Why is Cognos being implemented at this time instead of waiting until the ERP is underway?
When we asked institutions who had implemented ERPs what they learned from the process, and what they would do differently, one point we heard again and again was that it was a mistake to implement a new BI environment at the same time that the new ERP is being implemented. The combination of an unfamiliar BI tool working with unfamiliar data hindered both implementations. When oddities were found, it was not obvious whether the problem was in the query and display of perfectly good data, or whether the problem was in the underlying data. Or both. Or neither, and the problem was in understanding the data. By implementing Cognos now, Purdue is following the pattern learned from other institutions’ experience. Cognos can be implemented now using data we already know intimately, focusing our implementation attention on Cognos’ improved reporting capabilities. One of these capabilities is data cube reports, which will allow us to provide data access to people beyond our current query user
