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In 2004 Cognos went deeper and wider with its suite of business intelligence applications for the enterprise when it introduced ReportNet. With this new release, the enterprise can now make advanced reporting capabilities available on the Web far and wide throughout the organization without the headache of deploying desktop applications.

Remember the days when it seemed like you had to move heaven and earth to simply provide static, downloadable reports to your intranet users in one or two formats? ReportNet can provide dynamic reports that allow users to query data, present it in a variety of charts and graphs, create powerful and professional looking dynamic reports, and download to common formats for use on the desktop (PDF, Excel) or within existing applications (XML).

What You Can Do with ReportNet

Based on my firsthand experience with ReportNet, the question seems to be, what can't you do with ReportNet? This suite of tools is about as robust as they come with respect to reporting and presenting data in an informative way. From creating simple ad hoc reports for minimal distribution to integrating reporting capabilities within your existing Web applications for massive global distribution, ReportNet can fit the bill.

The report interface is a standard, browser-based interface that is very accessible to both the novice and advanced user. To suit individual needs, users can be given different interfaces and levels of report interaction. You can give your power users the ability to slice and dice the data on the fly while simplifying things for the novice user so they get only what they need (and what they can handle).

The number and types of reports available for creation is impressive: lists, cross tabs, charts, and multi-page layouts with advanced formatting, to name a few. Conditional reporting is easy to design and allows for both fixed and dynamic filters allowing reports to adapt dynamically to both the data and the end-user requirements.

All report formatting is handled through a GUI that essentially creates HTML and SQL behind the scenes for the report. As such, some of the layout capabilities for the screen are limited by the inherent limitations of the Web. However, these limitations are very easy to live with since you cannot only print the reports with a professional layout, but you can also distribute and download them to other applications easily for additional formatting.

Administration and distribution of reports is no longer the headache it once was. Within ReportNet you can schedule batches of reports to run at scheduled frequencies while setting preferences for the output (language, currencies, multiple outputs, etc.) and bursting the reports to the Web or e-mail for distribution. The application scales nicely and based on recent scalability tests (conducted at IBM labs in 2004) number of users is essentially a non-issue.

How ReportNet Works

ReportNet is a zero footprint Web application built using standard XML technology and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). The list of supported environments is long (see the Cognos Fact Sheet for details) and includes both Windows and UNIX in the operating system realm as well as the major players (both open source and vendor) for application and Web servers.

ReportNet uses a three-tier model with multiple components to deliver its solution. At the bottom of the pyramid are the data sources that feed the application. All components of the application interact with and store information in this layer which consists of the Content Store on the Content Management ReportNet server.

In the middle tier resides the Framework Manager, which is a metadata modeling tool. The Framework Manager is a desktop application and use tends to be limited to IT staff responsible for data modeling. This middle layer contains all the business logic and data modeling required for building and viewing reports.

The presentation layer is Web-based and provides the interfaces for report creation, management, and viewing. The centerpiece of this layer is Cognos Connection, the Web portal used to create and run reports, perform administrative tasks, and organize reports. From within Cognos Connection, depending on a user's level of access, a person can simply view reports (Report Viewer), modify existing reports on the fly (Query Studio), or build new reports (Report Studio).

In addition to the robust capabilities available out of the box, ReportNet comes with a fully documented API so you can customize and integrate to your heart's content.

Items for Improvement

Overall, the tool is very slick and a giant leap forward in terms of bringing meaningful business intelligence reporting to the Web. But after sitting through many days worth of training on this tool, I concluded that there are a few no-brainers that Cognos should really address.

First, the existing Cognos tool suite uses the word "cube" to refer to the multidimensional data model within its PowerPlay tool. This is common terminology amongst Cognos users. For some reason unknown to common sense, they chose to use the term "cube" within ReportNet to mean something entirely unrelated. This is very confusing to the novice user and even worse for the seasoned Cognos toolset users.

The main frustration I experienced using the tool was within the Report Studio GUI interface for building parameters, filters, calculations, and the like. As you use the GUI tool, there are times you need to click back and forth between the code you're building and the different tabs from which you are selecting elements (query items, fields, functions, etc.). The problem lies with the fact that your cursor loses focus each time you click somewhere or select something. As a result, it is cumbersome and frustrating to build the expressions accurately and quickly because you have to keep clicking back to where you want your cursor to be (and thus where you want an item inserted).

Finally, I found it somewhat difficult to troubleshoot errors within my reports. I concluded that the key to avoiding a long troubleshooting process is to validate your report frequently. Each time you build an expression, parameter, or calculation, you can validate that code immediately by clicking an icon. You can also validate the overall multi-layered report by clicking a validation icon on the main toolbar. While all this clicking makes building the report a little more cumbersome, it beats the hair-pulling that follows if your report has an error. A more robust built-in troubleshooting tool would be a most welcome addition to the tool.