to select an image to place on your report. This despite being able to browse the folder from Internet Explorer. Directory Browsing allows your images to be accessed by Report Studio still requires WebDav. Here are a few useful links provided by colleagues or found in my efforts to get through the process.
Configure WebDAV on IIS 7.5
Configure IIS 7 and Cognos 8
Cognos Admin errors and IIS 7
Posted in Business Intelligence, Tech Tips | Tagged: cognos, HTTP 405, ibm, IIS, report studio | Comments Off
Posted by Brad Greene on August 20, 2011
IBM Cognos has provided an ancillary piece of software that dynamically connects Cognos Reports to Microsoft Office tools like Word, PowerPoint and Excel for several releases. It was called Go Office under the 8.x series but has been renamed Cognos for Microsoft Office. I have not used this tool before Cognos 10 but a new client was looking for a way to produce reports in PowerPoint without needing to manually keep the data in them up to date. New to report development they were expecting to seamlessly connect some Cognos Report Studio reports to Microsoft Office. Fine idea in theory. It looked great in the demo I’m sure.
As with all things in the world of software the devil is the details. This tool works well for certain things. Simple things. If you are producing reports with small list reports, crosstabs of a half dozen cells or charts, it’s fine. The integration of Cognos into Office is fairly seamless. Once you configure the Options with your Cognos gateway server’s URI you will be presented with a tree prompt widget that lets you navigate your Cognos Connection folders. Find the report you want in the tree, select Import and set a few options in the dialog boxes you’re presented with and the report is imported. Pretty simple really.
The surprise comes when you don’t understand that the reports you import are converted to Office objects native to the tool you are using. So if you are importing into PowerPoint and import a list report the result will be a PowerPoint table. The data in the table will be “live”. It is refreshed with a click of a button. That’s the “beauty” of the integration. The unfortunate side is you just lost all your formatting. If you spent any time formatting your report in Report Studio all the work is tossed away as it is converted to the PowerPoint table. I suppose this is not unreasonable because of the vast differences between the Cognos Studio product capabilities and PowerPoint.
The same is true for Word and Excel of course. If you have complex reports that are large and heavily formatted then you are going to have to carefully plan how you use Cognos for Microsoft Office. PowerPoint tables are limited to 25 lines for example and header, footer, label and other text seems to be left behind during import. It works, but don’t expect your nicely formatted lists and crosstabs to pop up in Word just like they did in Cognos Connection. There is some work left to do on formatting but your data will be live.
Posted in Business Intelligence | Tagged: IBM Cognos, Microsoft Office | 2 Comments »
Posted by Brad Greene on June 19, 2011
I just added a link (actually put it back in) to last year’s coolest documentary for data geeks. Hans Rosling’s “Joy of Stats“. It is an entertaining 1 hour on a topic that most people would never dream could be even remotely entertaining. The guy is just plain interesting to listen to. Business Intelligence has a lot to do with stats and I really like the way Rosling makes his point with visually effective presentations. Imagine getting the opportunity to build a dashboard with some of the techniques he uses!
As always my source for this kind of cool stuff is www.flowingdata.com. Check it out if you have not done so. Always something fun to see popping up there weekly.
Posted in Business Intelligence, General News | Comments Off
Posted by Brad Greene on June 12, 2011
If you are using Microsoft IE 9 browser and the new Report Builder with SQL Server 2008 or later you may have run into the error below when trying to start RB 3.0. It seems odd at first because Windows 7 comes with .NET 3.5. I learned after a little searching that the issue lies with IE9. The problem is easily resolved by setting the Compatibility mode for this URL (the one you use to access your SSRS Report Server). You may have to enable the setting in IE9 under the Tools menu. Do a web search for how to enable Compatibility on IE9 and you will find an MS Support site article showing you how to do it. With that turned on the browser behaves like prior releases and, I assume, allows it to find the .NET Framework that RB 3.0 requires to run.
Report Manager error opening Report Builder 3.0
With the Compatibility mode set to “on” as indicated by the icon below Report Builder now runs as expected.
Report Manager opening Report Builder 3.0
Posted in Business Intelligence, Tech Tips | Tagged: .NET 3.5, Report Builder 3.0, SSRS | 1 Comment »
Posted by Brad Greene on June 10, 2011
I’ve been working on prepping for my Microsoft 70-448 certification and learning a ton of things. Yesterday I was adding some custom assemblies to a report using VB as my code base. I decided to try using Visual Studio Express 2010 to build the DLL as an added exercise. That worked as expected. Then I copied the DLL to the required folders and defined the references in the report. So far no problems. However, when I went to preview the report I got an error which indicated that my assembly was of a version later than that supported. That left me scratching my head for a few minutes.
It occurred to me to check the Advanced Compiler properties in VSE for the assembly I had just built. There I noticed the target .NET Framework was set to 4.0. I suspected that was the problem and set it to 3.5, recompiled the DLL and tried it all again. Sure enough, that was the issue. I then went to Google and confirmed it.
So, if you build custom assemblies for SSRS 2008 R2, as of June 2011, you probably have to stick with compiling for the 3.5 .NET Framework. I did not see any posts or articles for work-arounds but that doesn’t mean one isn’t possible. Never say never.
Posted in Business Intelligence, Tech Tips | Comments Off
Posted by Brad Greene on June 1, 2011
For the past half dozen years I have spent the majority of my time helping companies get down that last mile or two of a BI project. While not always, it was often the case that I was there because IT had found the burden of delivering a BI solution was more than they bargained for. It may be they underestimated the skills required; maybe they were oversold by the vendor on the ease of implementation; often they were just slammed with other vital work. One advantage I always had in these situations was being allowed to work mostly outside the boundaries of the typical IT processes. Ah yes, the so called “cowboys” had arrived is what I’m sure the IT people thought. However, they had no choice because their customers demanded a solution be delivered now! And there in lies my point. We all exist to serve those business users, our real customers. In BI that means delivering solutions in a way that is often very different than other applications IT typically delivers.
I just read a Forrester BI trend report that confirms what I have been seeing and thinking for a while now. This trend towards centralizing BI into IT is not paying off. I understand why it has happened. We needed the buy in from upper management, the sponsors, data governance, master data management and all that. No doubt about it. That is all vital but it is a Fuastian deal. At least as far as our real customers are concerned because along with becoming a part of the centralized IT structure inevitably comes bureaucracy, layers of process ill suited to BI and we end up lost and bogged down unable to deliver on the promise. I’m sure somewhere a company has managed to make it work but overall it appears to be a growing problem. The Forrester report suggests we let IT hang on to data preparation and turn the rest back over to the business. Interesting. We need to do something different, that is for certain.
I don’t want to return to the “cowboy” days and throw all the hard earned lessons and best practices out the window but we need to realize that our customers move at the speed of their business. They are mad at us because we can’t keep pace. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves and answer the question “Is everything I’m doing adding value for my customer and am I doing it in a way that meets ALL their needs?”. That means getting them solutions quickly and standing side by side with them so we know what it feels like when we fail to deliver.
Posted in Business Intelligence | Comments Off
Posted by Brad Greene on April 15, 2011
A couple of years ago I had figured Microsoft was killing their BI product efforts. Word on the street was that key people and products were being slayed left and right. Well that may have been true but it seems to have been part of a plan to attack the market from a different angle. I’m not a sales guy or even a marketing whiz but I am good with technology and from what I have seen in 2008 R2, Microsoft BI is back! OK, maybe I’m late to the party but I finally arrived and it looks pretty good. I’ve been reading a bunch of “what’s new in R2″ articles and blogs and finding them interesting so I ordered up my copy of 2008 R2 a few weeks ago.
The upgrade was pretty painless. I had some issues with my laptop installation and setup of SSRS but thanks to some help from a very smart friend and the removal of AVG Free antivirus software things are humming along nicely. Report Builder is looking really good and they have done a lot in the area of ease of use based on my recollection of 2005. I know Cognos Report Studio very well and I have to say Cognos, get cracking on some new updates. This stuff looks quite good at a price point that a lot of companies are going to find hard to pass up. I’ve never been really thrilled with the charting features in Cognos so I want to see what I can do with the latest in Report Builder.
Next stop is PowerPivot then SSAS. SSAS being the bigger nut to crack but I want to see how it stacks up too. I’ve heard there are even more cool things on the horizon so it may be time to fully spool up on Microsoft BI. After all, they are at the top of the Gartner BI Quadrant this year. Amazing.
Posted in Business Intelligence | Comments Off
