Life on the Cognos Edge!
Posted by Chris Ovens on Mon, Aug 04, 2008
"If you're not on the edge - you're taking up too much room!" This was one of the slogans I remember from when the No Fear gear was popular with the "adrenalized crowd" (probably dating myself here). Oddly enough, "the Edge" is the niche where SpotOn seems to have thrived. I'll explain.
But first, let me introduce myself and this blog. I'm Chris Ovens, the General Manager at SpotOn Systems. Formerly with Cognos during the "rock and roll days" of the ReportNet and Cognos 8 launches, I had the pleasure of being a Cognos evangelist - touting the best enterprise BI platform to all comers. I also had the opportunity to hear what field folks, analysts, and (most importantly) customers wanted to accomplish with their Cognos BI deployments. With this blog we (you'll meet them soon) would like to recount some of our adventures in addressing these wish-lists; as well as share some of our thoughts and opinions along the way.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming...
SpotOn is a Cognos Shop. We've done consulting services for Cognos 8 BI clients, and along the way we've developed an array of Cognos add-on products and technologies for those same clients. During SpotOn's 3 years of existence, we've had our share of exceptional projects, as well as those that would be better characterized as "just alright"... Nobody wants to be just alright. With a little reflection, it's easy to understand when and where SpotOn shines: it's out on the edge of Cognos - outside the box, if you will.
Don't get us wrong, we believe the Cognos 8 BI platform to be the best "box" in the business. We are also intimately aware of the things that Cognos customers attempt to accomplish with the platform - definitely coloring outside the lines. And it has turned into a decent business for SpotOn: out on the Edge of Cognos.
What exactly I'm I talking about here? Let me give you a few snippets:
- Cognos customization, look and feel, branding
- Legacy application integration
- Management and performance solutions
- Extensions and add-on functionality
- Advanced visualization integration
Trust me there's more. Sure we do report authoring as well - doesn't everybody...? But life is definitely better than "just alright" out here on the Edge.
Stay tuned for SpotOn tales and adventures. I hope to convince my partner in crime, and SpotOn's secret weapon, to introduce himself here shortly.
CO