Easier reporting in IBM Cognos

Reports for visualizing data are of great importance for keeping an eye on company processes. The more complex and versatile the dimensions and analysis elements are, the higher the demand for clarity and convenient operation of the tool when creating reports. IBM Cognos meets these requirements insufficiently in the standard version. In the course of modernizing the application for Bette GmbH & Co. KG, TIMETOACT extended the filter and selection options individually to include important customer-specific functions. The family-owned company particularly benefits from the search and grouping function.

The most important requirement in the project was updating IBM Cognos to the current version. Since the third-party solution was no longer executable, individual adjustments were to be made to the filters and additional selection options were to be created in order to achieve better usability and performance of the application.

After the modernization, TIMETOACT experts developed in close cooperation with Bette GmbH & Co. KG a completely new solution for the filter boxes with various dynamic selection options. In an agile development project, the requirements for this were defined with the family-owned company. In the second step, TIMETOACT developed an MVP (Most Viable Product), which was tested and finalized in the customer's live environment and then integrated into the productive environment.

Based on current IBM Cognos Analytics technology, the TIMETOACT experts developed selection fields in Java Script that supplement the Cognos standard with additional functions. At the request of Bette GmbH & Co. KG's, the development focused primarily on the following important features:

• Size of the filter box individually adjustable
• Simple selection or multiple selection 
• Grouping of contents
• Availability of multilingualism (German, English)
• Parameterized preassignment with content
• Linking with any report objects 
• Automatic refresh of report contents
• Integrated search function
• Fast response times

These features complement or enhance the standard functions of IBM Cognos Analytics, so that the family business can use the familiar functions again and the additional valuable enhancements simplify the work in the interface.