Written by Mike Bernaiche, November 11th, 2021
In September 2021, IBM released Cognos Analytics 11.2.1. This blog will highlight the changes and some of the new features included with this new version.
General Changes
Search Enhancements – In version 11.2 IBM moved the search bar to the address bar. In Cognos Analytics 11.2.1, IBM added a couple of nice items to the search function. They have now included filters and the ability to save that filter for ease of use. You can filter on a particular area like data or dashboards and save that filter to use again and again.
Support for merged cells in Excel uploads – You can now take a file from excel that may look like this
And Cognos Analytics 11.2.1 will render properly in Cognos when you upload.
This enhancement will save you a lot of time “fixing” excel to properly import into Cognos Analytics.
Dashboards
New Visualizations – Included in Cognos Analytics 11.2.1 is a new 3D Hexabin Map and Donut visualization from a pie chart.
New Visualization Properties -
Change colors on the following:
- Border color on a per-axis basis
- Grid line color on a per-axis basis
- Value label color
- Repeat label color on a column
- Repeat label color on a row
Other property changes:
- Transpose bullet visualizations. This new property allows you to switch between horizontal or vertical bullet charts.
- Customizable range of bullets in bullet visualizations. These new properties allow you to customize the appearance to suit your preference or to align with your corporate branding.
Conditional Formatting Enhancements -
Easier to use properties for conditional formatting.
Reporting
- Performance improvements for tabbed reports.
- Active Report Viewer – Active Report Viewer is a Windows application that is used to view and interact with IBM® Cognos® Analytics with Watson active reports that are saved in the .mht file format. Download from IBM Accelerator Catalog.
- Select and search prompt now available for data modules.
The following are the same as in Dashboards:
- 3D Hexabin in maps
- New visualization properties
- Donut visualization created from a pie
Mobile
New in Cognos Analytics 11.2.1 - License entitlements of Cognos Analytics for Mobile only users. Please reach out if this license is something you are interested in. Contact us at sales@lodestarsolutions.com.
- Consume shared pin boards.
- Receive alerts.
- Use the Assistant in the app, with any available data sources.
- Create their own pin boards in the app.
- Browse Team content and open dashboards or explorations in the app.
- Scan a QR code from the desktop to authenticate into the app.
Administrative and Samples
There are many administrative updates to Cognos Analytics 11.2.1. You can check out this link for everything new in the administrative side.
Administration - IBM Documentation
There are also new samples with Cognos 11.2 and 11.2.1. These come with the install and can be added to your environment from the deployment area of the administrative panel. Your Cognos Administrator can help get these loaded for you. I highly recommend loading them for ideas and new techniques in version 11.2 and 11.2.1
Summary
We are here to help and answer your questions about Cognos Analytics 11.2.1. We can perform your upgrade or work with you on the upgrade. Please reach out to us at services@lodestarsolutions.com.
For more information on all things Cognos Analytics, you can check out our vast library of blogs anytime here. If you are interested in mobile there is a great blog recently released.
Cognos BI Blogs written by IBM Cognos Expert Consultants and Coaches (lodestarsolutions.com)
For detailed information on the updates to Cognos Analytics 11.2.1 see link below.