I'm the dev lead for Cognos Insight at IBM (though these opinions are my own - not official..) Thanks for engaging with CI - we are very interested in your feedback, even if it does occasionally come from the wrong side of the bed.
The initial release of Cognos Insight uses the same charting engine as our Business Intelligence platform, however doesn't offer as many settings to allow users to customize their charts. Going forward, IBM is getting really serious about visualization, and you can expect some coolness to be showing up in the days ahead.Here is my 2 cents worth and I have got out from the wrong side of the bed so ...
We had a demo of TM1 Insight with an established user of QlikView last week and frankly these are some of the conclusions we came
1) Visualization , lack of quality charting, the charting is best described as average compared to QlikView or Tableau.
Interesting - I've heard this a few times, but not sure why you wouldn't build different workspaces for different user groups rather than secure individual tabs. Setting up security across many users and many functions can quickly become cumbersome, so I generally tend to try and keep these things as simple as I can.2) TAB's are nice but I would like to have security based on TAB's in the CDD Files. I guess TM1 security will apply.
To make it easier for uninitiated users, Cognos Insight import does three things by default that aren't available in Architect. First we qualify member names so that uninitiated users don't run into trouble with duplicate member names. Second, we handle blanks in the incoming data, and third we always create a top element for each dimension. If you turn these features off, the performance should be the same.3) TI's take approx 3 times the time they take via Architect or Perspectives.
It should not take 15 seconds to move between tabs. We do have to load tab contents on first access, so if there is a complex query driven by explore points or an interesting grid configuration there may be a small first time delay. We are continuing to add to our performance test suite as we encounter customer examples of data sets and queries - please do let us know through support if you have a data set we need to look at.4) Performance i.e. took 15 seconds to move between tabs. This could be subjective so I would like members opinion on this.
Interesting - we currently support sharing through Cognos Connection - which allows sharing of any number of .cdd files, offers folder object security (read/write/traverse) to grant access to the right group of people, and supports provisioning of Cognos Insight for users who don't have it installed.5) Pass CDD's around , Why can't we store them in Traditional Applications folder ?
Agreed - though this isn't specific to Cognos Insight, data integration between TM1 servers is a use case that will get more and more attention as we make it easier to create and deploy TM1 applications.6) Promotion from Dev to Prod, I know there are "workarounds" but that's simply not good enough.
You can't print the canvas, but you can right click on the canvas and "Copy to Clipboard". This makes it easy to put an image of a Cognos Insight tab into another document. I know that's not a good enough answer, but hope it helps in the meantime.7) Printing, You can't print these reports ! Can't export them to PDF.
Cognos Insight does support spreading (though classic TM1 interfaces offer a few more options). Are there specific spreading options you are looking for?8) Spreading , if its a contribution tool then that's a must.
Not sure what the use case is here? Normally Cognos Insight is either used by an individual creating a workspace to be shared with others or consuming a workspace that has been authored and published by someone else. Maybe you are thinking of "Central-mode" where multiple users can be performing modelling actions at the same time?9) How is user going to refersh the Tab's apart from logging off and logging back on ? Have I missed a point here ?
Sorry, don't understand this one. You can publish as many Cognos Insight applications as you want.10) Why is only one CDD file allowed to published via TM1 Applications ?
Interesting - we run global "blitz tests" with users all around the world working in connected contribution mode every week. I'm thinking you should tell your IBM contact to give me a call..11) In Connected mode the performance even by IBM admission is not recommended.
Ouch - that one stings a little. The idea here is to make it vastly easier to create and deploy Business Intelligence and Performance Management applications. Our competitors claim to deliver applications in hours and minutes - we can do it in seconds, plug into an enterprise BI infrastructure, and give you a glidepath to all of the rich functionality in our TM1 and BI platforms. As a consumption vehicle for PM & BI, I hope you'll find the rich layout capabilities useful to better explain the context in which the data lives. Distributed mode delivers higher scalability and responsiveness than you've seen before, and explore points give you new ways to explore TM1 data. Fundamentally CI is about agile performance management - if we haven't hit that mark we want to hear from you so we can work together to "make it so".The standard reply we got from IBM was "but it's a good Pre Sales tool" .. We ain't taking it to anybody ever again.
Thanks again - lets keep the conversation going - I won't be able to monitor the forum all the time so get to us through the normal channels as well, but glad to hear from real people trying to do real things with our software.Cheerio