Analysis of Cognos System (DSS) for Decision Making in Organizations

This project focuses on the analysis of Cognos Analytics DSS system, its architecture and components, the development methodology used by Ricoh for implementing Cognos within the organization, and the ways in which Cognos is linked with strategic plans and corporate goals of the organization.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
SYSTEMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Analysis of Cognos system (DSS)...............................................................................................1
Development methodology used by Ricoh for implementing Cognos within the organization..4
Advantage and disadvantage of chosen development method....................................................5
Ways in which Cognos (DSS) is linked with strategic plans and corporate goals of the
organisation..................................................................................................................................5
Is Cognos (DSS) system innovative and in what way chosen DSS system innovative..............5
Was the chosen DSS obtained from elsewhere or built in organization and is the DSS to be
sold elsewhere or is adapted for other uses within the organization...........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Decision making is one of the most important part of an organization which can lead an
organization towards success (Virk, Chauhan and Mittal, 2018). Decision Support system (DSS)
is a computerized system that helps in providing support to organization in all kinds of decision-
making activities. Most of the DSS system are developed and designed for supporting decision
making with the help of business intelligence. Business intelligence is a kind of technology
driven process for analysing data so that it can be used by others for decision making. This
project will lay emphasis on Cognos Analytics DSS system which is a kind of business
intelligence solution that can help and organisation to accelerate their data preparation, analysis,
decision making and performance. This software is being used and implemented by Ricoh, an
UK based organization. This project will focus on Analysis of Cognos system, architectural
diagram and components of the system, methodology used by Ricoh organization for
implementation of Cognos system within the organization and ways in which Cognos relate to
the strategic plans and corporate goals of the organisation.
MAIN BODY
Analysis of Cognos system (DSS)
Description and System Analysis of Cognos
Cognos is a DSS system which is designed to address all kinds of challenges that are
faced by an enterprise in terms of scale reporting, score carding, analysis and event notification.
It is a kind of web- based reporting and analytic tool. It is used to perform data aggression and
helps in creating user friendly detailed reports (Singh, 2016). Reports created in Cognos can
contain different kinds of Graphs, Multiple Pages, Different Tabs and Interactive Prompts. These
reports can be viewed anywhere like on web servers, mobiles and at many more places. Cognos
also provides an option to the organizations for exporting reports in PDF or XML format or these
reports can be viewed in XML format. These reports can also be scheduled and run in
background at a defined and specific time period so that daily reports can be viewed in a timely
manner and no time is wasted to open and view the report daily. It also helps the organizations
by offering a cloud- based solution so that they can act on their data insight without intervention
of IT (Campbell and Roberts, 2019). Cognos Bi reporting tool allows to create reports for users
like Power users, Analysts, and Business Executives and many more. It can handle large volume
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of data because of which is becomes suitable for both medium and large enterprises so that their
need and requirement of business intelligence can be fulfilled.
Architecture or components of Cognos system (detailed diagram)
Architecture of Cognos DSS system was designed for scalability, openness and
availability. This system uses a platform independent and industry proven technology for
example: Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and
Web Services Definition Language (WSDL). IBM Cognos Analytics architecture is based upon a
three- tiered web- architecture that contains following components, such as:
1. A web- server: In this web server tier there are one or more than one gateways. Web
communication in this is mostly done typically with the help of gateways that further resides
on one or more than one web server (Arnott, Lizama and Song, 2017). A gateway can be
defined as an extension of web server program that focuses on transferring information from
one web server to another web server. There are various kinds of gateways, such as:
o CGI- It is a default gateway which is used for supporting all kinds of web servers. For
enhanced performance and throughput other gateways with this can be used as well.
o ISAPI- This can be used with internet information services web server. It is one of those
gateways that delivers fast performance for ISS.
o Apache-mod- This gateway is used with apache webserver.
o Servlet- If web server infrastructure of an organization supports servlets or instead of this
application server is being used then in such case this servlet gateway can be used.
2. Applications: Cognos application tire consist of one or more than one IBM Cognos servers.
Cognos server runs request for example: reports, analyses, and queries, that are forwarded by
a gateway. This tire also consists of a dispatcher which is responsible for route request. It is a
multithread application which uses more than one threads per request (Chen, Zhao and Feng,
2016). Dispatcher also includes a firewall in order to enhance overall security of the system.
Application tire also includes content manager that contains access manager and other
primary security components. Content manager also helps in enhancing overall security of
the system which consist of various kinds of security capabilities and APIs which includes
user authentication, authorization, and encryption.
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3. Data: Data tire consist of various kinds of content store, data sources, and the metric store
like JDBC, API and JDBC.
Figure 1 Cognos architecture and components
Performance
Optimal performance mostly means to generate faster reports without any issues or
errors. Cognos provides excellent performance because of which it becomes much suitable and a
stable software that can be used by organizations for generation of Bi reports without any errors
and quickly. In order to continue to provide excellent performance and meet needs, demands and
requirements of the organization, dispatcher is required to be installed. Organizations should
continuously upgrade Cognos software and install upgraded software within their systems. As
the data of an organization increases, processing request and complexity also increases because
of which network capacity, analysis gets slower and requires continuous modification (Li and et.
al., 2016). These continuous changes affect overall performance of Cognos software as a result it
becomes important for organizations to continuously monitor and tune its performance on
regular basis. Cognos BI provides matrixes for checking system performance, performance of
servers, dispatchers, or services. These matrixes also help an organization to keep a track of
overall performance i.e. when overall performance falls short of expected range. It also have a
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feature which helps in keeping a track on the system and if any kind of issue or problem occurs
then it notify the users so that the occurred performance issue can be resolved in an easy and
effective manner.
Risk associated with Cognos
There are various kinds of risk associated with Cognos DSS system. If these risks are not
focused on them then it can affect its overall performance. But mainly risk associated with
Cognos system is associated with management of the system. Financial risk associated with the
DSS system is expansion of financial cost (Langer, 2016). Maintenance of this system is quite
high as Cognos system requires continuous upgrading system so that all kinds of issues or risk
associated with it can be reduced and its performance can be enhanced or maintained. This
upgrading increases overall expenditure associated with the system. Another risk associated with
it operational risk i.e. many times all the features of the system are not useful for the
organizations because of some of the features of the system becomes useless and are not used by
the organization.
Advantage and disadvantage of Cognos system
There are various kinds of advantages and disadvantages of Cognos DSS system. Some of
them have been specified below.
Advantages of Cognos system are: this system is useful in providing detailed tables and reports
on the basis of table which is being exported. Reports can be exported or emailed in many one of
the formats such as: HTML, PDF, or Excel formats. It provides faster results due to adaptive
authorising. It helps in enhancing ability of working with data using familiar business terms
(Langer, 2016).
Disadvantages of Cognos system are: Large files or reports can bog organizational e-mail
servers. Many important and useful features of Cognos system are paid are not available for free.
Development methodology used by Ricoh for implementing Cognos within the organization
There are various kinds of development methodologies that can be used by organizations
for implementing a new and advanced system within their organization. These system
development methodologies help in implementing a system or software within an organization in
a much better and appropriate manner. Ricoh organization used system prototyping development
methodology for implementing Cognos DSS system or software within the organization (Langer,
2016). This methodology was quite appropriate as their needs and requirements were fixed.
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Initially they used a freely available software version of the system and tried to use it within the
organization. When they found it quite appropriate and easy to be used that can fulfill their needs
and requirement completely, they implemented complete system within the organization. Tin the
prototype version of free version they measured whether it is web based and is easy to be used or
not Only after this versification they completely implemented this system within their
organization.
Advantage and disadvantage of chosen development method
Main advantages of this methodology are: that it provides more input and feedback
(Langer, 2016). Usage of this method makes changes much easier i.e. if the system is required to
be changed then it could have been done easily without any kind of financial loss. It also helps in
identification of functionalities that are required by organization so that such functionalities can
be focused and implemented.
However, it has some disadvantages as well such as if appropriate system or software is
not chosen then it can waste time and increase overall cost of the system. Sometimes trial system
does not provide much detailed insight of the system.
Ways in which Cognos (DSS) is linked with strategic plans and corporate goals of the
organisation
Cognos has been linked with Ricoh’s strategic plan and corporate goals in an appropriate
manner. It has helped Ricoh in enhancing their overall decision- making process. It has also
helped them in enhancing their overall document management (Chen, Zhao and Feng, 2016). It
has also helped them in enhancing their overall finance performance and resolve all kinds of
difficulties faced by the finance department. It has further helped the organization in enhancing
their manual planning process and increase control overall high performance by achieving cost
control. Generation of reports with the help of software has also increased their accuracy and
manual work flow has been made automated.
Is Cognos (DSS) system innovative and in what way chosen DSS system innovative
Cognos is an innovative software that has helped transformation and interaction data and
insight with the organizations much faster. It has helped in enhancing usage of self- service
analytics. This system has helped in offering smarter, self-service capabilities so that
organizations can act quickly and in an enhanced manner (Li and et. al., 2016). It is an
innovative tool because it has helped in increasing usage and analysis of both structured and
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unstructured data in an appropriate manner. It has further helped in gaining more momentum
within organizations and has further helped in increasing effectiveness of their manual process
and has also helped in making it automatic without any errors.
Was the chosen DSS obtained from elsewhere or built in organization and is the DSS to be sold
elsewhere or is adapted for other uses within the organization
The chosen DSS system was obtained from to be implemented within their organization.
They had invested in Cognos enterprise planning solution in order to reduce finance department
time and effort wastage that many times lead whole production team towards a misleading or
misguiding result (Li and et. al., 2016). This system was adopted for enhancing overall
organizational performance and reduce types of issues or errors that can arise within an
organization. So, it can be said that Cognos DSS system had been adopted by organization from
else where and has been adopted so that it can be used by the organization for enhancing their
overall performance of the organization has been enhanced.
CONCLUSION
From the above project it has been summarized that Cognos is a kind of DSS system that
can be used by organizations for reducing challenges faced by them in terms of reporting,
scaling, analysis and notification. It can help an organization to enhance their decision- making
process in order to enhance their overall performance. Implementation of this Cognos system can
help in reducing overall issues or errors that occur within an organization. There are various
kinds of advantages and disadvantages associated with Cognos system that can help an
organization to enhance their decision making and reduce wastage of time and cost as well.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Arnott, D., Lizama, F. and Song, Y., 2017. Patterns of business intelligence systems use in
organizations. Decision Support Systems. 97. pp.58-68.
Campbell, D.E. and Roberts, N., 2019. Effective use of analytic DSS and job performance:
Looking beyond technology acceptance. Journal of Organizational Computing and
Electronic Commerce. 29(2). pp.125-138.
Chen, H., Zhao, S. and Feng, L., 2016. Decision Support System of Nursing Human on Hospital
Information System. Nursing Informatics 2016, p.558.
Langer, A.M., 2016. Data Analytics and Data Warehouses. In Guide to Software
Development (pp. 251-289). Springer, London.
Li, N., and et. al., 2016. Agile decision support system for aircraft design. Journal of Aerospace
Engineering. 29(2). p.04015044.
Singh, S., 2016. IBM Cognos integration with Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite on Linux.
Virk, M., Chauhan, V. and Mittal, U., 2018. Analysis and Visualization of Data Assimilating
Hive and COGNOS Insight 10.2. 2. International Journal of Engineering &
Technology. 7(2.6). pp.318-322.
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