Week 8 -IBM Cognos' 24 Ways

Learnt about IBM Cognos' 24 ways to design a multi-dimensional models which cover different functional domains- Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, Distribution, Purchasing, Production, Customer Service and last but not the least IT Systems. These models are a good reference points for someone who wants to develop a Multi-dimensional model for a particular functional area.

Cognos' 24 ways are based on some assumptions as mentioned below with my personal comments in bracket-
1. Good quality data is available.
 (High hopes!)
2. Iterative implementation.
(BI systems generally follow iterative approach)
3. Believe that organisations have a lot in common.
(True for some functional domains like Finance, HR, Sales etc.)
4. Dimensions are shared between functional domains
(Good approach)
5. Focus is on business people and not IT people
( Pragmatic approach, not really beneficial)


They promote that sharing the dimensions will lead to better co-ordination in decision making across functional areas and following the 24' ways will result in better ROI( Return on Investment). They start up with a consultant led 90 days implementation of the FINANCE domain which is a pragmatic approach as Finance is the only division wherein a company would have good quality data readily available.

Lectures are going well in terms of content....only slightly behind in schedule but never mind, I m sure one day we will catch up! POD literally gives away so much of information in one lecture that you feel rich in terms of knowledge.

Tutorials are going fine as well and I don't face difficulty in doing things as the specifications are so descriptive. However, people in our lab face challenge in 'processing' the dimensions due to some stupid privilege issues which props up if we try to save our workspace on C:/ drive. The people who save on their flash drives can apparently run successfully. I will make sure to take my flash drive from now onwards. And of-course it works fine in my laptop's work environment as well.

Unfortunately, I have not started with my assignment yet. There is just too much of writing work for other units which I am still slogging to meet the due dates. Hopefully, I will have some progress done till I write my next blog. AMEN!!