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Flexnet reported converted to a widget?

I have reports we have created in flexnet, I also have the Cognos analytics working.  Cognos looks to be a drag and drop from fields from a data model.  This is confusing for the team.  Is there a way to point cognos to the flexnet reports and say use that report?  Why you ask? 

1.  We can't find the data fields and make the joins needed in cognos,  flexnet manager does all that for you when you craft a report.

2.  we want to visualize some of these reports and make them widgets.

 

(1) Solution

OK - so the answer to your core question is no, i.e. there is no inbuilt mechanism to consume FlexNet reports as a data source for Cognos reports or dashboards.

For reference though, Custom Properties are available in the "FlexNet Manager Platform Reports and Dasboards" data model. 

However  this data model can only be used reliably within Cognos Reports and not within the Dashboard environment - because this data model is a legacy model that was built using CQM (compatible query mode) and not DQM (dynamic query mode) which the new models use specifically for Dashboard development.

 

 

CognosCustomProperties.jpg

To be able to use custom properties within Dashboard widgets it would be possible, but you would need to invest some time into defining the fields you need and then create a DataSet based on a SQL query and possibly a simple Data Module (which defines the interpretation of the fields and joins to any other data modules you might want to relate the data to).     Data Modules are DQM based so work perfectly within the Dashboard environment.

I get that your point is asking about the convenience of using already built the FlexNet reports as a data source, but that's just not possible (good idea though).

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(9) Replies

@seabrig29 - With Flexera Analytics powered by Cognos, you can create some good looking reports, dashboard and widgets.

As you have discovered, you are limited to to the fields available in the Data Model, and unfortunately the current FNMS Data Model does not include all of the objects and attributes that you see within the FNMS UI, or are available in the Report Builder.

Some of your options would be:

1) Go directly to your FNMS Compliance SQL Database.  Create SQL Views directly in the Database that return the data that you need, and then you can connect your own reporting tools (Tableau, Power BI, etc) to these SQL Views and create your dashboard reporting

2) Extract raw data from the FNMS Compliance SQL Database (via SQL scripts) into a separate "staging" database or CSV files as input into Tableau , Power BI, etc.

3) Run your reports in the FNMS UI and download to Excel/CSV as input into Excel, Tableau, Power BI, etc.

Hi @kclausen

Longer term is Flexera working towards a more SaaS solution especially for ITAM where there is no access to the backend SQL DB?

Ben

@bmaudlin - On the more immediate roadmap for ITAM, the strategy is to build on the expanding portfolio of the ITAM REST APIs to enable customers to extract the data that they need for integration with other systems and for use with an organization's existing analytics tools, such as Power BI or Tableau.

The APIs further enable the use of the Flexera One Policy Engine against ITAM to schedule/email reports with data that meet filter conditions.

Longer term, the strategy is to have a common Reporting/Analytics Tool across all of the module of Flexera One to have the flexibility to build ad-hoc dashboards such as what is available in Cloud Cost Optimization and IT Visibility.

@kclausen  - Thank you for the feedback, I understand in the short term Flexera will be developing the API further for ingestion into third party analytics tools. 

When you refer to the longer term strategy, is there any current guidance in terms of when this will be delivered in years? So is this a year away or three for example? Mainly so we can be informed so we understand where to dedicate our resource to creating dashboards in the future.

@bmaudlin - I cannot make a commitment/answer to your question, since I am not in Product Management.  As of today, ITAM still uses Cognos as its Analytics tool.  However, there are some dashboards exclusive to Flexera One that use ITAM data that are not using Cognos, just to give you an idea of where things are heading:
1) Technology Spend Dashboard
2) Vendor Workspace - Microsoft

@bmaudlin - I'm a supporter of Cognos as an Enterprise scale BI product (alongside all those mentioned above which are also very capable) so would be interested to hear a distilled version of your use case.   The issue isn't going to be a tool/capability issue - moreso whether the data is available and how performant the queries generated from your report are (which is very dependent on the Flexera data models).

Can you explain more the Flexera objects you want to report on and the primary fields you need in the report but are struggling to access through the data model?     It would also help to know if your Flexera landscape is on-prem or cloud based (Flexera One)?

For on-prem (FNMS) there are no technical limits (**) as you can leverage either Flexera published data models or use your own SQL Queries, Data Sets or build your own data modules (including uploading files to join to Flexera data in reports).   But for Flexera One customers there are boundaries as it's not possible to access any database directly and Flexera have disabled the other 'self service' capabilities such as building your own data sets/modules (which is exactly what you do in Tableau/Microsoft BI).

If you can share a description of a data set you want to report on and maybe even the format (grids/charts) I'd be happy to respond with an example of what (I believe) can be done.

regards,
Murray.

(**)  I should be careful here as my understanding is that Flexera's use of Cognos is an OEM agreement which restricts the use of what data you can use within Cognos.  So you shouldn't/couldn't use it for footy tipping, planning parties or storing wordle strategies for example, but anything related to Flexera/FNMS is acceptable.

 

We are on prem.

simply put the difficulty is finding all the elements in the Flexnet datasets that support our reports.  Maybe they are there maybe they are not. For example we have custom fields.  are they in the dataset?  I couldn't find them.  and good luck coding sql against custom fields, i.e. forget it unless you are an sql god.  and if I could create new datasets and uploads and exports then why the hell would I even bother using cognos?  

My point is,  I have reports already crafted.   The Flexnet tool is not too bad for that.  even with custom fields, not the greatest but not too bad.  there are other reports that are nice and use canned data.  it just seems logical that I should be able to consume them as widgets and not have to figure out how they are crafted and what fields are the correct data elements.

 

OK - so the answer to your core question is no, i.e. there is no inbuilt mechanism to consume FlexNet reports as a data source for Cognos reports or dashboards.

For reference though, Custom Properties are available in the "FlexNet Manager Platform Reports and Dasboards" data model. 

However  this data model can only be used reliably within Cognos Reports and not within the Dashboard environment - because this data model is a legacy model that was built using CQM (compatible query mode) and not DQM (dynamic query mode) which the new models use specifically for Dashboard development.

 

 

CognosCustomProperties.jpg

To be able to use custom properties within Dashboard widgets it would be possible, but you would need to invest some time into defining the fields you need and then create a DataSet based on a SQL query and possibly a simple Data Module (which defines the interpretation of the fields and joins to any other data modules you might want to relate the data to).     Data Modules are DQM based so work perfectly within the Dashboard environment.

I get that your point is asking about the convenience of using already built the FlexNet reports as a data source, but that's just not possible (good idea though).

Most insightful and thank you for your reply. where you post my custom fields should be don't seem to be where you indicated.  But this does not surprise me.  I inherited this system so custom fields may not have been set up correctly.