TUG Statistics and Reports Group Meeting

Minutes

January 12, 2006 - 9:10-10:30 a.m. – McLaughlin Library, room 200B

Present: Alan Gale (recorder), Bill Halahan, Gail Sperling, Linda Teather
Absent: Vera Fesnak

Agenda of January 12, 2006
1. Approval
  The Agenda was approved with no changes.
Minutes of October 4, 2005
1. Approval
  The minutes of October 4, 2005 were approved with two small corrections to be made. Linda will make them and add the Minutes to the TUG Statistics and Reports (TSR) area on the TUG staff web.
2. Business arising
  Linda updated the 2005/2006 budget and sent it to the Steering Committee, with notes regarding the server purchase. The revised budget was accepted.
  
  Gail distributed a “Report request form” and asked for feedback from Group members. Feedback should be sent by tomorrow, January 13. She will post the revised version on the web for TUG staff to use.
  
  Access to the “audit” cube and reports is now available in TUG Reports and Cubes>Cognos Server Reports> on the UpFront server. Reports containing confidential staff information are in a separate newsbox with access restricted to Bill and Gail only.
  
  The Cuberunner discount following from UW’s “testimonial” is 10%. It is not clear whether or not this discount will be ongoing.
  
  Bill will investigate why Guelph ERM usage data is not being written to the UW server. If Laurier is interested in having ERM usage data in the Cognos cube, someone from Laurier should investigate adding Laurier usage data to the UW server.
Future plans
A new TUG Reports “Timeline and Task List” was begun, resetting some of the dates for “goal completion” for existing tasks, as follows :

Summer 2006: Demo request form / database to managers and reports users
Fall 2006: Develop guidelines for cube review
December 2006: Review documentation content and template with Training Team and key reports users

The upgrading of COGNOS software was discussed. This can begin following the TRELLIS upgrade this summer and the move to a more recent version of the ORACLE database. The intention is to use the current release (7) for at least the coming year. Considerable work will be required (testing, staff training etc.) before moving to release 8.
Report to Steering Committee (TUG Executive Committee)
The content of the annual report to the TUG Executive Committee was discussed, including an overview of activities, financial expenditures and a budget for the coming year. Linda will prepare drafts for further TSR input before the meeting with the TUG Executive.
Seminar on COGNOS 7.4
The upcoming web seminar on Cognos series 7.4 was discussed briefly. Gail Sperling has booked a room at Waterloo.
Next meeting
The next meeting will take place following the presentation to the TUG Executive Committee.