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Can we level the playing field and admit off the top that everybody, or more appropriately, every organization plans? This has been a mantra of my colleague A.G. Tan for as long as I’ve had the pleasure of working with her, and it’s no less true today than it was 4 1/2 years ago when I heard it for the first time, and no less true spanning the decades of collective experience at QueBIT Consulting. And while some planning is simple (e.g. single GL, single chart of accounts, single data source) and some complex (e.g. multiple companies, consolidations, multiple GLs/charts of accounts, multiple data sources, etc.) at the end of the day, much of the work is the same, it’s a matter of approach and scale and having the right tools to support the plan.

Every year Gartner publishes the “Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms” and when it’s released the first thing people look for is where each technology sits within the square.  I have been working in this space for many years with many different technologies and here at QueBIT we are successfully implementing Cognos Analytics for our customers and I would like to share our thoughts on a product we believe in.  While Gartner takes a narrower approach to modern BI, Cognos Analytics takes a broader approach.  Our customers are telling us they still need some managed reporting, self-service, and data exploration in one tool to reduce the number of point-solutions that are disconnected from their enterprise systems.  Cognos Analytics fulfills these needs plus a lot more. 

We are very excited about all the new features in the latest release of Cognos Analytics 11.1, we believe these new features below in addition to what already existed puts us in a great position to help our clients make smart decisions about their businesses. 

• Introduced the AI Assistant, which employs machine learning, natural language generation (NLG), and advanced pattern detection to convey hidden relationships in data through stunning visualizations, plus distilled observations in plain English
• Introduced new visual exploration capabilities, like features in Watson Analytics, that make it easy and intuitive for users, even those with no expertise in business analysis, to uncover compelling insights and hard-to-find answers
• Incorporated many other advanced analytics features that make it faster and easier to discover not only what is happening, but why it happened
• Made data preparation easier and faster than ever, freeing up users to spend more of their time doing actual analysis
• Streamlined our overall approach to the BI market by sun-setting Watson Analytics and infusing augmented intelligence throughout Cognos Analytics to make finding answers easier and faster than ever before for users throughout the organization

Cognos Analytics 11.1, augmented intelligence, advanced and embedded analytics, and beyond!

The golden era of analytics is upon us; smarter systems, augmented with artificial intelligence, capable of managing and filtering massive amounts of data, empowering end users to make smarter decisions, and delivering major returns on investment in the process. According to Gary Quirke, CEO of QueBIT, in a recent CFO magazine webinar, “this period in history will be defined by the commencement of man and machine working in perfect harmony, combining machine artificial intelligence with the irreplaceable power of human intuitive reasoning to achieve optimum decision making performance."

IBM wants you (at least 60% of you anyway) to be boundless data explorers. They want you to fearlessly, confidently, and proactively plan, describe, diagnose, predict, and prescribe (actions) based on your organizations' information. They want you to seamlessly move from data prep, to modeling, to reporting and dashboarding, to dare I say, predictive analytics.

The Dashboard tool in Cognos Analytics 11.0.12 now has the capability of drilling-through to reports, enabling integration between dashboards and reports, and thus access to more detailed information from high-level dashboards.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, how many words would it be if you could present your Cognos Analytics data using pictures, and video, and charts, and graphs, and prompts…, all in a guided experience that dynamically, intuitively, and automatically leads your audience through a tailored presentation? I was never that great with math, but I'm guessing it would be a lot of words!!

Data Stories…Part III “The Mode” 

The benefits upgrading to Cognos Analytics are many, but behind the new face of Cognos, there have been improvements for administrators too.

Cognos Analytics has been improved and refined since its general availability (GA) release with Cognos Analytics R9, truly bringing Cognos Analytics to the top of business analytics tool heap. Below is a rundown of the what Cognos Administrators need to know.

Cognos Analytics Data Modeling Features

Working with data should be straightforward and productive, not painful. Users of all data backgrounds can learn to use Cognos Analytics’ web-based data tools to model and report on their data. Uploading and customizing data can now be done in minutes.(check out our latest Data Modeling Features video)