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If you are a long time IBM Planning Analytics (TM1) administrator, you may have developed a fondness through the years for a utility called TM1TOP. TM1TOP would tell you what your TM1 Server was up to, which was especially useful if users called to complain that it was “slow” or “hanging”.

We at QueBIT think of Cognos Analytics as more than just a BI tool, but rather as a platform that contains BI tools. Between the introduction of the Exploration tool and visualization insights in the past year, Cognos Analytics has enabled users to explore, understand, model, visualize, and most importantly - share these findings securely with others. This means that the platform socializes data engineers, data architects, analytics professional, process experts, and consumers by keeping each party involved in the process of making actionable decisions with data. 

What is Adaptive Live?

I’ve got a lot of stuff in my office. Your house is filled with a lot of things you might not need. And then there’s that lot# on your beverage can. But what is a lot and why does it matter? How can something as arbitrary as a “lot” have real importance in our everyday lives? In the English language the word “lot” is used for describing a large quantity of items or some grouping or set of items. In operations we define “lots” as groups of goods received or produced.

Even with the onset of Artificial Intelligence (AI)’s recent advancements and perhaps new or at least reiterations of all that it promises, some organizations continue to wait or “put off” any serious investigation of the technology.

In an earlier post (IBM Planning Analytics Data Modelling with Context) I stated that when modeling data as part of a planning analytics solution design, context clues should be developed, through a process referred to as profiling and then “built in” to the data.

Planning Analytics Data Modelling with Context

In the past, data to be modeled came from a single source and was provided in the same format, typically transactions from a general ledger system. In today’s data driven world, project data can come from a variety of places which, potentially, can influence the data’s possible meaning or value, effect how you model and use it and ultimately, whether it will provide insights the business can in fact leverage.

So, what is model serviceability?

Often you hear about performing an application design review on a IBM Planning Analytics model where both coding and implementation “styles” are compared against “industry proven” practices. During the process, naming conventions, dimensionalities, rule-vs-process strategies, (just to name a few items) are studied and assessed.