Re: Cognos Reporting Tool

  They make several products. We use Impromptu (reporting tool) to feed PowerPlay (OLAP tool). When we did the analysis several years ago, we chose PowerPlay. Building cubes was much easier with PowerPlay than with Oracle Express. Although Express probably scales better. We use PowerPlay to summarize 250 million call records. The trick is to sort and group them in the database before feeding them to PowerPlay. You need individuals with these characteristics to use the tool: 1) Analytical skills
2) Understanding of the data
  We have a few key users that really use the tool to the fullest extent of its potential. Many folks who were trained just don't grasp the cube concept. This is not the fault of the tool - you will have this regardless of the tool that you use.   You will want to have a server dedicated to building and storing the cubes. If they try to push the web version of PowerPlay, be sure to compare the functionality to the client tool. We have the web version - it is good for bringing up some canned PowerPlay reports, but you really want the client version for writing reports and exploring the cubes. I don't know if this has changed in the last 2 years or not.

Jay Hostetter
Oracle DBA
D. & E. Communications
Ephrata, PA USA

>>> roddholman_at_hotpop.com 11/18/02 02:46PM >>>
Good afternoon listers.
I just found out that I will be meeting with the sales "dog and pony" folks from Cognos on Tuesday. Have any of you worked with this product? What should I be aware of? What plusses/minuses should I look for? Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

Rodd Holman

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Author: Jay Hostetter
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