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!
 
 
Contact the Blogger

 
By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
Convenient, cost-efficient and valuable, new ONLINE Cognos training opportunities

Imagine learning from the comfort of your home or office with out having to worry about traveling hassles or costs. Imagine having an in-depth Cognos learning experience that is personalized and customized to meet your needs and answer your questions.

Now, you don’t have to imagine. PerformanceG2 announces the newest offering to their solutions, ONLINE Cognos training, affordable, convenient, high-value training sessions, all delivered by our award winning, Cognos certified instructors through our easy-to-use virtual classroom.

Take advantage of our first online training class on April 21 and 22, 2010 – Two-Day Report Studio Course. For $795, you can learn C8 Report Studio, report management through Cognos Connection, intermediate report building techniques and more, all through hands-on demos.

Sign up today or for more information, visit performanceg2.com/solutions/online-cognos-training/

And if you are interested in other upcoming online Cognos training classes, email us at info@performanceg2.com.

 
Contact the Blogger

 
By Candace Taylor, Marketing Coordinator for PerformanceG2
 
Now is the time to be proactive with your BI efforts. Now is the time to network with local business colleagues to collaborate and expand your knowledge on Cognos software. Now is the time to BInvolved (‘B’I Involved) – and luckily, this resource is free, just need to set aside some time in your day.

What am I talking about? I am talking about joining local Cognos user groups in your area because they are developed for you and your organization. These Cognos user groups are valuable forums set up for local organizations, fellow Cognos developers, BI Analysts, Framework Managers and industry professionals to connect, network, exchange information and encourage the effective use and development of Cognos Software.

Check out local user groups on IBM’s site. Or, if you live in the Las Vegas area, check out the user group information below, and become involved!
 

 
 
FREE Cognos Local User Group Meeting: Nevada Local User Group Kick-Off Meeting
Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM PST

Description:This group is dedicated to provide:

* A technical forum that encourages the effective use and development of Cognos Software
* A networking forum that connects with local organizations and fellow Cognos developers, BI Analysts and Framework Managers
* An information exchange forum that shares tips and tricks, valuable information and user experiences

This meeting with include:
* Introduction/Reviews/LUG Goals and Objectives
* MGM/Mirage, StationCasinos, The Sands, Clark County overview of their use of Cognos PM/BI tools
* Data governance program
* Security
* Cognos 8.4, 8.4.1 Demo- by PerformanceG2

Register for this Local User Group Meeting to connect and network!
 
 
Contact the Blogger
 
 

 
By Sanjeev Datta, Senior Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
 
Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology that helps support business decision making. BI helps decision makers in making better and faster decisions – better as data layouts are business specific, customized and highly organized; and faster with the efficiencies that come in building this technology.

Business reporting is the backbone of BI where not only C-level executives, but also managers and analysts, keep track of and can share their goals and key performance indicators (KPI) in daily operations; bringing better insight into their data and the outcome of decisions giving a direction to their organization all leading to efficiencies in business processes.

IBM Cognos has a set of business reporting tools each of which come with features aimed at specific business users. Query studio is one such Web based ad-hoc reporting tool. Query studio gives users the ability to create basic calculations with simple formatting options that run in multiple output formats and can be saved as ad-hoc queries for future references.

Analysis studio is another Web based or “zero foot print” tool that requires no installations other than a simple URL link, and it works with On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Dimensionally Modeled Relational (DMR) data sources. This tool is used for slicing and dicing, drilling up (to summary level) and down into details so users can swiftly and seamlessly arrive at the analysis they are looking for.

Report studio is considered the mother of all Web studios from Cognos BI arsenal. Report studio has the features of all the other reporting tools and then some. It is considered as a “pixel-perfect” tool which lets professional authors write simple to highly complex reports and distribute them to hundreds of users via various options. Apart from OLAP data sources and its MDX functions, report studio can also use relational data sources in creating reports and dashboards. The drag and drop feature helps in developing dashboards with great ease by dropping lists, pivot tables or cross tabs and various charts that usually enrich the real estate on the page and do away with number crunching on clustered report pages.

IBM Cognos report studio offers the ability to drill up and drill down from a summary to a detailed view of data and also allows drill throughs, when a user can jump from one report to another report related by common columns. Delivering reports in report studio can be done by attaching report outputs in emails or simply storing reports in a repository for shared or secured access. Outputs in PDF, HTML, Excel (various versions), CSV and XML can be accessed by users connected to the Web portal Cognos Connection that launches the various reporting studios. Another option is the ability to “burst” a report, which is a popular choice among many customers as it saves tremendous amounts of development time – as one report is run and its output is divided and delivered to the respective recipients – making certain, the appropriate security settings are incorporated to the lowest row level. An example of a ‘bursted’ report would be developing one sales report that gets pushed out to various sales reps, who would view only the accounts they have access to, thereby delivering unlimited report outputs based on distinct sales rep ID or the burst key.

Other reports that have been created using report studio are employee and product performance reports. For the financial sector there are income statements, balance sheets and actual versus budget reports with complex calculations that span over time periods. For the retail sector, there are track of stock reports. And for the defense or property management industry, the use of highly visual charts that make use of geographical BI by providing maps based on political boundaries or customized regions, have been created as well.

These powerful yet user-friendly business reporting tools create industry standard as well as customized solutions, and by providing the right information to the right people make investigating sweet spots and troubled areas of an organization possible and making BI a top priority for CIO’s across the globe.

 
 
 
Contact the Blogger

 
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.
 
 
Contact the Blogger

Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant at PerformanceG2

July 7, 2009

We’ll wrap up this blog series with today’s post, building on last week’s best practices theme.  We’ve touched on the fact that these scorecarding systems are more than just a means for data presentation…they’re truly performance influencing applications.  Treat development of these tools more like an application development effort.  Use things like joint application design sessions, lunch and learns, and one on ones w/ scorecard owners to help build trust and to encourage true business ownership of the tool.

Sell it!  Many companies have lofty goals and aggressive growth plans but don’t have the means to track and influence their progress towards their stated destination.  Scorecarding applications can be the solution.  Do what you can to sell your solution as a means of practically living the strategy that your company already likely has in place. 

Don’t leave metric owners hanging.  How would you feel if you were responsible for a high visibility metric that was a perpetual poor performer and couldn’t show why the metric was in the dumps?  Make sure to give as much supporting information for apparent cause analysis in the tool as possible.  This can be accomplished with default reports, impact/impacted diagrams, and even corrective action pathways.

When helping the business choose what to measure to help them achieve their strategic goals, remember the SMART acronym:

• Specific – unambiguous, concise
• Measurable – tangible, real
• Actionable – something the owner can influence
• Relevant – aligned with and encouraging the behavior you want to drive
• Timely – if you’re trying to impact weekly cycles, monthly measurements aren’t enough!

Also make sure to have a mixture of both lagging and leading indicators where possible.  Lagging indicators (like financials) are usually very easily obtained but are not enough to influence an outcome…leading indicators give you a means for early warning.

Every strategic objective needs some form of measurement.  If a SMART metric cannot be obtained, use a proxy.  Even if it’s not necessarily a 1:1 relationship between the objective and the measurement, at least you’ll have a shot at influencing results. 

An effective scorecarding solution is always in a state of flux…continually evolving.  This is a good thing.  It should be used and modified to meet the changing needs of the organization.  As a developer, make sure you build this app not to last, but to change.

Successful scorecarding implementations are an effective way to show the value of BI and how it directly impacts the bottom line.  Your scorecarding app should be a gateway into other BI components.  Those who are benefiting most from your scorecard environment are usually the ones funding your overall budget/projects … what better way to show your group’s value?

Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant at PerformanceG2

June 30, 2009

In this week’s post, I’d like to cover just a few general best practices I’ve discovered along the way.  These are simply my conclusions as a project manager and technical leader in a data warehousing group.  They are based on my scorecarding implementation experiences at several companies. 

I think it’s important to call your first implementation a pilot or proof of concept and to treat it like one.  This helps to set the tone for the effort and lets everyone know that this is really the first touch with the technology and methods involved.  The implicitly lowered expectations (by calling it a pilot), greater dedication of time (by both you and the business), and greater visibility (allowing for a more focused effort) should help you to achieve a successful first implementation.  Be sure to set the expectation that this is a dual benefit effort.  Good for the business area you’re scorecarding for as it gives them greater visibility into their own performance and allows them to actively influence outcomes.  Good for the IT group as it gives you practical experience with this new tool and the ability to better support it in the future. 

Pick a strong subject area.  New, important strategic imperatives or aggressive growth plans are usually good candidates as they get the focus that they should.  Well defined metrics (both leading and lagging), focused business leaders and analysts, and committed joint effort by IT and the business (make sure it’s stated) are also important success characteristics. 

Allow for proper due diligence.  There’s always a struggle between faster time to market and a more deliberate, well thought out implementation.  A decision should be made upfront as to what’s more important.  Make no mistake, scorecarding tools are actual applications.  This is not just another means of displaying information.  The purpose of the tool is to drive performance.  It is not enough to simply build a scorecarding app and release it.  Employing the tenants of accountability using the tool, giving the application high visibility, and use of the app during staff meetings all help to ensure that performance is being driven towards the desired outcomes and ultimately aids in the acceptance of the technology. 

There are many, many factors involved in determining the success of a scorecarding solution.  This is certainly not meant to be an all inclusive list, but rather some of the more important factors I’ve encountered.  We’ll continue on with more best practices next week.

Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant at PerformanceG2

June 23, 2009

We’ve spent time in previous posts summarizing where scorecarding fits in the larger CPM space, benefits/risks associated with implementation, and how to best realize scorecarding opportunities.  Now, we’re going to better define the solution itself and touch on some of the basics.

First, it is important to understand that scorecarding is not an IT solution.  IT is necessary, but not nearly enough to fully achieve an effective solution in this space.  A typical implementation does involve software, hardware, and other systems…but only to the extent that they deliver information to business users and drive performance in the right manner. 

Many a scorecard project has failed because it was not designed or implemented to meet the strategic needs of executives, managers, and other decision makers.  Choosing the right business sponsor can go a long way in mitigating that risk.  Getting lots of business input and implementing the tool specifically to drive performance are also paramount to success.

There’s plenty of bleed over in the data presentation world and one solution may encompass several presentation methods.  Many confuse dashboards for scorecards.  Let’s cover a few differences:

• Dashboards are generally more dimensionally biased and usually have the ability to add more dimensional contest.
• Dashboards are more operational in nature and data is usually updated more frequently (hourly, daily).
• Dashboards usually answer one or just a few performance type questions and performance is quickly gleaned with just a glance.
• Scorecards are very performance management centric…think accountability, goals, performance improvement, etc.
• Scorecards are more strategic in nature and data is updated less frequently (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually).
• Scorecards are generally less graphic.

Scorecard basics:

• A scorecard is a collection of performance metrics designed to reflect the strategic goals of a unit in an organization
• A metric is a measurement which has a target value; an actual value and an owner who is responsible for the performance of that metric.  A metric is related to a strategic goal.  They allow you to understand how you are performing.   Metrics and your scorecarding application answer key questions like …
  • How am I doing?
  • When has this happened before?
  • What drives this metric?
  • What could be causing the problems?
  • What other metrics and objectives does this affect?
  • What do I have to do about it?
  • Who else is included in the decisions?
  • Where does the data come from?
• A metric type defines the behavior of a collection of metrics.  Metric types  typically identify one aspect of performance (such as revenue or expenses) defined by a performance pattern, for example:
  • Revenue has a performance pattern of “above target is positive”…you want revenue to be higher than target.
  • Expense has a performance pattern of “below target is positive”…you want expenses to be lower than target.
  • Inventory has a performance pattern of “on target is positive”…you want just the right amount of inventory, not too high and not too low.

Requirements gathering:

• Make sure you have the right audience at the right time…
  • Senior leaders craft vision then formulate, articulate, and communicate strategy to their groups.  They are the ones ultimately responsible for performance in this overall scorecard area.  They hold their direct reports accountable for performance of their own metrics (metric owners).  A combination of senior leader + direct reports should define which metrics to use for each strategic objective.
  • Analysts help define where the data for the predefined metrics live, how their group would like the data to display, and a metric’s impact on other metrics (just their theory…you should definitely involve metric owners and senior leaders in this theory formulation).
• Be ready to define the following during requirements gathering sessions…
  • Any graphics to support the strategic direction available (strategy map, balanced scorecard, road map, common mission statements, etc.)
  • Name users of the scorecarding system and their role (information consumer, metric owner, analyst, scorecard owner, SME, etc.)
  • For metrics, you’ll need some of the following information:
    • Business and technical descriptions
    • Owner’s name and contact info
    • Frequency of data
    • Data source for actual, target, and tolerance
    • Unit of measure, scale, and how it rolls up
    • Metrics that impact this metric
    • Metrics that are impacted by this metric
    • General groupings and location for metric on graphic
    • Supporting reports/analysis/dashboards for potential drill out
  • For scorecards, you’ll need some of the following information:
    • Scorecard name
    • Business and technical descriptions
    • Owner’s name and contact info
    • Hierarchy – where does this scorecard fit in the tree
    • Supporting documentation for the strategic initiative

That’s all for now.  We’ll touch on best practices and other general advice in next week’s post.

Craig Harding

First of all, scripts may break when upgrading versions. There are new objects available to use and some taken away with each release. I will be talking about Cognos 8.3 for the purposes of this blog.

I want to show you a basic script that can be very useful. The idea for this came from a client who asked me to solve a problem. They had a report that had 2 optional prompts. The problem was some users were not making use of either. This was resulting in very large result sets being returned.

What we wanted to accomplish was requiring the user to choose a value from either prompt. It did not matter which one.  To accomplish this I put two list prompts on a prompt page. One was called om (I am making use of the provided sample data) for order method and the other was called pl for product line. An html item was inserted near the top of the prompt page which includes my function.

<script type=”text/javascript”>

function checkNumSelected()

{

// The following 4 lines of code are needed in Cognos 8.3

var fW = (typeof getFormWarpRequest == “function” ?

getFormWarpRequest() : document.forms["formWarpRequest"]);

// if it’s undefined, check if it is running in a portlet.

if ( !fW || fW == undefined) { fW = ( formWarpRequest_THIS_ ?

formWarpRequest_THIS_ : formWarpRequest_NS_ );}

//setting up my variables

       var countom=0;

       var countpl=0;

       var omcount = fW._oLstChoicesom;

       var plcount=fW._oLstChoicespl;
       // count how many choices were selected in the Order method prompt
       for (var i=0; i < omcount.length; i++)
       {
             if (omcount.options[i].selected)
                  countom = countom +1 ;
       }      
      // count how many choices were selected in the Product Line prompt
      for (var i=0; i < plcount.length; i++)
       {
             if (plcount.options[i].selected)
                  countpl = countpl +1 ;
       }    

     // If at least one option was selected in wither prompt call the promptbuttonfinish fuction
    // If nothing was selected throw up an alert box with directions
         if (countom >=1 || countpl>=1) {
          promptButtonFinish();
     }
     else if (countom == 0 && countpl==0) {
          alert(“You have not selected a value!\n Select a value in one of the prompts.”);
   }

}

</script>

In order to call this function I deleted the finish button on the prompt page and created my own through an HTML item with the following code

//<input type=”button” OnClick=”checkNumSelected()” value=”Finish”

Contact the Blogger

Craig Colangelo, Sr Consultant at PerformanceG2

June 15, 2009

Peter Drucker said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”. I can certainly understand this quote’s applicability in today’s corporate climate of mass measurements and broad focus. T.P.S. report, anyone? But what, exactly, should be done? Where, exactly, should we focus?

The answers vary by company, industry, and even change with the economic times. The secret to your company’s success is complicated and specific and is ever evolving. Scorecarding applications allow you to clearly map out and perform along your own path to corporate success. Benefits of implementing thoughtful, actionable scorecarding include:

• Strategy focused organization
• Agility – well equipped to handle internal and external change
• Greater results focus
• Better accuracy in forecasting business results
• More holistic view of performance
• Clear cause and effect leading to better decision making

Understanding potential corporate culture risks are key to a successful implementation. Contemplating the following risks will help you more thoughtfully implement components at the right levels and in the right way at your own organization:

• Accountability and visibility – Think about your own organization’s tolerance for broadcasting results. This is truly putting a metric to a name…in some form.
• Need to trust the tool – If your ‘check engine’ light is glowing and you ignore it, is it doing any good?
• Adversity to change – If your implementation is meant to guide change in your company, give thought to how willing you are to accept change.
• Time constraints – Many decision makers are completely bogged down living only in the operational management space (day to day)…how can you best introduce strategy based decisions? Who should learn the new system? How?

Recognizing the right kind of scorecarding opportunity is another key to a successful implementation. Often times, meaningful corporate change projects are started with little thought around how to influence, measure, and communicate results. Do your best to piggy-back on just that sort of project. Opportunities include:

• Whenever performance becomes an issue (under performing, aggressive growth plans, acquisitions of new businesses, etc.)
• Corporate or departmental strategic initiatives
• ‘Franchise’ type opportunities (i.e. – bank branch performance)
• Senior leaders looking for new ways to manage their portion of the business
• Process improvement or change management initiatives
• Incentive programs

Now that we’ve covered some of the key benefits, potential risks, and common opportunities…. we’ll touch on scorecarding 101 and requirements gathering during next week’s post.