IBM recently announced a major licensing change for their IBM Cognos Planning licenses. Clients that are on 8.4.1 of IBM Cognos Planning and own Contributor, will receive an equivalent license for IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor. This is great news for clients looking to complement Planning with TM1. Utilizing TM1 will require the purchase of the TM1 Modeler and TM1 Analytic server licenses.
With this licensing change, they are requiring all IBM Cognos Planning licensing clients to be on the latest Cognos Planning Enterprise Licensing Model to download 8.4.1. Clients who purchased Cognos Planning or Adaytum Planning prior to the IBM acquisition may be affected and be required to modify their IBM Cognos licensing.
For all older Cognos Planning licenses clients, there are a lot of benefits to upgrading your licenses.
If you are currently on an older licensing model which would allow you to download 8.4.0 but not the latest 8.4.1 IBM Cognos Planning, you have two options:
Option 1: Stay on current license structure and upgrade to 8.4.0
Considerations:
• Job servers – Provided you are on the old Adaytum licensing that restricted use to a single server, additional job servers can not be added to Cognos Planning
• Future patches and updates are being created for 8.4.1. Currently with Planning 8.4.0, neither Windows 7 or Internet Explorer 8 are listed as a supported platform. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27018542
• Planning Generation of Framework for BI is not included in the older licensing.
• Upgrading from Planning 8.4.0 to 8.4.1 is a complete uninstall and reinstall of the Planning software
• Planning Contributors will NOT receive an equivalent license for IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor.
• Non-Production Environment would require an additional licenseBenefits: IBM Cognos Planning 8.4.0 provides a new and more robust users interface for the end users. Other benefits depend on the current version you are utilizing.
Option 2: Trade up the licenses to Enterprise Planning Licensing Model
Benefits:
• Allows for the download and installation of Cognos 8.4.1 the latest release of Cognos Planning
• Job Servers- The Enterprise licensing allows for a reasonable number of servers so multiple job servers can be added to Cognos Planning
• Future patches and updates are being created for 8.4.1. Planning Currently Planning 8.4.1 Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 are supported. http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27018542
• Contributor licenses include the Excel Add-in for Contributor
• Contributors will have rights to receive notifications and alerts from Event Studio
• EP Modelers(fka Analyst) will have rights to use Event Studio
• EP Modelers(fka Analyst) will have rights to model and access any source (both metadata and data) via Framework Manager, including underlying components and services
• Planning Generation of Framework for BI is included in the licensing.
• Planning Contributors will receive an equivalent license for IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor. However, purchase of the TM1 Analytic server and PM Model would be required.
• Most new licensing models are based on named users, therefore no additional licenses are required for a Non-Production environment. The exception is a PVU licensing model.
Lodestar Solutions strongly recommends all clients with Cognos Planning licenses – review their licensing and consider trading up to the new licensing model as there are many benefits. We would be happy to help. For information contact us at Sales@LodestarSolutions.com.