Cognos Performance 2008 is a free one-day event offered in multiple cities across the world. Designed to provide immediate value to IT and business customers alike, this event will show you how to gain more from your current investment in Cognos as well as the value new solutions can provide to your organization.

During the Breakout Sessions, you can learn more about:

• Cognos Performance Management Solutions for Reporting, Analysis, Dashboarding, Scorecarding, and Planning.
• Techniques for better deployments and administration of Cognos applications.
• Ways to increase user adoption.
• How to leverage Cognos with your SAP implementation.
• New product functionality in Cognos Planning.
• Cognos TM1 solution for scenario modeling, analysis, and reporting.

BSP will be sponsoring the events in Chicago, Dallas and London, England.  Admission is free, but space is limited so please sign up today at:

How Much Can Your Organization Save

• Let's say that the 1190807807 is in cell A1. The number is a UNIX date.
• In cell B1, enter
  • =MONTH(A1/86400+25569) &"/"& DAY(A1/86400+25569) &"/"& YEAR(A1/86400+25569)

So let's understand what is being done.  Unix timestamps are stored as seconds since '1970-01-01 00:00:00'.  The division by 86,400 is necessary to convert the value to days, as there are 86,400 seconds in a day (60*60*24).  You then need to add 25,569, which is the number of days between Jan. 1, 1900 and Jan. 1, 1970. 

• SELECT dateadd(ss, 1190807807 , '19700101')

The "ss,1190807807" component of the dateadd function converts the seconds into days and then adds the resultant days into 19700101 to get the current date.

IBM Cognos Articles of Interest

• Build new applications in IBM Cognos 8.
• Migrate active PowerPlay applications and users to IBM Cognos 8 BI PowerPlay.
• Maintain existing IBM Cognos Series 7 applications "as is".
• Set up interoperability between IBM Cognos Series 7 applications (other than PowerPlay) and IBM Cognos 8 BI.
• Gradually migrate other IBM Cognos Series 7 applications and users to IBM Cognos 8 BI.

BrightStar Partners is proud to offer a FREE utility developed in conjunction with Cognos to help customers migrate smarter.  Have a look at the Validator for Series 7 PowerPlay here.

• Enhance, Automate, and Streamline IBM Cognos Deployments with BrightStar Partners' MetaManager
• Now Available: Validator for Series 7 PowerPlay

Is NOW the Right Time to Implement Enterprise Planning?

We often hear the frustrations from our clients and their employees.

There HAS to be an easier way to do this?
Which version is the current version?
How did I get to this forecast?
What happens if I pull this lever?

Enterprise planning software, such as Cognos Planning and TM1, can facilitate in answering these questions.However, are you really ready to implement planning?

A few key questions must be asked of your organization prior to embarking on an overhaul of your financial planning model.

1. What is our greatest area of concern for the next 12 months?
2. What is the role that planning has in setting strategy?
3. Who are the key decision makers?
4. Do we have the resources available to implement planning?
   
   • People
     • Discuss our current process.
     • User attitude - are the right people on the bus.
     • Areas of improvement
   • Data Warehouse
     • Does our business have a common storage unit for all of our raw data
     • Does our business understand all ins/outs of current systems

After a careful evaluation of the above, BrightStar Partners can help determine the best solution and the right time for your planning needs.

Did You Know...

• No one really knows the origin of this word; however some believe that it arose from the butter-yellow color of common European butterflies called sulphurs.
• There are about 28,000 known butterfly species throughout the world and about 700 in the North America.
• Butterflies and moths belong to the order Leptidoptera. This is derived from the Greek term for 'scale-wing'.
• The wings of butterflies are actually transparent. The vivid colors are due to overlapping bright scales. Butterfly wings are very delicate and can get damaged if handled. The scales too can get rubbed off if touched.
• Many butterflies have intricate and pretty patterns on their wings. These designs are intended for camouflage purposes, so the predators, like birds, either can't make out the butterflies in the trees or bushes or are scared off into thinking them to be some other larger creature.
• Some butterflies are migratory. They flies thousands of miles in the winter to places having a warmer climate, and return in the spring.
• Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
• Instead of mouths, butterflies have a long straw-like structure called proboscis.
• Butterflies taste food by standing on it. This is because their taste sensors are found in their feet.
• Adult butterflies do not grow in size as they get older.
• All butterflies aren't nectar-loving. Some - like the Red Admiral Butterfly - have decidedly peculiar tastes - they like rotting fruit and bird droppings.
• Butterflies excrete Meconium, a red liquid that looks like blood and is actually made up of waste material from the pupal stage.
• Male Swallowtail Butterflies habitually gather around mud puddles to dip nutrients from the mud. Female Swallowtails don't do this.