Advantages of Cognos 8 to Cognos 7 and vise versa

[nanzmercado]

Hi,

we are currently using Cognos 7 here in our office. Can somebody tell me the advantages of upgrading to cognos 8? Is it worth to upgrade?

Thank You

[RubenvdLinden]

Can you tell me a little bit more about your Cognos 7 environment? Do you use Impromptu, PowerPlay, WebReports? On how many workstations? etc.

[MFGF]

Hi,

we are currently using Cognos 7 here in our office. Can somebody tell me the advantages of upgrading to cognos 8? Is it worth to upgrade?

Thank You

Hi,

What issues are you having with Cognos 7?  If it is answering all your current business needs and is not generating any problems, why change?  If you're having issues with needing to create and update multiple catalogs (for example), or you need to give users the ability to author complex reports through a browser, then Cognos 8 may help alleviate some of these issues, but it really depends what issues you have as to whether Cognos 8 will be an appropriate solution.  Is it worth moving to C8 just because it's newer?  Probably not, given the amount of work involved in the migration, so you'd need to formulate a good business case to justify the move.

Just my opinion, of course! :)

MF.

[nanzmercado]

oh thank u for the replies.

Thank u so much MF =)

[tupac_rd]

Also, isn't there any issue of how long IBM-Cognos will support Cognos 7 etc., and maybe that should be the reason to move to 8 etc.,

[MFGF]

Also, isn't there any issue of how long IBM-Cognos will support Cognos 7 etc., and maybe that should be the reason to move to 8 etc.,

Not currently.  Development and support for Series 7 is ongoing, and open-ended (ie there is no cut-off point currently in place for this to end).

MF.

[SmitaMDave]

Hello,

I am new to this forum ..I have used it before but just joined today after seeing this post...

Its great to know that somebody else is also STILL on Congos 7 other than us!!!

I have only worked with Cognos 7 and have seen demos etc for Cognos 8. However after reading forums etc..I am aware of the advantages of Cognos 8 but am wondering if some disadv of Cognos 7 still exist?

After working with Cognos 7, I know I would like the following to be better....

1) Data retrieval ..currently if we need to get low level detail (Sales/Shop/Sku/Day for 6 months...) from Impromptu .its a nightmare for response times....despite the fact that we use Datamarts on Oracle 11i...
Hence in Cognos 8 I would definitely like this to be good as other packages (Board, SAP etc..)

2) I am assuming cube sizes limitations will exists...I suppose the advantags is that multiple cubes can be used as a datasource..

3) Auditing of Usage of Cognos Upfront. IWR and Powerplay Reports..
again..I think what we have in Cognos 7 is too manual and time consuming - spec the PPESAUDIT commands ..(I am now looking to see if I can use access or something! (BAD!) )
This should all be inbuilt ..does any BI tool have this..I thoght SAP did...but not sure of Cognos?

In short, I have found that the maintenance side to Cognos 7(Cognos Upfront, Audits, Access Manager)  is too manual and time consuming - is this any different (read better!) in Cognos 8?

P.S sorry for the long note!
Smita

[yepperstn]

Smita,

Cognos did a much better job with Cognos 8 than they did with Series 7 with regard to administration and the like.  There is also built-in auditing (which can be accessed through the same web interface).  (Note: The auditing needs to be configured in order to actually use it though).

One of the major administrative benefits is that all of the software runs on one or more servers (with the exception of PowerPlay client [Mobile Analysis]).  Therefore the majority of tuning can be done by accessing your servers vs touching every desktop running Series 7.  This also gives Cognos 8 a performance advantage as the hardware that it runs on is typically more robust than that of Series 7.

Hope this helps!  I'm by far not an expert but we are running both Series 7 (mostly PowerPlay client) and Cognos 8.