Tip or Technique

Whats new with IBM Cognos Controller 84

Product(s): IBM Cognos Controller 8.4 Area of Interest: Upgrade/Migration

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Copyright and Trademarks Licensed Materials - Property of IBM. Copyright IBM Corp. 2009 IBM, the IBM logo, and Cognos are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist. IBM does not accept responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information contained in this document. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. This document is maintained by the Best Practices, Product and Technology team. You can send comments, suggestions, and additions to cscogpp@ca.ibm.com.

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Contents
1 1.1 1.2 1.3 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 3 PURPOSE ................................................................................................................ 3 APPLICABILITY ......................................................................................................... 3 EXCLUSIONS AND EXCEPTIONS ..................................................................................... 3 IBM COGNOS CONTROLLER 8.4 NEW FEATURES.......................................... 3 LOG OFF ACTIVE USERS ............................................................................................. 3 CHANGING REPORTING STATUS/RECONCILIATION PROCESS ................................................. 9 PREVENT MULTIPLE SESSIONS ................................................................................... 10 IMPROVED PUBLISH TO DATA MART FUNCTIONALITY ....................................................... 10 ENHANCED PERFORMANCE ........................................................................................ 12 EXTENDED CONFORMANCE AND LOCALIZATION ............................................................... 13

1 Introduction
1.1 Purpose This document provides information around the new features of IBM Cognos Controller 8.4. Applicability IBM Cognos Controller 8.4 Exclusions and Exceptions There are no known exceptions and exclusions at the time this document was created.

1.2

1.3

2 IBM Cognos Controller 8.4 New Features

2.1 Log Off Active Users As of IBM Cognos Controller 8.4, there is a new feature that allows you to log off users from within the application. You will find the menu under Maintain > User > Manage Active Users.

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The new menu allows you to see the users logged on to the system.

Whats new with IBM Cognos Controller 84 The new functionality ensures that the system is locked for new users to prevent new users from logging on while logging off others. An information message is shown if the system is locked The first recommended step is to lock the system for all users, so that no one can log on. Go to Maintain > User > Manage active users and lock the system for new users.

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After the system is locked to all new users, you see the following -

When a user tries to log on, the following message appears: The system is locked. Please contact your System Administrator. Note that even if the System Manager logs off, the lock remains. The only way to unlock the system without pressing the Unlock button is to restart the User Manager on the application server. You can log of the user by selecting the Log off check box for each user. You can not log off the system administrator. You should note that only one user at the time can open the menu and that you cannot log off yourself. The line with the User Manager is disabled and unmarked.

Whats new with IBM Cognos Controller 84 This is the message shown after clicking Log off selected users.

This is the message that appears when the user has been logged off -

If the user has started a job, you should note that the message is shown after the job has finished. Then the system will be locked, and the user must click OK. When you log off a user it will take a few minutes until the user is logged off. The time interval is hard coded and cannot be set. During this time, the user can work normally with the system. The user is shown as active until the OK button is clicked, then you can set the system in single user mode.

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You have the option called Force to logged off users. Select the Force users to log off regardless of running applications check box to use the Force option.

Why and when should you use this option? The user has lost contact with the server application in a non-handled way. The user is running a process that takes a long time. You have the same options as when you do not use Force.

This is the message that is shown to users who have been forced to log off using the Force option. You should note that: Processes may still be running. The difference with the Force option is that the user is immediately removed as active and that you can immediately set the system in a single user mode.

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Additional information: Note that it can take a few minutes until the log off can take place. Even if a user is forced to log off, jobs that lock the client, for example consolidation or generation of company structure, continue to process. Terminating active jobs is not handled. Batch-queue jobs are not handled by the log off function. Log off Active users security It is not a prerequisite to be a system administrator. Access to the menu is handled by user rights. Only one user at a time can access the menu. Only users for one database are handled. There may be different user rights for different databases

2.2

Changing Reporting Status/Reconciliation Process There is a new feature that makes it possible to select groups and not only companies when changing status, which of course makes it much easier for a user to administer the status handling. You should note that you can select all selected companies by using Ctrl+A on your keyboard.

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2.3

Prevent Multiple Sessions A user should not be able to start more than one session of Controllers window client. For security reasons, it is no longer possible to run multiple sessions of Controller. The reason why is that running multiple sessions may corrupt data and cause problems. Check Rules for Automatic Journals There is more clarification around the message as they are now split into error and information messages. Improved Publish to Data Mart Functionality In previous versions of IBM Cognos Controller you might have experienced issues with BI reports. When looking at a sub-groups result in a BI group, different values from the trial balance in IBM Cognso Controller may have been shown. This was due to how automatic journals were displayed. To ensure that automatic journals with ktypkonc were not blank and are shown at the right level in BI Reports, a new fictitious company in DM tables has been introduced EC (Elimination Company).

2.4

Explanation of the additional EC_Companies created when publishing to data mart for IBM Cognos BI. In IBM Cognos Controller automatic journals for a certain parent perspective are stored on the subsidiaries and subgroup of a group. The result is that the values for the subgroup or subsidiary will be incorrectly if: a) The subgroup and subsidiary are cross-owned. The automatic journals for all parent perspectives will be aggregated to each parent.

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b) Viewing a subsidiary or a subgroup as the top level values for parents perspectives, the automatic journals for all parents perspectives are aggregated and included in the subgroup or subsidiarys total. c) The solution when publishing data to the datamart tables creates an additional company within each group which holds the automatic journal from the perspective of that group. The information is stored on a company with name format EC_<GROUPCODE>. Where multi-ownership exists, this solution only applies when publishing the top group including the subgroups. When multi-ownership exists in consolidation type, it is suggested that you always publish the top group including sub groups to ensure correct sub-group totals. a) In IBM Cognos Controller automatic journals for a certain parent perspective are stored on the subsidiaries and subgroup of a group. The result is that the values for the subgroup or subsidiary will be incorrect. b) The subgroup and subsidiary are cross-owned and the automatic journals for all parent perspectives will be aggregated to each parent. c) Viewing a subsidiary or a subgroup as the top level values for parents perspectives, the automatic journals for all parents perspectives are aggregated and included in the subgroup or subsidiary's total. d) The solution when publishing data to the datamart tables creates an additional company within each group which holds the automatic journals from the perspective of that group. This information is stored on a company with name format EC_<GROUPCODE>. This solution only applies where no multi-ownership exists in the consolidation type.

DM Tables: The automatic journals have been moved from the company itself to the EC Company.

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Trial Balance Run the Trial balance and select Show eliminations separately. You can see how the values reconciled.

2.5

Enhanced Performance Significant effort spent on optimizing IBM Cognos Controller performance. Improvements depend on the complexity and size of the database. Areas include:

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Consolidation Process Calc Reports Excel Reports Some maintenance, for example company structure and user rights.

2.6

Extended Conformance and localization Extended Conformance Active support of Windows Vista Support of 64-bit Oracle database server, UNIX platform Deprecated support as of IBM Cognos Controller 8.4 Adobe Reader version 6 Microsoft Excel version 2000

Whats new with IBM Cognos Controller 84 Localization User guide translated into Traditional Chinese In addition to support of 64-bit Oracle database server on Windows along with UNIX

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