By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
It’s about that time of year again, to start thinking about, and planning for, IBM’s premier conference for information and analytics – IBM Information On Demand and Business Analytics Forum 2010. This year, the event will take place at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, October 24 and 28 and will host 9,000 plus attendees, provide 600 IT and Cognos skill building sessions, and include 110 industry-focused business and IT leadership sessions – making it the must-attend Cognos, BI, Information On Demand and CPM event of the year. To make the event even better, if you register before August 31 and use the exclusive PerformanceG2 promo code, G10PERFG2, you can save $800 off of your registration. To take advantage of this limited time offer, click on the image below, or follow the below instructions.
 

 
Register before August 31, 2010 to receive an instant $500 off registration, follow these instructions and use the PerformanceG2 registration code to save a total of $800 off your registration:

1. Visit the IBM Information On Demand 2010 Web Site Registration Page (https://www-950.ibm.com/events/IOD/IOD2010/secure/regWizard.do?step=begin)
2. Enter your email address and choose the registration type
3. Select the sessions and activities you are primarily interested in attending and continue to the next page
4. Select the relevant attendee type and complete the requested attendee information
5. Under the ‘Promotion Code Information’ section, enter the PerformanceG2 code G10PERFG2 to save an additional $300
6. Complete the remaining fields on the enrollment form clicking ‘Continue at the bottom of each section
7. Click ‘Submit Registration’ to finalize your registration process
 
For more information, or questions on how to register, contact me at candace.taylor@performanceg2.com Don’t miss out on this year’s premier Cognos and business analytics conference!
 
 
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By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
For many years, Cognos Enterprise Planning has been made the market choice for budgeting and forecasting – providing users with a powerful alternative to spreadsheet-based financial modeling. However, the core of the EP application was built more than a decade ago, and lacks the scalability and flexibility necessary to deal effectively with the increasing volumes of financial data that are now common in most organizations. The result is that EP is often difficult to change and costly to manage.   

Cognos TM1 is designed to fix many of the current EP challenges. The time is now to make your Cognos EP to TM1 conversion, and with IBM’s limited time offer of an EP license trade-in promotion, you can receive a TM1 Contributor license for every EP Contributor license you currently own, making the process easier and cost-efficient for your organization.
 

 
Why convert to Cognos TM1? Here are just some reason why your organization should make the move:

1. TM1 allows for a more scalable solution which provides for easier handling of increased volumes of data, unlike its predecessors
2. TM1 functions in real-time, providing on-demand updates and forecasting capabilities
3. TM1 incorporates the breadth of Cognos 8 Studios for optimal reporting capabilities
4. TM1′s cutting edge financial analysis and reporting capabilities is backed by its powerful database engine that delivers comprehensive views of your organization’s financial picture
5. Migrating Cognos EP to TM1 could never be easier and more cost-efficient with IBM’s limited time conversion offer

Read more about the TM1 Advantage, TM1′s new features and how you can start your EP to TM1 migration by downloading our EP to TM1 Fact Sheet. Learn more about how you can save and get started with your migration, also get all of your questions about the process answered - connect with one of our TM1 experts today by emailing us at info@performanceg2.com or call 877.742.4276.
 
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By Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
Many of us don’t have the budget to implement elaborate logging schemes into our smaller SSIS projects. That being said, even the smallest amount of logging will pay for itself the first time something blows up. In my experience, some logging, no matter how simple, is better than none.

Logging allows you to better understand load errors, diagnose longer batch run times and flush our load inefficiencies – just to name a few key benefits. In SSIS, logging can be as intricate or simple as you would like. Using just system variables and event handlers, you can create a functional logging system. Writing key system variable output during select events like OnError, OnPreExecute and OnPostExecute at the package container level, gives you a good idea of what is going on in every piece of your package. A few useful system variables are PackageName, SourceName, ErrorCode, ErrorDescription, StartTime, ContainerStartTime and MachineName. Writing to a log table with datediff’s between getdate() and desired system time variable, gets you very useful run time semantics. Through in row count tasks, user variables and send mail at various steps, and you have got a solid logging scheme. Spending the extra time upfront to implement the right level of logging in even your smallest projects will, undoubtedly save you diagnosis time in the future.

 
 
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