5/15/2018
Well the time is finally here! Ever since IBM supersized client’s IBM Cognos licenses in 2014, Lodestar Solutions has warned clients that the fate of the IBM Cognos Business Manager license was questionable. Well, the IBM Cognos Business Manager License is retiring. Yes, the IBM is ending support on this license and the Metric Studio Product.
Before you get mad, this is awesome news!
IBM is being very generous! IBM is offering a license exchange to ensure your initial license investment with IBM is protected! But I must caution you this is NOT a 1:1 match in terms of functionality. The Cognos Business Manager license included Metric Studio functionality.
Do you remember Metric Studio? Candidly, I don’t have many clients that really deployed Metric Studio heavily. Metric studio provided traffic lighting on metrics. It looked cool but was missing a calculation engine. This meant that all the calculations and conditional logic had to be done outside of Metric Studio. Not ideal. Then IBM had a stroke of genius and they moved a lot of the functionality of Metric Studio into TM1. TM1’s powerful calculation engine was just what Metric Studio was missing. Compared to the metric cube power in Cognos Planning Analytics (TM1), Metric Studio was lipstick on a pig. So, it’s not surprising that IBM is no longer supporting the IBM Cognos Business Manager license or Metric Studio.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg22004042
For more information on Cognos Planning Analytics (TM1) scorecarding here’s a previous blog.
https://lodestarsolutions.com/tm1-scorecarding-and-cognos-metric-studio/
What IBM is willing to do for you!
IBM is willing to exchange your IBM Cognos Business Manager license in for a Cognos Analytics User license. Note this will not include either Metric Studio or TM1. However, the Cognos Analytics User license will provide some of the cool new stuff in Cognos Analytics (BI) v11. Can you say dashboards, and data modules? See the grid below to compare the functionality.
If you want to learn more about Cognos Analytics (BI) v11, check out our blog. https://lodestarsolutions.com/whats-new-in-ibm-cognos-analytics-release-9/
When to Exchange your Business Manager license:
The exchange does not automatically happen! There is a little paperwork to do. The best time to do this is just prior to your support renewal. Lodestar Solutions can help you through the process but it will take some time. Don’t wait until the day before your renewal! I recommend at least 60 day prior to the renewal due date, you contact renewals@lodestarsolutions.com and we will get it started.
Basic Steps to Exchange
- Check if you have Business Manager licenses, check your renewal.
- Contact Renewals@lodestarsolutions.com stating would like a license exchange.
- Lodestar will work with IBM on the exchange and confirm the conversion calculation.
- IBM powers to be will have to approve the exchange, so please give us time.
- Once approved we will send you the license exchange form to be completed and processed
What’s it cost?
THIS EXCHANGE DOESN’T COST YOU ANYTHING!
You will keep the same S&S anniversary date and renewal amount. Thank you IBM! All it will cost you is a little time to do the paperwork, and Lodestar can help you with that.
What if you don’t do the exchange?
Well I suspect if your licenses will expire, you will basically lose one of your users, because the expired licenses that are not supported will not be able to be upgraded. If you never upgraded, I guess you could still use them, but you would be nuts not to upgrade to get the cool new features.
So, there you have it! BM Cognos Business Manager license is retiring, and we should celebrate by exchanging them for the Cognos Analytics User license! Contact Renewals@lodestarsolutions.com for more information.