Are you a long time IBM Cognos user? Over the past few years, have you begun to encounter any or all of the following symptoms: Slow Running Reports, System is Difficult to Navigate, Error Messages, or Screens Slow to Resolve? How closely are you following industry Best Practices? Are you confident that your backup/recovery process will work when you need it? Is your Cognos environment architected and tuned to promote high performance, maximum sustainability, and easy maintenance?
BrightStar Partners (BSP) will conduct a thorough evaluation of your Cognos implementation and deliver a series of best practices-based recommendations designed to maximize the return on your investment. Through interviews and hands-on assessments, BSP will examine all aspects, both technical and non-technical, of your Cognos implementation. The results of this analysis will then be compiled into a comprehensive study document from which actionable recommendations will be drawn. Finally, BSP will work with you to develop an execution plan to implement these recommendations.
Deliverables:
The following subject areas will be assessed:
Standard – Five Days
- Application architecture
- Navigation Design
- Ease of Use
- Server architecture
- Server sizing
- Configuration settings
- Load balancing / Fault tolerance
- Metadata design
- Best practices for multi-tiered model design
- Naming standards
- Package organization and promotion procedures
- Performance optimization opportunities
- Automation
- Best practices for creating and managing schedules
- Performance and error monitoring
- Security
- Best practices for designing and applying security
- Report Design
- Report design standards
- Effective use of charts, graphs, and crosstabs
- Cognos Licensing
- Usage alignment with current entitlements
- Opportunities for reducing annual support/renewal costs
Premier – Ten Days - Everything that the Standard package offers plus the following subject areas
- Cognos Connection
- Effective navigation and organization standards
- Backup & recovery procedures
- Automating backups
- Recovery procedures for full content store or single objects
- Defect tracking
- Development to QA to Production migration
- Migrating content store content
- Migrating items that are outside of the content store
- Developer training and skill sets
- Team dynamics
- Power-user cultivation
- Business value
- Stakeholder value
- End-user training
- End-user adoption
To learn more, please contact Richard Manns at BrightStar Partners at rmanns@brightstarpartners.com or 847.439.0308 x115.
Unlock the Power of the SunGard Banner ODS/EDW
BrightStar Partners has full life cycle expertise using IBM Cognos Business Intelligence with SunGard’s Banner ODS/EDW. BSP has partnered with many universities for successful installations, upgrades, environment customizations, security implementations, metadata modeling, report design and development, training, and more. Leveraging our Best Practices honed over many engagements and our trademarked solution development Methodology with extensions designed specifically around the ODS/EDW Cognos solution, BSP can ensure that the implementation or upgrade of your IBM Cognos Banner ODS/EDW reporting solution delivers quick ROI while ensuring that your solution will continue to support your evolving business needs. BSP understands the unique user requirements of the Higher Education space and have built specific extensions to our Methodology in support of maximizing the Higher Education end-user experience with Cognos.
From technical architecture and development to full user training and rollout geared specifically towards Higher Education, BSP can ensure that your IBM Cognos BI and Banner ODS/EDW solution is an overwhelming success.
To learn more, please contact Neil Morgan at BrightStar Partners at nmorgan@brightstarpartners.com or 847.439.0308 x113.
Getting Started on the Right Track for Success
BrightStar Partners’ Right Track Services are designed to ensure new and even existing IBM Cognos customers implement a solid foundation for their Performance Management solution. Leveraging our Best Practices honed over many engagements and our trademarked solution development Methodology, BSP can ensure that your IBM Cognos Performance Management solution delivers quick ROI while ensuring that your solution will continue to support your evolving business needs. Specifically, the Right Track Services offering focuses on the following aspects of a solid and sustainable IBM Cognos deployment:
- Architecture evaluation, sizing, and recommendations
- Expert installation, configuration, and tuning
- Design and implementation of security infrastructure
- Overview of development using Framework Manager and IBM Cognos Studios
- Knowledge transfer on Best Practices and Methodology for implementing, supporting, and growing your Performance Management implementation
- Development and deployment of a pilot solution
- Full development of Phase 1 project deliverables including models, reports, dashboards, and cubes
- Classroom training for business and IT staff on development and use of IBM Cognos BI
At BrightStar Partners, we offer the business and technical expertise to help you achieve the success you are looking for. Our people have the experience and credentials to quickly understand your processes and challenges and architect a solution to drive immediate value.
Security Migration Self-Service
Migrating from a legacy Cognos security source (Access Manager on top of SunOne, AD, etc.) to another is far from trivial. BSP’s Security Migration Self-Service can greatly streamline and automate this process.
The challenge is that a user in the old security source is not the same user in the new security source. For example, Jane Doe, represented by a unique identifier (CAMID) in the old security source, is not the same Jane Doe, represented by a different unique identifier (CAMID), in the new security source. Consequently, Jane Doe’s My Folders content, preferences, portal pages, schedules, memberships, capabilities, policies, and permissions will not carry over in spite of using the same exact name.
BSP brings you a self-service offering backed by a programmatic solution to this daunting challenge. The Security Migration Self-Service seamlessly migrates users’ identities from one security source in IBM Cognos to another. Customers migrating to new security sources (such as Active Directory, SAP, etc…) can now safely and easily migrate each user’s identity to the new security source.
Whether you are changing security models or moving from development to test to production with distinct security sources, the BSP Security Migration Self-Service provides you with everything you need to perform the migration on your own, on your timelines, at your convenience! This self-service covers mappings from:
- My Folders content
- Preferences
- Portal Pages
- Schedules
- Membership
- Capabilities
- Policies
- Permissions
- All other user properties
To learn more, please click here to contact us.
