Written by Mike Bernaiche, March 31st 2022
The latest update of Cognos Analytics 11.2.2 arrived in March 2022 and it brings several new enhancements. IBM is on a good release schedule, typically every 3-4 months, which helps brings new features, enhancements to an already good product. Below you will find a list of changes for Cognos Analytics 11.2.2 with links for more information.
Assistant
The assistant now allows you to use more specific time entity filtering. To use this the selected data must have a timestamp or date/time column. For example, some potential items you can ask the assistant now include:
- Show sales this Thursday
- Show sales between last Monday and last Wednesday
- Show me sales for camping equipment from June 1-5
- What is the total income between Halloween and Christmas
- Show sales for 2021
- Show October 2021 sales by product
Dashboards
Dashboards now include the following enhancements:
- Select multiple objects by using mouse drag
- Vertical and horizontal alignment of objects
- Change the style on axis and legend text in visualizations
- Better thumbnails and ability to rename pins
- Set different colors for tabs in dashboards
- Additional and enhanced widget properties
Stories
You now have an option to set a different background color for each of your scenes.
Explorations
One area of explorations that has needed some improvement for awhile is the natural language information provided on each data visualization. As you can see below from the IBM screenshot, they have improved the readability in the details area.
Also, you can now use box plot and radar visualizations in explorations.
Reporting
Several enhancements have been added to reporting in Cognos Analytics 11.2.2.
- New custom filter option in reports to ignore empty items.
- Consistent experience with downloadable report formats in both classic and interactive viewer.
- Consistency with the view of optional prompting in both classic and interactive viewer.
Mobile
Cognos Analytics Mobile now supports all authentication providers that are supported in Cognos Analytics. View the complete list of providers here. Configuring authentication providers - IBM Documentation
Logs for Cognos Analytics Mobile in Cognos Analytics 11.2.2 are now found here. install_location\logs\cognosserver.log
Modeling
Improvements to modeling include:
- Faster metadata updates - To batch-update multiple properties, the option Refresh properties is added to the context menu for data modules, tables, columns, calculations, and folders.
- Sort the data in data tree
- As of date – added to the dynamic date list in creating a relative time period.
Administration
For you administrators out there, IBM has added a number of new features and connections in the administration area. For a complete list check out this link from IBM, Administration - IBM Documentation. Also a few items have changed in the install process. Here is a link to those changes. Installation and configuration - IBM Documentation
Summary
As you can read there have been a number of changes in Cognos Analytics 11.2.2. I wouldn’t call this a major update, but I do think there are a number of items in here that make it worth installing. The changes to the Assistant and Dashboards help you create and format. The update to explorations makes it easier to understand your data and the ability to add an as of date in data modules is something I’m looking forward to putting into practice.
For a complete list of everything new in Cognos Analytics 11.2.2 check this link out.
Release 11.2.2 - March 2022 - IBM Documentation
If you are still on Cognos Analytics 11.1.7 and are not sure why you should update – check out these recent blogs from Lodestar Solutions.
Cognos Analytics 11.2.1 – What’s New! - Lodestar Solutions
What’s New in Cognos Analytics 11.2 - Lodestar Solutions
Also, if you are interested in checking out Cognos Analytics Mobile - IBM Cognos Analytics Mobile Walkthrough - Lodestar Solutions.
Last, if you need to discuss or explore upgrading we have a number of great options to get you updated. Reach out to me at services@lodestarsolutions.com to discuss.
P.S. For our clients who attend our next client only user group, I will have a session on Cognos Analytics 11.2.2 as well as the office connection to utilize Cognos and PowerPoint to make your presentation creation very efficient. Our next user group will be May 24, 2022.