IBM Cognos Analytics – What’s coming in the next release

Cognos Analytics 11.0.4 is scheduled for release by end of September 2016

Some of the more relevant enhancements include :

  • Dashboarding – many new gestures available such as :
    • Top/Bottom Value highlighting,
    • Conditional Formatting
    • Crosstabs
    • Refresh Timer for widgets
  • Reporting
    • Javascript in interactive view
    • Authored drill through in interactive viewer
  • Modeling
    • Hide/Show Tables/Columns
    • Undo/redo last gesture (no impact on workflow)
    • Validation (calculations, data modules)
    • Auto-join via intent – type in topic & auto model suggested, suggested joins between objects even if they don’t exist in database
    • Clean Null Values – substitute 0 for no
  • Storytelling
    • Allows to create personal visualization collection
    • Pin dashboards to repost
    • Visualizations remain interactive
  • Customizing
    • Theming/Extensions – change colors/branding to match apps
    • Simple UI to upload – refresh browser
    • Extension bundle – menus & navigation bar, rename buttons, add custom buttons & icons
  • Data Sets
    • Create data set (new term for enhanced Snapshots) from a module or a Framework Manager (FM) package. These can be scheduled to be refreshed.
    • Allows for only a subset of package data to be imported – a feature requested by many customers.  Creates data file stored in content store which you can then create reports & dashboards with
    • Datasets also support adding Powercubes into dashboards.
    • Direct connection to FM packages will be in a subsequent release.  The Dataset import will remain as an option as well for use cases better served with that approach
  • Easy to upgrade
    • Lifecycle Manager – easier to get content across to Cognos 11 with minimal rework to reports
    • All content moves forward, no report is left behind
    • Traditional Studios still available
    • No license role changes
  • Other Enhancements
    • Redesigned search – My Content
    • Content Management – sliding panels, same security
    • Users can subscribe to reports
    • Studio simplification – reduced number of interfaces (Report, Dashboard, Data Module)
    • Limited & fully interactive modes available
    • Workspace opens in a new tab – no more ‘do more’
    • Geospatial mapping (MapBox) and RAVE 2 will be integrated in the next release (11.0.5) – read our blog and attend World of Watson for more details