Automated Testing Drives Quick and Complete Cognos Upgrade

Our client is a large, diverse North American company (DNAC) with operations ranging from construction, equipment and shipbuilding to hydro-energy, forestry and logistics. 

About our Client

Challenge

An older tech needs an upgrade – fast

DNAC had been running Cognos – IBM’s premier business analytics solution – throughout its entire enterprise. It was an integral and ingrained part of its business, generating thousands of analytic reports that kept the huge business on course and running smoothly.  

DNAC’s version of Cognos, however, was older. The company was facing support issues and, looking ahead, the current platform was not going to help them with their ongoing analytic requirements. It just wasn’t sufficient enough for the business needs going forward. For DNAC, the decision to upgrade to the newest solution, IBM Cognos Analytics, was an easy one. Cognos Analytics was released as a robust upgrade, with the features, functions and capabilities that DNAC wanted to take advantage of and build on. 

Because Cognos was so essential and ran across the entire DNAC footprint, the challenge was finding a technology partner who could manage a complete upgrade at once – not a piecemeal approach, meet DNAC’s timing requirements, and understood and shared the company’s sense of urgency.  

Action

Automated testing seals the deal

Prolifics has worked with DNAC over the years on Cognos planning and analytics pieces, but DNAC had an incumbent company for things like upgrades. However, it became clear to DNAC that the current tech partner would not be able to meet the company’s deadline. DNAC asked us to present our thoughts on an upgrade solution – and the company liked what they heard. 

 “What they really liked about what we had, which they didn’t see from other organizations, was the whole testing component. Prolifics automated testing is a core expertise of ours that can be an integral part of any project, from its very beginning. So, what impressed them was our capability to expertly upgrade them to the new version and set-up their new environment, combined with the automating testing that everything, like thousands of reports, was working correctly.” 

Steve Livingstone is Prolifics’ Regional Sales Director, Canada, and works with DNAC.

Many companies can do Cognos upgrades, while other companies have testing abilities, or the client-company might do their own testing. What DNAC saw was the timing efficiency of both our automated testing and not having to split the project (upgrade and testing) to two organizations. 

Result

It’s about the best opportunity

Prolifics is currently in the process of doing the upgrade. Our expertise in upgrading and our automated testing will have the project done – enterprise wide – in the timing DNAC was looking for. DNAC said it was clear Prolifics would have it all tested, working and operating by their deadline.  

Steve Livingstone points out that while this client wanted the entire enterprise upgraded at once, it can be done differently depending on client circumstances. “A company that wants to do it in chunks can still take advantage of our process. There’s no need to do things in small increments because of our ability to actually provide a working production environment in a very expedient time, using our know-how and automation. So, while there should be no risk around in going to the new platform in one enterprise move, it doesn’t really matter. If somebody really likes the Cognos Analytics platform, Prolifics gives you the best opportunity to get there in the most expedient amount of time, with the least amount of risk and the most amount of opportunity for success in production.” 

Technology

Test automation is an integral part of any project

IBM Cognos Analytics is IBM’s premier and robust business analytics solution for sharing actionable insights and augmented intelligence to drive analysis across your organization. IBM Cognos Analytics helps you clean, combine and find new insights from your data. Create striking, dynamic visualizations and share across stakeholders with ease.  

At Prolifics, test automation is an integral part of any project, from its very beginning. We’re always developing new testing accelerators and digital products, while applying AI/ML in innovative ways for optimal performance. A test automation strategy will: 

• Map business goals to testing requirements – business and technology goals 
• Identify and design types and levels of test automation to ensure an optimal strategy 
• Leverage tools and accelerators to increase speed and reduce cost of execution
• Implement intelligence when, where and how you need it 
• Test systems to scale; make them responsive, secure and resilient for optimal performance 
• Analyze result patterns to better predict potential future outcomes 

About Prolifics

Prolifics is a global digital transformation leader with expertise in Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity across multiple industries. We provide consulting, engineering and managed services for all our practice areas at any point our clients need them. Vision to Value. Faster. It’s not just the Prolifics’ tagline, it’s what drives us. Email solutions@prolifics.com or visit us at prolifics.com.  

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