Cognos Help Resources

For those of you interested in Business Intelligence (BI) software, here are a few links relevant for IBM Cognos 8 BI:


Cognos

Most of the support or help information on the Cognos site requires a login and password.

Supportlink is published frequently and includes some interesting tips and techniques
http://support.cognos.com/supportlink/

The main Cognos support site, the Knowledge Base is a useful tool
http://support.cognos.com/en/support/index.html

Customer Resource Center - Report Author Section contains more detailed documents on different subjects and techniques
http://support.cognos.com/en/resources/roles/gcs_3.html


COGNOISe

Cognos Centered community, here's the link to the forums:

http://www.cognoise.com/community/


ITtoolbox

Some Cognos related forums, take a look at the forum list for other products

http://businessintelligence.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/cognos8-l
http://businessintelligence.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/cognos-l


Tek-Tips

Another Cognos related forum

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=401

Cognos Performance 2007

I had the opportunity to go to Cognos Performance 2007. It's basically a one day event centered around their products: new ones, what they do, how to use them, how they are used by different organizations, there's also the odd performance measurement/management related presentation.

I've been going for a few years now, I started because I was a user of their products, I'm not sure whether it was Impromptu or ReportNet at the time. I keep going both to keep in touch and know what's coming down the line.

I wouldn't recommend it for someone who never used Cognos products and who never plans to, but if you're a user, or customer, you might be interested. It's free, so the only cost is your time and transportation. I'm suprised that we don't see many students at this event.

you can access the day's agenda here: http://www.cognos.com/performance2007/na_agenda.html#on_ott

I went to Best Practices in Framework Manager, Keys to Successful Migrations from Cognos Series 7 to Cognos 8 BI and Complete Reporting and Analysis Coverage with Cognos 8 BI.

Those choices might seem strange to you, but remember that I've been using Cognos products for a few years now. If I had to choose again, I would've taken the IBM presentation over the migration session. I thought was hoping the migration would talk more about the new features in Cognos 8 (how to leverage them), but it was actually about the actual migration process itself.

Overall, I don't regret going.