Please be advised that current links and new links may not work. We’ll send out a new post when the site is back to full working order. Thank you for your patience.
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Website Changes Ahead
I am planning to overhaul the OUS Cognos Community website the week of May 21.
The theme will most likely remain the same, but there will be more content and it will be structured to support the activities of all of our Cognos users, from novices to veterans. I’ll send out an announcement to the Cognos mailing list when the renovation is complete; meanwhile, please pardon the sawdust!
Posted in Announcements, Website Changes
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FIS Data Warehouse Model 2.0 is here!
We are pleased to announce the release of Version 2.0 of the Cognos FIS Data Warehouse Data Model.
2.0 New Features
New data subjects
• Fixed Assets
• Approvals
• OPE Ledger
New data structure
• Operating Ledger Crosstab
Many improvements, including…
• Architectural changes to better “future-proof” user reports (see below)
• More robust Transaction Ledger <-> Transaction Description join
• Index Codes and Descriptions included in Operating Ledger, Transaction Ledger, and Payroll Ledger
• Dollar amounts and percentages automatically formatted
2.0 Release Notes
Existing reports built using the old model will need to be reproduced using the new version. The goal of the “future-proofing” work in this release is so that reports built on Version 2.0 and above can be easily migrated to new data model releases. Version 1.0 of the data model, “OUS FIS Data Warehouse (v. 1.0)”, will be available until May 1 to allow time for migrating 1.0 reports.
The new model, in keeping with a Cognos best practice, does not have a version number embedded in the name; it’s just “OUS FIS Data Warehouse”. It can be found alongside the older version in Public Folders/Finance Data Warehouse.
With this release, the only remaining BI Query data subject not yet reflected in Cognos is “Validation Tables”. This data subject will be included in Version 2.1, coming this spring.
We are working on a document that will provide a guided tour of the FIS data model, including tips and techniques for working more effectively and efficiently in whatever Cognos reporting tool(s) you choose.
We hope that you’ll find FIS version 2.0 to be a stable, reliable platform for developing Cognos production reports. If you find something that doesn’t seem to work properly, please contact John Peters at (541) 737-3349 or john.peters@oregonstate.edu.
Posted in New Releases
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Week 1 on Cognos
The Cognos introduction seems to be going very well as of the end of week 1! We’ve collectively worked through a number of login issues, and the feedback about the FIS data model is much appreciated. We’ve seen as many as 23 simultaneous, active sessions on our young server and have not heard of any significant slowdowns.
Here’s a few of the lessons learned this week, plus a couple of random thoughts:
- Cognos is fussy about which web browser is being used. So far, Internet Explorer 8 and above is the “gold standard”. Results have varied with Firefox and Chrome. I’d love to hear from anyone that’s using a Mac-based browser.
- Definitely take a look at the Quick Tour that’s available from the Welcome Page. It looks like a great place to start learning how to use Cognos.
- If you can use Internet Explorer from your home PC, then you can run Cognos from there! A few of us adventurous, geeky types have even brought it up on our smartphones. Definitely not recommended due to screen size limitations–but it can be done.
- Attention iPad users: We hope to set up the mobile server extension to Cognos very soon. I’ve seen a quick demo of the iPad app and it looks pretty good. I’m told that an Android tablet version is in the works.
- Katie Pittman and Shane Hunter from SOU have developed a nifty (to say the least) Cognos application called I*Reports. Along the way, they gained a lot of valuable experience and are willing to share their hard-won lessons with everyone. We’ll post them on this site, so stay tuned.
Thanks for all your patience and great feedback this week!
Posted in Status Updates
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Day 1 Recap
Thanks, everyone, for your patience yesterday. There were lots of issues, as expected, with logging in and getting to the FIS data. We’re working on those issues and I’m starting to get questions about using the model. That’s progress!
Welcome!
The initial release of Cognos for OUS–primarily for the Finance Data Warehouse user community–will be November 29, 2011.