Cognos on Google Android

There is now a native App available on the google play store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ibm.cogmob.artoo

Enterprise Reporting with TM1: The New Landscape

The best overview of TM1 10.2 I have seen is available here at Quebit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPAa9_jeIuU

TM1 10.2 and .xls

As of TM1 10.2 the tm1web will no longer support Excel 2003 .xls files.

Fear not though as there is a conversion tool available.

Just go into Architect/Perspectives and right click on your .xls file to find a conversion tool.

Mine converted all fine without error.

For more details see: http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cbi/v10r2m1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.tm1_op.10.2.0.doc%2Fc_tm1_web_converting.xlsworksheets.html

TM1 Server Monitoring

as of TM1 10.2 you no longer get tm1top available to you.
On the bright side though there has been massive improvements to OperationsConsole.
This of course gives you monitoring on your TM1 service but not the whole box.
A really useful and not expensive option is to use a complete monitoring tool like http://www.mobilepcmonitor.com/
This way you can even log onto the box via your iphone to restart any service.

TM1 in Cognos Workspace

Not many people realise that Cognos Workspace can be setup to see the TM1 Application folder and Cubeviews. This means that users can drag/drop websheets and cubeviews onto their workspace and combine them with BI reports.

Essentially this is an evolution of the tm1 portlets capability.

To set this up on your server you need to modify 2 files.

Tm1_contribution.atom = This is to add the Tm1 instance to workspace
Tm1_en.properties = this is to give the instance proper name

Be aware the 10.2 requires you to edit some further files but its all explained in the documents. Cognos BI will also require a restart to kick in the new settings

TM1 Setup in Cafe

When you open the new Cafe 10.2 interface and want to connect to a TM1 server then in the options you need to set the url to be:

http://ServerName:9510/

i.e don't try putting pmpsvc at the end which is the url for your applications server

CDM and TM1 Aliases

I have been doing quite a bit with CDM (Cognos Disclosure Management) and integrating TM1 as a datasource.
A key thing for people to be aware of is CDM requires an Alias set in TM1 called MEMBER_CAPTION.
The easiest thing to do is create the alias and then use a rule to dynamically populate the value from an existing Alias

TM1 10.2 TM1Web

TM1web  10.2 dramatically changed TM1web for the better.
A really good summary of the changes and differences can be found here:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27039576&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSS9RXT&mync=E#toggle

TM1 10.2 with Excel 2013

The release of TM1 10.2 is very exciting.
Here are some points people may have missed like TM1 now supporting Excel 2013:

http://www.tridant.com.au/blog/tm1-10-2-release-but-wait-theres-more/

Transactional Reporting in TM1 – Some Guidelines

Can TM1 report transactional data?

Yes but further questions need to be asked on business process, volumes and dimensionality

What Volume limitations are there?

You will always be limited by the amount of physical RAM within the box but a key consideration will always be the dimensionality required. Does a table field become a measure or a dimension will need to be carefully thought through. Does that field become a prompt in a report or a filter? Does it have multi-level hierarchies on it?

How can I reduce Volume?

Think about only storing a certain time period of transactional data e.g. a rolling 12 months or maybe just the current financial year.

Does the transactional data need to be physically stored in TM1. Can you instead do drill through to transactions from balance. Always question the business process and whether they can do exception inquiries vs data dumps

Transactional cubes should hopefully not contain any rules.

What Dimensionality limitations are there?

You can build a 256 dimension cube in TM1 but why would you if you can never find the data you want.

Cubes within TM1 should always be built to a business purpose. Mega cubes are never an answer. Think about the prompts and filters that users require.

If the cubes requires multiple date dimensions (date created, date sold, date invoiced etc) then your sparsity in the cube will naturally increase. In memory cubes will struggle to compete with ROLAP cubes in this regard.

How can I reduce dimensionality?

Can a dimension become a measure.

Can you merge 2 or 3 dimension into 1 by concatenation e.g. CostCentre-Project-Employee

What is the appropriate tool to display the results in?

TM1 Active Forms – Easiest and most flexible since you can report from multiple cubes, pass MDX queries etc. Issue is acceptance in BI deployment

Report Studio – Possible but long time to get right. Need to remember cross tabs don’t do strings only lists. Querying multiple cubes will require prompt macros

Analysis Studio – Will struggle with  multiple dimensions on rows and wont display strings

Don’t forget strings will only appear typically at the lowest level of the cube i.e. all N levels

952 FP3

952 FP3 has now been released.
Details can be found here:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27036833&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSS9RXT&mync=E

TM1Web Skinning

To adjust the banner in tm1web to be visibly different between environments i.e. DEV/UAT/PRD

Go to this location:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\TM1Web\images\banner\

Edit the file banner-background.png in paint and then rename  banner-swoosh.png to be banner-swoosh - Old.png so it doesn’t appear.

TM1 10 and Congos configuration – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

My blog post on the Tridant website about TM1 10 and Congos configuration – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:

http://www.tridant.com.au/blog/tm1-10-and-congos-configuration-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-james-wakefield/

Remove TM1 Portlets

Interesting article here on how to properly remove TM1 portlets from cognos:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21619034&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSS9RXT&mync=E

TM1 and hyperthreading

Read the IBM stand on TM1 and hyperthreading here:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21615143&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSS9RXT&mync=E

Cognos BI and Salesforce

As of Cognos BI 10.2 you can report of Salesforce direct without the need for Virtual View Manager:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21614133&myns=swgimgmt&mynp=OCSSEP7J&mync=R

IBM Cognos Fix Packs

You can find a list of upcoming Cognos Fix Packs here:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/support/fixpacks.html

Note that 952 FP3 is coming out probably before the end of the year

Run-time error '53':File not found: tm1xl.ocx

If you are installing TM1 10.1 or TM1 10.1.1 the you will probably be asking your IT department to make sure they install the pre-requisites on the server.

You will find them here:

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/ctm1/v10r1m0/topic/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.tm1_inst.10.1.1.doc/c_tm1_inst_requiredsoftwareconfiguration.html

Note how it asks for "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package"

The IT department seeing TM1 is 64 bit will probably only install the 64 bit version of the package. I have even seen them install not the SP1 version. The problem will come that if they don't install the x86 version and TM1 perspectives gets installed you will receive the error Run-time error '53':File not found: tm1xl.ocx when you open perspectives.

Obviously the fix is to install the x86 version of the C++ but hopefully this post will stop many back and forth emails between you and IT

Business Analytics Supportlink

I find the Business Analytics Supportlink a very useful way to keep up to date with things.
Check out the latest version here:

https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/basupportlink/?lang=en_us

It also includes a link to download the very useful looking "System Overview Diagnostic tool" and in fact you can find a bunch of other useul tools at the following url:

https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/basupportlink/tags/diagnostic_tools?lang=en_us

Cognos Insight - Free edition

You can now download a free edition of cognos insight from Analyticszone.com
Previous there was just a 30 day trial but the new free edition is available and allows just for csv file imports and is for personal use rather than commercial.