The biggest new feature of IBM Cognos Controller 10.3 is definitely Controller Web.
Controller Web is a web application designed for a reporting site user who needs to report for one or more subsidiaries into the group’s financial consolidation process. Controller Web is installed together with the IBM Cognos Controller Rich client for the headquarter by example. All configuration and maintenance will be done from within the IBM Cognos Controller rich client.
IBM’s designers team wanted to simplify and clarify the visualization of the process for a reporting site. It’s an intuitive brand-new way to input data with a clear path until submission of the final figures.
It allows the users:
- to fill in their data
- to fill in their intercompany data (and match them)
- to import data
- to input manual journals
- to reconcile their accounts
- to easily create some simple reports like an ad hoc report and the ability to save them for later re-use
- to validate the complete reporting site process at a glance
- to submit the data
It’s a new user interface and on top of that there are also some practical improvements including :
- Directly open and correct an intercompany transaction, from the reconciliation IC report
- Directly open and correct a transaction from the Account reconciliation
- Report drilldown until the source account imported, which may be at a more granular level of detail
- Clear visualization of the deadlines
One remark, you can only use standard forms (and thus not the free forms).
It gives an intuitive way to enter your data and check the company status.
In the latest release, IBM Cognos Controller 10.4 Controller Web has been further enhanced and there are even more Administrator tasks included in Controller Web including :
- The first screen when you log in into Controller Web is the Command Center with submission details
- Overview of all submissions at a glance
- A consolidation might be run directly from Controller Web with a log report
IBM Cognos Controller 10.3x brings also some other improvements into the Controller Classic interface.
- From IBM Cognos Controller 10.3.1, a new Excel link formula (cc.fGetValTrans) allows to restore the transaction amounts
- Optimization might be run in batch now
- Improvement of the Excel’s stability where before Excel instability may have been experienced
- Compliant with SQL 2016, Excel 2016 (32 and 64 bits) and the Safari browser
IBM Planning Analytics or IBM Planning Analytics Workspace might now be directly linked to IBM Cognos Controller which is included for free with a license of IBM Cognos Controller.
The workspace provides a dynamic dashboard for the users :
The TM1 Web interface in the Controller Client start page is included directly in Controller itself.
FAP allows to retrieve your data from IBM Cognos Controller and import it into Planning Analytics. Now, it’s also possible to push back your data directly from Planning Analytics (ex-TM1 web) to Controller.
Othe new IBM Cognos Controller 10.4 features within Controller Classic include :
- Users can now end their own disconnected session within the application or within Microsoft Excel.
- Actuality filtering on submission definition screen: one extra field allows to filter by actuality within the submission window.
- Audit trail on period locking: it allows to see who and when the period (un)locking was done.
- More rows on Company info: Company info have 30 free fields instead of 20 free fields.
- New license report (users/ administrators): you have one clear report showing the number of users/ administrators with the user code and names.
Conclusion
IBM continues to develop IBM Cognos Controller and added some nice new functionalities in the versions 10.3 and 10.4. IBM Cognos Controller 10.4 sticks to the current interoperability environment on the market (Windows, SQL, Excel, ...). With Controller Web, IBM provides a new intuitive way for a reporting site to enter, validate and submit their data. You can still use the previous classic input in Excel. The new Controller Web interface has further matured for both the users and for the consolidation manager in Controller 10.4.
The version itself has a better performance and stability (with Excel). If you are using FAP (the link between Cognos Controller and TM1), the minimum version of TM1 supported to make the link is TM1 10.2.2. We recommend to all IBM Cognos Controller customers to upgrade to the latest and stable version 10.4, which we already have succesfully implemented at several customers. Contact us for more information !
