Have a look at our Professional Services offerings here.
View our Implementation-Based Product offerings here.
Visit our online eCommerce Website here.
Join COGNOiSe.com, the largest independent, worldwide FREE IBM Cognos Support Community by clicking here.
Cognos, an IBM Company, becomes a BSP Customer. See here for more information. |
|
| Greetings!
Welcome to this month's BSP Newsletter. We would enjoy hearing your suggestions regarding the content you'd like to see. Please e-mail us if you would want to have a particular topic discussed in future newsletters. |
|
IBM Cognos Joins the List of BSP Customers!
As seen in the May 12, 2008 Press Release, Cognos, an IBM company, has obtained a world-wide, non-exclusive license to use our MetaManager solution. As a BSP customer, Cognos staff will be able to use MetaManager in customer-facing engagements to streamline and accelerate their ability to deliver solutions.
Through our long tenure working with the entire suite of IBM Cognos products as a Platinum Reseller partner, Gold Technology partner and Powered by IBM Cognos member, we are thrilled to have Cognos' internal staff benefit from the solutions our customers are so greatly benefitting from as well.
MetaManager customers have experienced ROI upwards of 600% and higher within the first year of use, not to mention the substantial return on their existing IBM Cognos investment by enabling developers and administrators to focus more of their time on value-added activity.
Click here to read the full Press Release. | |
|
Dynamically Swap Rows and Columns of a Crosstab Report
The technique explained below will enable you to build functionality in a report studio report allowing users to dynamically swap the rows and columns of a crosstab report in IBM Cognos viewer.
The following steps highlight this technique:
- In Report Studio, create a new Crosstab report based on the GO Sales and Retailers Package.
- Do not add any items to the cross tab. We will do it later.
- In Query Explorer, click Query1.
- From the Insertable Objects pane, add Order Method, Order Year and Quantity to data items.
- Use the Page Explorer to return to Page1.
- From the Toolbox, drag a Value Prompt to the immediate left of the blank crosstab, and assign the parameter name Disp_Param.
- Click Finish.
- In the report page, click the value prompt you just created to select it, and set the following General properties:
- Property 'Required' set to 'No'
- Property 'Auto Submit' set to 'Yes'
- Property 'Select UI' set to 'Radio Button group'
Still in the Properties for the value prompt, under Data, click the ellipsis in the Static Choices box.
Click the Add icon.
In the Use box, type 'Original', and in the Display box, type 'Original Display', and then click OK.
Create a second static choice with Use and Display values of Swap and Swap Rows and Columns respectively.
Click OK.
In Query Explorer, for Query1, add a new data item CalcRow with the following expression:
- if (?Disp_Param? = 'Original')
then ( cast_char([Order method]) )
else ( cast_char([Order year]) )
Add another calculated data item called CalcCol with the following expression:
- if (?Disp_Param? = 'Original')
then ( cast_char([Order year]) )
else ( cast_char([Order method]) )
In the Page Explorer, add the data item CalcRow to rows, add CalcCol to columns, and add Quantity to measures.
Click the value prompt that you created earlier, and in the Properties pane, under General, set the default value for the prompt to a simple selection of 'Original'.
Save and run the report.
Now end users can swap the rows and columns in report viewer by clicking one of the options provided.
To request a working copy of this technique, complete with screen-shots, please e-mail BrightStar Partners. |
|
Take Our Newest Implementation-Based Product for a Test Drive
After much anticipation, we released our latest in the suite of implementation-based solutions. CPM Explorer is a Windows Explorer extension for Cognos Connection, providing full navigation of the portal in the familiar Windows Explorer user interface. Cognos users can perform common, everyday operations such as:
- Creating and Renaming Folders
- Creating Report Shortcuts in Cognos Connection and standard Windows locations
- Moving and Copying Reports and Folders
- Viewing and Running reports in HTML, PDF & Excel
- Emailing Report Output
- Viewing Report Properties
As a valued member of our monthly newsletter mailer, we are offering a free 30 day trial of CPM Explorer. You can obtain your copy of the software here.
Note that you can take a look at the product recording here. |
BSP Launches eCommerce Website!
As we continue to expand our portfolio on the Implementation-Based Software side of the business, we have decided to broaden our reach with our new online store.
The BSP Software eCommerce website will allow our customers around the globe to access and purchase new products as they become available. The new website is also an outlet for distributing various free and commercial utilities, samples and how-to documents that we have authored over the years and continue to develop. Over the next few months this site will be growing to provide our customers with more content and better support resources, so be sure to check back often! | |
|
|
Did You Know...
In IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning...
- One of the most important and fundamental practices for analyst model building is to draft the planning model design on paper and to build from the bottom up.
- Cognos Planning-Manager is an excellent complement to the Cognos Planning Suite. Some enhanced capabilities of this application are updating the entire Cognos Planning model via "one-click," generating of ad-hoc reports, and creating a menu-driven user interface.
- Cognos Planning - Excel Add-in is a great way to ease users into Enterprise Planning. The Add-in offers an Excel interface that communicates directly with the Analyst application and allows the users to update the model, without actually having to be IN the model.
About 'Wiki'...
- 'Wiki' is a Hawaiian word which means Quick.
- WikiWikiWeb (also known as WardsWiki) is the first wiki software ever written. It was developed in 1994 by Ward Cunningham in order to make the exchange of ideas between programmers easier.
- Today there are multiple sister sites launched by many users to help exchange ideas.
- Wikimapia.org is a site which is similar to Google Maps but allows users to tag sites on a world map.
- Wikipedia.org, the most familiar of all is user contributed encyclopedia.
- Wiktionary.org is a user contributed dictionary site in multiple languages.
- In his book "Wikinomics", this year's motivational speaker at the Cognos Forum, Don Tapscott explains how to prosper in a world where new communications technologies are democratizing the creation of value.
|
BrightStar Partners is committed to bringing you quality content month after month. If you have ideas for topics or if there is something you'd like to learn more about, please contact us and we'll do our best to address your request! We hope you enjoy this newsletter as much as we enjoy bringing it to you. |
|
|
