Written by Mike Bernaiche, June 23rd 2022

As someone who worked in finance and analytics for many years, I found myself having to update many different reports, often in PowerPoint, with financial numbers for management, board members and others.  It can be a time-consuming process of hand typing numbers, verifying they are correct and then updating all over again each month or quarter.  Did you know that there are PowerPoint options to automate this process?  I wish I knew about these PowerPoint options for Cognos and Planning Analytics many years ago.  One of the products for Cognos Analytics has been around a long time, the other product for Planning Analytics is new to market through a company called Intito (Intito – Solutions and services for smarter performance management), called Office Connect.  Below I will talk about both options.

IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office

IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office is a product that allows you to use Excel, Word and PowerPoint to import data directly into presentations or documents and have that data refresh at the push of a button. 

What is it?

•  IBM® Cognos® for Microsoft Office provides the framework that leverages the business intelligence architecture, including security, metadata, and content storage.  This infrastructure helps you manage your Microsoft Office documents and monitor the financial performance of your organization.
• Use the applications of IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office to create, view, and consume reports, analyses, and other business intelligence content using familiar Microsoft Office applications, such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

What Problems does it solve?

•  The need to update PowerPoint presentations with data from Cognos Analytics or Planning Analytics (this is done by connecting your Planning Analytics cubes to Cognos Analytics) without having to copy and paste or hand type everything in.
• Accuracy is important and you are nervous hand typing everything in each month.
• When the closing process is complete you have very little time to update, and you are not into working nights and weekends.

The above examples show the Microsoft Office add-in and a resulting report once imported.  Every time the data updates in Cognos Analytics, you simply open the presentation and click the refresh data button and voila, your numbers have been updated.  Best news is, if you own Cognos Analytics you already own IBM Cognos for Microsoft Office. 

Intito Office Connect

Intito Office Connect is software that works directly with Planning Analytics and allows you to update data and report objects directly in PowerPoint with a few clicks of a button.  When I first saw this product, I was blown away and believe anyone who has presentation style reporting that needs to be updated each month should investigate purchasing this product.

By using Intito Office Connect you will save time, increase efficiency and accuracy, and spend more time analyzing and less time verifying numbers in a presentation.

Would you like to learn more about Intito Office Connect?  Reach out to us at services@lodestarsolutions.com.  We have uploaded a demo that can be watched here.  I highly recommend checking this product out.  For years the only way to get Planning Analytics data into PowerPoint was either hand typing or connecting to Cognos Analytics.  With this option you can skip all of those steps and direct connect!

Summary

As you can see, I have provided two good PowerPoint options for Cognos and Planning Analytics.  Why not make your life easier and more automated?  Reach out to us at services@lodestarsolutions.com to discuss both PowerPoint options. 

Need to know what is new in Planning Analytics Workspace – check this out.

What’s New in Planning Analytics Workspace 75 and 76 - Lodestar Solutions

What’s new in Cognos Analytics - What’s New in Cognos Analytics 11.2.2 - Lodestar Solutions