Hillsborough County Public Schools needed to create an interactive Strategic Plan Scorecard that summarized metrics at a high level, but also provided some detailed information to the users similar to a drill-through report. To meet this need, an Active Report was created that impressed business users as well as solved the delivery and security concerns from an I.S. perspective. Although Active Reports are not exactly new to IBM Cognos, there have been significant improvements in regards to performance and file compression. This session explains how the Active Report was created at an introductory level, including a demonstration of the product.

1. © 2015 IBM Corporation
Session: 3065A Hillsborough
County Public Schools Implement
an Interactive Scorecard via Active
Reports
Scott Fairbanks – CCG
Dan Rodriguez - CCG
Joseph Cochran – Hillsborough County Public Schools
October 26th, 2015

2. • IBM’s statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal
without notice at IBM’s sole discretion.
• Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction
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• The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or
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• The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our
products remains at our sole discretion.
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a
controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary
depending upon many factors, including considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the
user’s job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed.
Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated
here.
Please Note:
2

3. Introduction

4. Agenda
• Introduction
• Scorecarding in General
• Hillsborough County Public Schools Background
• CCG
• Demo
• Technical Implementation of Active Reports
• Questions
3

5. Measuring Successful Outcomes
4
“Those who Lead in the Insight Economy are applying insights to uncover trends,
discover patterns, recognize opportunities, create markets and change their
industry.” - IBM
Today’s session will focus on how an IBM Analytics implementation at one of the
largest school districts in the nation is uncovering trends, highlighting patterns,
and measuring successful outcomes of the next generation – Students

6. Maximizing Investment in IBM Cognos
5
With a comprehensive suite of products IBM Analytics offering of IBM Cognos
BI, IBM Cognos TM1, and IBM Cognos SPSS give organizations tools to
become leaders in their industries

7. The balanced scorecard is a strategic
planning and management system that
is used extensively in business and
industry, government, and nonprofit
organizations worldwide
 Align business activities to the vision
and strategy of the organization,
 Improve internal and external
communications,
 Monitor organization performance
against strategic goals
The Balanced Scorecard
6
Adapted from Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System,” Harvard Business Review
(January-February 1996): 76

8. CCG
&
Hillsborough County
Public Schools

9. An award-winning consulting firm that specializes in
helping clients drive better business outcomes through the use
of data and analytics.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: It’s Who We Are and What We Do.
Business Value – Improve business processes via analytic solutions
Specialized Expertise – Improved time to value through industry expertise
Partner Approach – Trusted advisor and evangelist, servant leader
Our People are the Best – Experienced, passionate, professionals

10. Hillsborough County Public Schools
9
Hillsborough County Public Schools is proud to be the 8th largest school
district in the nation with over 254 instructional sites and 30,000 employees
focused on delivering excellence in education.
Enrollment: 220,000+ students
Serving Tampa, FL and its surrounding communities within Hillsborough
County

11. Business Process Improvement & Innovation
• Defining the organization's strategic
goals (Who are we, what do we do, and
why do we do it?)
• Aligning the business processes to
realize the organization's goals (How
do we do it better?)
10
• Dr. Joseph Cochran
 General Manager – Business Process
Improvement & Innovation
 Ph.D. University of Southern California

12. HCPS Vision and Mission
11
• Hillsborough County Public Schools aligns its goals and
objectives to support its vision and mission through the
Strategic Planning process

13. Strategic Planning
12
• Individual KPIs are set at the Strategic Objective Level

14. Business Needs
• Needed a Solution with the following characteristics:
 Interactive
 Ability to slice and dice by strategic objective owner
 Summarize performance by strategic objective area and by
owner
 Perform quickly
 Ability to be viewed without connection to HCPS intranet or
existing Cognos BI implementation
13

15. HCPS Existing Architecture
14
• Business Analytics Platform Highlights:
 IBM Cognos BI
 IBM Cognos TM1
 IBM Infosphere: DataStage
 IBM DB2
 IBM Websphere

16. Overall Solution Design
• Designed in IBM Cognos BI Active Reports
• Built Additional Data Warehouse subject area for a scalable
and sustainable way to capture objectives and owners over
time
• Designed with TM1 Scorecarding aesthetics purposefully to
grow into the need to move into TM1 application offering
15

17. IBM Cognos Active Report In Action!
• Demo time!
• Afterwards, we will cover the following technical concepts:
 Objects specific to Active Reports
 Active Report Variables vs. Report Studio Parameters
 How to make an Active Report act like a Drill Through Report
16

18. Demo Screen Shot 1
17

19. Demo Screen Shot 2
18
Scroll

20. Demo Screen Shot 3
19

21. IBM Cognos Active
Reports Technical
Implementation

22. What makes Active Reports Different
• Query only runs against database once and creates a stand-
alone, self-contained file
• Interactive reports are available even when disconnected from
the Cognos BI server
• Every potential output based on user behavior is stored which
makes interactive behavior response time excellent for the end
user
21

23. Active Report Objects
• Deck
 Used to manually create different
layouts, referred to as Cards, similar to
Conditional Block in standard Report
Studio
 In this demo: Main / Detail
• Data Tab:
 Used to create different Tabs based on
records returned by a data item
 In this demo: Years Tabs
• Data Drop Down List:
 Used to provide method for user to
select item based on a query that can
filter or select data containers
 In this demo: Division Leader, Metric
Owner, Goal, Objective
22

24. Active Report Objects
23
• Objects have new icons
 Interactive Behavior
 Create New Connection
• Example: List

25. Active Report Objects
• Interactive Behavior
24

26. Active Report Objects
• New Connections
25

27. Active Report Variables vs. Report Studio Parameters
• Report Studio Parameter:
 Can be used to filter data at query run time
• Example: when report is run, data is filtered for the chosen Year
26

28. Active Report Variables vs. Report Studio Parameters
• Active Report Variable
 Can be used to apply filters, select containers, or enable controls
based on user behavior
• Example from demo: Year Data Tab
27

29. Drill Through Definition vs. Active Report Deck Cards
28
• Report Studio Drill Through
 Used to send data needed in order
to run a Target report
 Data based on user behavior in
Source report
 Both reports need to execute
queries against database in order
to return data

30. Drill Through Definition vs. Active Report Deck Cards
29
• Report Studio Drill Through Example:

31. Drill Through Definition vs. Active Report Deck Cards
30
• Active Report Deck Cards
 Used to switch between
different layouts in
current report
 Card selection based on
user behavior
 Data is saved in stand-
alone, self-contained file
so no database query is
run when Cards change

32. Drill Through Definition vs. Active Report Deck Cards
31
• Active Report Deck Cards Example:

33. Drill Through Definition vs. Active Report Deck Cards
32
• Active Report Deck Cards Example:

34. Improvements to IBM Cognos Active Reports
• Performance Improvements with 10.2.2
 Streamlined processing logic to improve first open performance
 New data store mechanism that provides superior space usage
and fast query performance
 Reduced overall MHT size by removing duplication and overhead
involved with visualization definition storage
 Optimized and reduced overhead for layout and data information
stored within Active Report
• Output
 IBM Cognos Active Report output format changed to allow
browsers without MHT capabilities to display the MHT file within
an IBM Cognos Viewer via the portal
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/reporting
/active_report/page593.html#ar_perf
33

35. Security & Licensing for IBM Cognos Active Reports
• Security
 IBM Cognos Platform security is no different for Active Reports
compared to other parts of Cognos Connection
 Users can only consume what they are authorized to view
 Active Report files can be password protected
• Licensing:
 Information Distribution or higher based on current licensing
 Older Licensing models:
• Users must be a named user of Active Report Recipient or at least
Enhanced Consumer
• PVU based Active Report Recipient licensing option makes
distribution to organization as well as sharing externally possible
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/cognos/reporting
/active_report/page593.html#ar_output
34

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37. 36
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39. © 2015 IBM Corporation
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40. © 2015 IBM Corporation
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