By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
We are almost a month into the new year, and a month down on the quarter- this time is ever so crucial! Time to increase performance momentum early; time to start off strong and execute business intelligence objectives quickly, strategically and efficiently; time to tackle those Corporate Performance Management (CPM) objectives, to enhance ROI on those 2009 IT investments, and to understand and maximize all performance management results; but more importantly time to be resourceful and stay on top of industry news in the evolving CPM, BI and Information Management world.

As we (PerformanceG2) started the new year, we asked what can we do to further help organizations achieve their performance goals, what can we do to provide them with industry tools and support and how can we help provide the latest in industry news to better communicate exactly what is going on in the CPM community for 2010. We concluded with our industry resource InSight. Every month, we will distribute the InSight eNewsletter dedicated to communicating with the industry and dedicated to providing essential news, tips, videos, techniques, and more including a look into who we are at PerformanceG2 and what we are about. This is our way of staying active in the community as a performance management firm and updating our clients, partners, and industry colleagues on what we know is going on.

Therefore, check out our first edition of InSight here.

Let us know what you think, email us questions, sign up to receive the resource monthly, or just read and enjoy. This is our way of helping you go from InSight to Performance.
 

 
 
Looking for other ways to meet those performance management goals? Connect with us at info@performanceg2.com or call 877.742.4276. We will work with you and provide options on the best BI, CPM, FPM, data warehousing, consulting and staffing solutions out there.
 
 
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By Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
As the downstream beneficiary of the company’s operational data, those of us who design and build data warehouses see all sorts of bum data. Operational systems that don’t exactly behave as everyone expects, business results that differ from commonly held assumptions, dirty data that appears to be in some unknown language, and so forth and so on. We, of course, have the means to code around most any obstruction we encounter in the data, but we need to make sure that the owners of the source systems know about potential issues in their applications and processes.

A data warehouse is in a unique position because its design is influenced by design assumptions in the source systems and business processes feeding into it. When these assumptions are proven incorrect, we are able to add huge value to the application development process by calling out the incorrect assumptions so that they might be addressed upstream or consciously chosen to be ignored. Either way, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we delicately communicate the potential issues to those who need to know. This leads to tighter business processes, stronger source systems, and ultimately better data for decision makers.

 
 
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By Sanjeev Datta, Senior Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
Are you deciding to set up TM1? Below is a list of considerations when installing a TM1 environment – an initial insight into the set up and architecture to fill your technical needs. These stats can help determine cube size, server topology and other settings for an upgrade or new TM1 install.
 
User Definition:
Power Users (PU)- These are TM1 users who would load data, update models and objects and create complex reports and views. Compared to the total number of users and power users, 1:1 can be considered as a close approximation (concurrent user) ration.

Read/Write Users (RWU)- These are TM1 users who would update data in a model on a regular basis. They would create and view complex reports and views. Compared to the total number of users and RW users, 3:1 can be considered as a close approximation (concurrent user) ratio.

Read Only Users (ROU)- These are TM1 users who do not input data. Instead, they only read data or use pre-defined reports in Microsoft Excel or TM1 Web and require fast data access. Compared to the total number of users and RO users, 10:1 can be considered as a close approximation (concurrent user) ratio.
 
Estimating RAM:

Total concurrent users = 16
RAM required: 16 x 20 (MB per user) = 320MB
 
Estimating Data:
In TM1, each data item loaded occupies on average 14 bytes of RAM. Each calculated item will proportionally increase the data, and adding more CPU’s will benefit readers more than TM1 users or writers.
Rule of Thumb: Per CPU, 25 power users and 100 RO users

Data- 1,000,000 rows with 12 data items in each row = 160MB
Model with 5 years of data = 801MB

Calculations- Calculations forecast is 1 year of extra data = 160MB

Users- 10 users = 10 x 12MB = 120MB

Total Model Size- 801MB + 10MB + 120MB = 1.1GB
 
Report Server:
In a TM1 environment, use a Report Server for the following:

• If the RW users require fast access to static reports while data is being uploaded
• If writers lock server to the detriment of the readers
• If the RO user community outweighs the RW user community by a factor of 5 and there is constant RW activity on the main server
• If the RO users request reports simultaneously and if reporting performance is important, then use Reporting Server/Multiple Processes

 
TM1 Web Server:
In a TM1 environment, if the majority are Web users, then consider a separate TM1 Web server. TM1 Web servers should always run on separate physical servers if possible.
Rule of Thumb: Up to 250 concurrent users per CPU

 
 
 
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By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
Join PerformanceG2 Cognos expert and Senior Consultant, Sanjeev Datta, for a complimentary, one-day IBM Cognos TM1 Workshop in Portland on February 18, 2010. You know you need a better solution for financial performance management – planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidations, analytics and reporting. But during the current economic downturn, cost-cutting measures and making the most of existing resources have become the order of the day. This workshop will provide a pragmatic approach to embracing and transforming the use of spreadsheets for more effective financial and operational performance management.

Experience a real-time approach to consolidating, viewing and editing enormous volumes of multi-dimensional data. With patented, 64-bit, in-memory OLAP server, IBM Cognos TM1 is the fastest way to deliver immediate value to your organization. In this workshop you’ll learn the key concepts and functionality of IBM Cognos TM1 and build a simple, easy-to-use application for expense management.

The seminar will include:

• Understanding OLAP and multi-dimensional databases
• Creating dimensions and cubes
• Loading and managing data
• Defining business rules
• Building powerful end user applications

Register here for this free Workshop.
 
 
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By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
Join PerformanceG2 Cognos expert and Senior Consultant, Sanjeev Datta, for a complimentary advanced look into Multi-Dimensional Reporting using Report Studio. This Webinar will provide an in-depth look into Report Studio, providing tips and techniques.

Attend the Webinar to learn:

• Dimensional reporting concepts
• In-depth focus on dimensional data
• Applying calculations and dimensional functions
• Understanding member set structures

Register here for this free Webinar.
 
 
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By Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
At several client sites, I’ve had the need to rollback specific production reports or report sets to previous versions. Often times, this was in a single Cognos environment (no dev or test, just prod). Additionally, my clients didn’t have the resources to provide version control systems to manage report source code, therefore, I had to create a pseudo source code management process specifically for C8 reports where archived report specs lived outside of the C8 content store (to allow for effective development collaboration).

There are many ways to supplement or vary this process to suit your own needs. It’s a simple idea and worked well considering the very low cost to utilize. I’m sure there’s plenty of similar freeware for this, however, we don’t always have the ability to add additional software to client servers.

I needed to be able to rollback previous versions of reports from an off C8 server location. I also needed to be able to refer back to ‘release notes’ to understand what I implemented in each iteration of these reports. To satisfy these needs I would simply save off the report spec (.xml) to a local/C8 server shared drive, with an iterative version number appended, and a same named text document that tracked the version number, and what was distinctly moved/added/changed for each iteration. The only thing that I had to do in C8 to enable local saves of the report spec was:

• Get the C8 LFA.dll from C8 server
• Open a command prompt window and register the LFA.dll file by typing regsvr32 LFA.dll
• In Report Studio, from the Tools menu, click Options
• Select the Allow local file access check box and click OK
• The menu items (Local) Open and (Local) Save As appear in the File menu

Note: This does require allowing ActiveX control via your browser and adding the Cognos site and your local computer to the Trusted Zone

Whenever I would work on a new version, I would first ‘check out’ the latest xml spec by adding the word ‘lock_’ to the front of the .xml and .txt files for that report. This indicated to anyone else looking to change this report, that the report was currently being modified. This process, coupled with good concise descriptions of updates in the .txt file for each version was more than enough to ensure effective group collaboration, solid enough version control, and the ability to rollback reports to specific points in development time.

 
 
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By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
It’s simple, IBM’s Cognos Express is a cost and time efficient solution for those companies who have thought about integrating BI and Corporate Performance Management into their business plans, but couldn’t invest the time or money. Just ask Nucleus Research, global provider of research and advisory services. Their recent report on Cognos Express’s bottom line concludes that IBM’s “first and only integrated, one-stop BI and planning solution purpose-built to meet the needs of mid-size companies”, AKA a technology that minimizes time and costs.

So, what is “The Bottom Line” from Nucleus Research regarding their Cognos Express studies? “Senior managers who have balked at the cost and complexity of adopting technology such as business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) should consider IBM Cognos Express as a way to adopt these technologies while minimizing time to benefit, deployment costs, and support costs.”

Read the report here: IBM Cognos Express Notes and Reports.

Interested? Talk to one of our Cognos Express experts today, and we will let you play with Cognos Express for free for 30 days. And, we will give you 10% off the purchase of the software. Call us at 877-742-4276 or email us at info@performanceg2.com
 
 

 
 
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