Documentation for CXO-Cockpit Reporting Suite 4.1, click for CXO-Cockpit Reporting Suite 4.0 Documentation or check the CXO-Cockpit Website.
CXO-Cockpit Reporting Suite 4.1 Release Notes
From CXO Cockpit Reporting Suite Documentation
Introduction
These release notes detail the changes between version 4.0 and 4.1 and all minor updates. The release notes are up to date as of version 4.1.3.
Release Notes
General
The main theme of this release has been “Exceed Market Standards”.
Serving a community of large organizations, we are frequently asked to support and comply with the latest industry standards in terms of product functionality, web technology and hardware. We decided to dedicate a complete development cycle to comply with the most popular standards. Indeed, with our latest 4.1 release we believe we have exceeded this requirement with the following exciting new functionality:
- Support for all market leading web browsers
- Live link between CXO-Cockpit and HFM
- Support for the popular iPad through the CXO-Cockpit App
- Access to multiple Hyperion and non-Hyperion applications in one Cockpit
- Customizable templates with the ‘Generic Template’ framework
- Improved POV commentary capabilities
Through the realization of this functionality, we have strengthened our leading position as the Reporting and Analysis platform for organizations using Hyperion.
Support for market leading web browsers
By supporting these browsers, we support more than 92.6% of all browsers used worldwide and more than 99.98% of all browsers used by finance professionals!
With this compatibility, customers using CXO-Cockpit can now make their Hyperion information available through their company standard browsers.
And because of the compatibility with Safari, our web application can also be used on the popular iPad mobile device (see also iPad support and iPad app’).
Live link between CXO-Cockpit and HFM
Due to customer demand we have created a live-link to HFM. This means that our software synchronizes the CXO-Cockpit OLAP database with the HFM database in real-time. As a result, there is no need for manual or batch-based extraction processes. Your application is always up to date!
This functionality is especially useful for organizations that use the CXO-Cockpit during the close process (as opposed to organizations that use CXO-Cockpit only after the close process). However, for organizations that want to control the changes to CXO-Cockpit (and with that the information seen by Executive Management), the controlled refresh options will continue to be available.
Read more about this functioanlity in the HFM Live Link article.
Support for the popular iPad & IPhone devices through the CXO-Cockpit App
Since the popular mobile iPad device is being adopted by C-level management of major organizations at a surprisingly fast pace, we have developed an iPad ‘app’ to meet the expectations of these key users. Our iPad application brings all functionality of the CXO-Cockpit and CXO-Viewer web-applications to the iPad, and adds functionality that makes it even more user-friendly for iPad users:
- User friendly (iPad style) ‘sliding’ within CXO views
- History of CXO views
- Integration with iPad’s E-mail for receiving and sending bookmarks and views
Reed more in the CXO-iPad & iPhone App article.
Access to multiple Hyperion and non-Hyperion apps in one Cockpit
Since most of our customers do not have all of their key information in one Hyperion application, we have extended our CXO-Cockpit solution so that one Cockpit can now access information from many Hyperion systems and non-Hyperion OLAP databases at the same time. For example, organizations can now build dashboards with information from HFM, Planning and Sales, Inventory, Production, and Human Resources (OLAP) databases at the same time!
Read more about multiple source cockpits in the Configure a multiple source cockpit article.
Customizable templates with the ‘Generic Template’ framework
Although our 17 templates cover the majority of requirements of the CXO-Cockpit Community, we have now added the flexibility for customers to create custom templates without the need for programming. The ‘generic template’ framework allows you to create a combination of multi-bar and line graphs together with multi-column statements in one report. The content and position of these modules are defined by the Cockpit Captain. With this extension to our solution we have created an unlimited number of options for organization specific customization of the CXO-Cockpit, allowing all requirements to be fulfilled and template restrictions removed.
Read how to build your own templates in the Free Format Template article.
Improved POV commentary capabilities
Based on many customer requests we have redesigned our commentary functionality. The following improvements have been applied:
- We have introduced Narrative Templates. With this functionality it is possible to attach a predefined comment layout to a report. Check this article for some examples.
- Audit trail on the comments
- Specific security roles regarding the comments (reader, editor, locker, unlocker, etc.)
- Comments locking & unlocking
- Copy from previous month feature
- A report can inherit POV Comments from another report via our new Master Reports functionality
Other end user improvements
Significant Storyboard improvements
The storyboard concept has been reviewed and several customer requirements have been implemented in version 4.1:
• ‘Views’ can be created and e-mailed directly from the CXO-Cockpit web application. Previously views could only be created with the design studio and therefore creation was restricted to administrators. Now all CXO-Cockpit users are able to create and e-mail views of their own Storyboard. Read more about this in the Create CXO-View article.
• Where Storyboards previously could only be run and copied for the current year, period and entity, they can now be copied for any relevant dimension. For example, you can now run an entire Storyboard with ‘Actuals at Budgetrate’ or with ‘Forecast set to Version F2’. Read more about this in the POV Fixes article.
• With the above mentioned new functionality combined, users can now send Views set to a specific year/period, entity or any other dimension without the need to copy the Storyboard first.
Customizable sort order of breakdowns
Several customers have asked for entities (or other dimensions) to be displayed in a specific order when broken down in waterfall, trend and other templates where breakdowns are valid. In version 4.1. we have therefore created the option to choose between an order that is based on the values (e.g. based on Actuals or based on Variances) or based on the original order of the metadata in the source system. With these options, the application can be setup so that users view dimension members in exactly the order they want to see them.
See Periodic data as no data for new periods
Where previously periodic data for future periods was calculated as negative (because it was often calculated as the YTD value minus the YTD of the previous period) , we can now show these periods as having no data. This is especially useful within graphical templates as it avoids graph distortion.
On-line end-user documentation
All users have direct access from the web application to the CXO-Cockpit wiki platform, giving user and context specific help and answers to frequently asked questions for all aspects of the CXO-Cockpit web application.
Hierarchical Menu Groups
It is now possible to create sub-levels in the report menus. Read how you can do this in the Maintain Menu Groups article.
Other Administrator improvements
Access to custom calculations via design studio
With version 4.1 it is no longer necessary to access the SQL Server database directly to create and maintain custom calculations. All custom calculations can now be maintained from within the design studio. As a result it is much easier to change them, find parts of custom calculations and exchange calculations with the CXO-Cockpit support team. In addition, it removes the security issues around access to SQL Server Management Studio.
Draft Period Functionality
It is now possible to identify users that are allowed to view Draft Data and users that are not. When a user is allowed to view Draft Data the user is able to view data in future periods. This functionallity gives authorized users the ability to analyze data not yet approved for normal use. Read more about this functionality in the Draft Data article.
Easier definition of Load Sets and Load Units in the HFM integration
In the analysis of our support calls, we noticed that many calls where related to the definition of the Load Sets and Load Units. We recognized that the setup and definition was not very intuitive and decided to redesign it into something which is easier to use and easier to manage for Administrators.
Use of reverse valuation / sign in pick list in multiple column template
In version 4.1, the multicolumn template takes into account the reverse valuation and reverse sign of the pick list. This allows for even more flexible reports with the multi-column template. The reverse sign and reverse valuation of the pick list overwrites the report settings, but not the column settings of the reverse sign and reverse valuation attribute.
Cross domain active directory support
The CXO-Cockpit now supports Active Directory where the users are spread across multiple domains.
On-line CXO-Cockpit Captain documentation
From within the Design Studio, Cockpit Captains now have direct access to the CXO-Cockpit wiki platform with context specific guidance and support as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
