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Are you thinking about moving from IBM Cognos Planning to TM1? Well, let me tell you, for those of you who have been using Cognos Planning, moving to TM1 will be like going from having a pot-luck dinner to a catered gourmet dinner. The biggest difference is the cube sizes. TM1 can handle HUGE cubes of data. And yes, size does matter. If you currently have planning models where you created separate applications and use Admin Links to pull your data together because the models were too big for Planning, you will LOVE TM1. Lodestar has migrated a large number of Planning clients to TM1 and many have been able to consolidate their models to simplify maintenance. You still have the ability to limit users to what they need to view and edit, but it will all be in the same database.

SECURITY_ELEMENT Note: If }ElementSecurity_dimensionname Control Cube does not exist this must be executed first Assigns Security to Elements within a Dimension Creates/Updates }ElementSecurity_dimensionname

For many companies, the same data/metric term has different meanings for different departments. An example of this would be “Customer”. To the sales department, it may mean they have a new customer that has been entered into the system and now has an account number. To Finance, “Customer” may mean that this person has been sent at least one shipment within the last 12 months.

Turbo Integrator's security cascades from parent to all children and is dimension specific. After the initial security (access) is loaded, the level of the Dept variable (1st column in the text file) is checked. If the level is greater than zero, the elements in the Department dimension are cycled.

From time to time, Microsoft updates may cause an error and not allow you to use TM1 Perspectives. If you encounter this, please follow the instructions below:

Every company is wrapped up in their own data. How do we capture our data? How do we analyze our data? How do we report on our data? It seems like the ultimate goal in many companies is how to report on their data and get through the monthly meetings with a pretty presentation.

You create a dynamic subset with a specific consolidated item and the next time the dimension is updated, the subset takes on a mind of its own. . .and you recreate it. Been there, done that – right? Try the following:

Most of us have been there - laboriously scrolling through a dimension containing dozens or hundreds of elements. The goal is to select 3 or 4 elements for creating that one of a kind subset. A few minutes of scrolling . . .success. Then you realize you left out one item. And so the scroll and click begins once again. Ick. Here’s how to replace scroll and click. . .

The same strategy works when using TM1, or in this case, Planner, within IBM Cognos Express. Unlike the Enterprise version of Cognos where the administrator can create new TM1 server instances, only a single TM1 service is allowed in Express. An approval hierarchy can be used only once on a given TM1 server. Therefore, if a dimension is assigned to a Planner application as its approval hierarchy, that dimension cannot be used again as an approval hierarchy in any other application.

The ability to access cube data in TM1 changes significantly once the TM1 application is deployed. While we are just starting off building our model in TM1 Performance Modeler, the cells within our cube are writable as long as they are not a calculated element. Below in our Revenue cube, we can manually enter data into any of the cells that appear white.

Sometimes retaining an image can be a nice trip down memory lane, but in the case of copying a TM1 service from one environment to another, it can create an error. We recently built a simple TM1 model and deployed the TM1 Web application for use as a demonstration model. We wanted to keep a backup copy of it on another server. We copied over all of the data and log files to the second machine, including the tm1.cfg file. We then added the new service instance to IBM Cognos Configuration for TM1.

Though the preferred method for creating dimensions in TM1 is via a Turbo Integrator Process, sometimes you may want to do this with a dimension worksheet. With a dimension worksheet, you can incorporate Excel functionality to do concatenations that will populate your attributes. This works nicely for Aliases where you would like to use the element name with a description. The example below shows you how to do this for an Accounts dimension.

I could understand the frustration of a new modeler who could not gain access to the new TM1 server he had just created. He closely followed the set of instructions he had again and again to no avail. First, he had copied the tm1s.cfg file from an existing operating model on the same network, changing the ServerName, PortNumber, LoggingDirectory and DatabaseDirectory within that new file to reflect the name and location of the new server he was setting up. Second, he created a new server instance in IBM Cognos Configuration and edited the location to point to the directory from the tm1s.cfg file resided.

TM1 allows for different preferences and with the release of version 10, offers the end user yet another way of developing a model. Performance Modeler is even more user friendly than the familiar modeling tools of Architect and the Excel add-in Perspectives. Performance Modeler is an excellent path to take for the beginning modeler. Its many built-in wizards will guide the end user through the building and populating of cubes. Experienced modelers may prefer to stick with the familiar environment of Architect, instead of learning the nuances of a new tool. Many finance folks are married to Excel and want to remain in a formula driven workspace.

As many of you know, when you use Turbo Integrator to import data and metadata into TM1, you can bring it in from many sources. You can use comma-delimited ASCII files, other TM1 cubes and views, MSAS (Microsoft Analysis Service) and relational database tables that are accessible through an ODBC connection. For this blog, we are going to concentrate on relation database tables through SQL and what you may not know is that using multiple tables and writing multiple joins query in SQL using the Turbo Integrator query box can make the pull of the data very slow!

IBM Cognos TM1 is architected very differently than Cognos Planning. Plannings distributed architecture and cube structures lead to limitation in model sizes. IBM Cognos TM1 is a powerful 64-bit, in memory solutions that has tremendous power if model are designed considering TM1s power and functionality. For Cognos Planning clients to fully realize the power of TM1, Lodestar Solutions recommends a model “Reconstruction".

What’s New in IBM Cognos Insight 10.1.1? 1. Percentage of Total Calculations 2. Calculations in Parent 3. Time Dimension Import 4. Chart Interaction 5. Improved Usability Features a. Simplified Terminology b. Access to Formatting c. Keyboard Shortcuts 6. Guided Import 7. IBM Cognos Insight Trial Edition

As a TM1 power user, you are aware that a Turbo Integrator process sets a lock to the cube, which is loaded in a dimension maintenance function. This lock can cause end users to wait until the TI process is complete and the lock has been released. If you have a large amount of data to load, this can be very annoying to the end users, seeing that they have to wait a long time. So, it is recommended that you separate the Metadata maintenance from the data maintenance in separate TI processes and run them as a chore.

TM1 Enterprise Planning Contributor is the primary licenses end users of TM1 utilize. It allows for end users to have read and write access to the TM1 models. Under the TM1 Contributor licensing, End users have the following access rights:

IBM Cognos TM1 10 includes a component called the Performance Modeler. It’s a great step in the right direction for IBM to simplify the model building process in TM1. It’s a wizard based component that will allow less technical people to manage and maintain models. However, if you are an existing IBM Cognos TM1 user who is considering moving to IBM Cognos TM1 Performance Modeler, you should be aware of the following:

6. LEVERAGING CONTROL CUBES FOR SECURITY - Control Cubes can be useful to view attribute or security information. If migrating from Planning, it may even be possible to use an existing Excel spreadsheet to load security via a TI Process [into the Control Cube].

CREATING ALIASES - When creating aliases, use consistent attribute names. Name or Desc will usually suffice. (We frequently find that name is used on one dimension, desc is used on a couple others and description is used on a few more.) This reduces those “uh oh, what did I call that attribute” moments when creating a process or updating rules.

TM1 is great for organizing your planning models. Make the most of this and incorporate a naming convention for your dimensions, views and TI processes. This makes building, maintenance and training much easier in the long run, especially when you have more than one Admin. Design a simple blueprint of your naming convention at the beginning of your implementation and keep it in your application folder for quick reference. Another tip is to use the underscore in lieu of a space in titles, whether it be your cubes, dimensions or the title row of your data import. For example, when creating a dimension using TI, I prefer that the variable name to show up as “Element_Name”, instead of “v1” if the underscore is not used, as would be the case if the column title was “Element Name” vs “Element_Name”.

This is the second piece to the story on why an IBM Cognos Planning client would consider moving to IBM Cognos TM1. Power User Benefits- The power user license is the TM1 Modeler. The role is similar the Enterprise Planning Modeler in that this person typically is responsible for building, modifying and deploying the TM1 Planning model to the end users (Contributors).

There’s been a lot of discussion on why an IBM Cognos Planning client would consider moving to IBM Cognos TM1. So, I thought I would do a little brain dump on my experience with clients. Today, I’ll start with the End User. End User Benefits- End users can choose from a couple different user interfaces. I will focus on the TM1 Contributor user interface for TM1 as it closely resembles Planning Contributor. It includes some functionality we have been requesting for years.

The purpose of Organizational Dashboards is to create clear visibility in your organization which leads to better decision making. So why do so many organization struggle with Dashboards? Effective Dashboards require: Reliable and timely source data Measures should motivate behavior to achieve Key Performance Indicators Clear definitions of measures – ie Does “Sales” include returns and allowances? continued ...

​Integrating TM1 9.5 and Cognos BI – Part 2We continue from the previous Lodestar blog on Integrating TM1 9.5 and[...]

IBM Cognos 10 greatly improves the performance of BI reports that use TM1 as a data source, but many clients aren’t leveraging the integration in their Cognos environment. Below are Lodestar guidelines:

We are constantly being asked by finance and other areas of the business if they can implement IBM Cognos TM1 without IT involvement and the answer is NO! However, with proper planning you can implement with minimal involvement. The key is to use IT strategically. They are very valuable to your project as they often have insight to your data structures, sources and potential data integrity challenges. When IT is actively involved in the project and partnering with the business, success is rapidly accomplished.

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During Server load, TM1 establishes cube dependencies based on feeder statements in rule files. Feeder statements that have data dependent cube references or rules files containing ATTRN or ATTRS functions will not establish Cube Dependencies during server load – rather they will be established during a first time query or data update invoking these cross-cube rules . The result can be that a query or Turbo Integrator Process could trigger a cube dependency where the system goes out and evaluates what the dependencies are required before giving results. If this happens during periods of user activity, this could block objects and cause contention issues for concurrent readers and writers. So, the user will complain the system is slow!

The TM1 Top utility enables you to dynamically monitor the threads/operations running in an instance of the TM1 server. TM1 Top is a stand-alone utility that runs within a console (command) window on a Microsoft Windows system. It is designed to make minimal demands on the TM1 server and the supporting network and system. With the exception of a user-initiated login process, TM1 Top does not use any cube or dimension resources in the TM1 server, and does not use or interact with the data or locks on the TM1 server.