IBM Cognos Analytics release 8 was made available to download on Friday, Nov 3, 2017.   This release adds a number of small but significant enhancements and addresses some of the Requests for Enhancements (RFE) from IBM customers.  You can provide RFE's for IBM to consider by clicking this link for IBM DeveloperWorks.  Below you will find a list of enhancements in release 8.  Need a refresher about the R7 release?   You can read that here - Cognos Analytics R7 Blog.

• Allows you to set the options of the report default to view, run or edit.

• This may not mean a lot with smaller models, but will become important with larger models.

• Allows creation of data sets without querying the data source until you are ready.  The result is a more efficient build.

• Ability to run the report in XML format
• Add custom image uploads to reports (added to dashboards in R7)
• Addition of longitude and latitude to maps

• Nice option to allow your story to play through without the user having to push next slide.

• Tables and crosstabs now limited to 10k rows
• Maps limited to 30k data points

As you can see, IBM takes your RFE's seriously and continues to add to this fantastic product.  Please reach out to me at services@lodestarsolutions.com if you want to take you company's analytics to the next level.   Lodestar Solutions has a number of events coming up in the near future that can help you level up!  For a list of events check out our webpage at Lodestar Solutions.com.