As a business analytics coach at Lodestar Solutions, I coach clients in planning and executing the deployment of dashboards with IBM Cognos Workspace.  If you are not familiar with Cognos Workspace Advanced, it’s time to investigate because IBM is sunsetting, or as they say “deprecating”, IBM Cognos Query Studio and Analysis Studio.  The replacement is Workspace advanced.   Here’s a link to FAQ from IBM: https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/basupportlink/entry/query_studio_and_analysis_studio_deprecation?lang=en_us

You probably already own the licenses that include Workspace Advanced.

To learn more about it, watch our video on “Why Move to Workspace Advanced & Demo”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV6c5zuTvGc

 Here are five steps you should consider so that you maximize end user adoption of the dashboards. Please remember that to effectively deploy dashboards in your company, you need to plan ahead.

1. First…check your Cognos licensing /entitlements to see how many users have access to Cognos Workspace Advanced. Call Lodestar Solutions if you would like a “What the Heck Do I Own” license review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkAdNgUC-bU
2. Plan what functional area you will roll-out first.
3. Host a Dashboarding Workshop with key players to determine what the users need on the dashboard. Don’t assume anything! At Lodestar Solutions, we offer a “Destination Dashboard” workshop that rapidly defines what the users need. Contact us for information on the workshop.
4. Prototype the dashboard – you might want to use Cognos Insight for this because you can easily grab data sources that might not be in your Framework manager today. You can also leave a copy with the user to play with.
5. Demonstrate the new dashboards to the users. You might want to watch our video on how to demonstrate software first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmGpBmdOMo.

It’s time to start planning.  At Lodestar Solutions, we have a complete Destination Dashboard project checklist we would be happy to share with you.   Lodestar also offers a 2 day training class on Workspace Advanced both virtually and onsite.   For more information, just email us at Sales@LodestarSolutions.com or call us at 813-254-2040 for your free copy of our checklist.