Delivering More of What You Need

By Krista Shibata, Senior Manager, Support Marketing, Cognos, An IBM Company

You spoke and we listened. At this year's Cognos Forum, customers participated in formal and informal feedback sessions and surveys. These sessions focused on helping us better understand your needs so we can better help you implement and use your Cognos solution. I'd like to share some of the important themes we heard from you – and how we are addressing your wishes and concerns.

Resource Riches

Overwhelmingly, customer feedback confirmed that resources are the most important thing we can provide in helping you to become more effective with Cognos products.

Did you know that the Customer Resource Center enables you to search for resources by the specific user role? Simply click on the Role tab. Proven Practice documents are also important resources to our customers and we are working to make these more accessible in a variety of ways.

Migration Resources

"...what do I need to prepare for as we make this migration?" — Customer statement, Cognos Forum Resource Focus Group

One particularly hot topic for Cognos customers is Migration. In response to your feedback, we have added a Migration tab to the Customer Resource Center. From this tab, you are able to choose your specific migration path (see Figure 1) and can more easily obtain information specific to that migration path – including technical documents, proven practices, how to webinars and other resources.

Figure 1: Customer Resource - Migration Resources (click image to zoom)

New On-Demand Web Seminars

Your feedback on technical, product-focused webinars was loud and clear: you love them! In response, we have created 21 new on demand web seminars based on content delivered at Cognos Forum. The new webinars include three on the topic of Migration, as well as a variety of technical webinars. Advanced prompting, dimensional data, content store data – these are just a few of the topics that the new webinars cover. Check them out today.

Online Communities & User Groups

"I'm looking for hard facts: what are the things that people have run into, how did they solve that problem...how did they get to that, how long did it take them to do that - so that my knowledge is increased by the experience of others" — Customer statement, Cognos Forum Resource Focus Group

In the feedback sessions, customers emphasized the desire to be able to talk to peers who are using Cognos products in other organizations. Join SupportTalk today by visiting the Community tab of the Customer Resource Center.

You can also link to "find a technical user group near you" and become a member one of the 65 Cognos user groups around the world. With more than 5,000 members worldwide, user groups are a fantastic way to connect with other Cognos users.

Figure 2: Find a group near you (click image to zoom)

Customers' "Hot Topics"

To further enhance the Customer Resource Center we will be adding to the Hot Topics tab and including quick links to information about topics that are top-of-mind for you. In the future, Hot Topics content will be based on popular search terms entered by Support website users, in addition to topics that are showing to be of key interest in our online communities.

Case Management System Enhancements

Logging cases is one of the top reasons that customers told us they visit the Cognos Support website. Cognos is committed to continue to improve the experience and usability of the on-line case management system, Insight.

Cognos Beta Programs

Many of you expressed an interest in becoming part of Cognos beta programs. The first step is to read up on these programs. Joining a beta program is also the first step in becoming a Cognos Champion, which you can do via the Becoming a Champion tab on the Support site. Check it out to learn about the various resources available to beta customers and champions.

Continue to Give Us Your Feedback Take our on-line survey today! Cognos Support is committed to continuing to get our customers' feedback and input on Cognos Support offerings. We invite you to send feedback to us at any time, either by email or via the online feedback form.