Cognos

Pradeep

408-***-**** / ***************@*****.***

SUMMARY

• Seven years of IT experience in analysis, design, development, deployment, testing and support of Cognos (Business Intelligence) Applications including Cognos 8 & Cognos Series 7.

• Over 5 years of experience with Cognos 8 Suite/Cognos ReportNet (Report studio, Query studio & Cognos connection & Cognos administration).

• 4 years of experience in Cognos series 7 (Impromptu Administrator & Impromptu Web Reports (IWR), Analysis tools such as PowerPlay Transformer, PowerPlay Enterprise Server, Access Manager)

• Strong experience in creating and publishing packages in Framework Manager.

• Created Complex reports in Report Studio.

• Created Ad-Hoc reports in Query Studio.

• Expert at creating Multi-dimensional Cubes for corporate data using PowerPlay Transformer.

• Installation and Maintenance of Cognos Suite (Version 8).

• Integrated Series 7 security in Cognos 8.

• Configuring & Maintaining User & User Classes in Upfront/Access Manager.

• Expertise in Scheduling & Deploying the Reports.

• Sending Updated Reports to recipients via E-Mail by using Cognos Scheduler service\Report Bursting.

• Expertise in creating complex reports in Impromptu Administrator (List reports, Cross-tab reports, Drill through reports and Sub reports).

• Proficient in coding using SQL, PL/SQL Scripting, Stored Procedures, Functions and Triggers.

• Provided technical and functional training of Cognos Products to Corporate and Divisional users for both highly Technical and non-Technical audiences.

• Thorough understanding of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) experience from requirement analysis through Design & Development using modern programming languages.

• Possess Excellent Communication (both verbal and written) & Interpersonal skills. Technically sound, Result-Oriented with strong Problem Solving skills.

• Team Player as well able to work independently with minimum supervision, innovative & efficient, good in debugging and strong desire to keep pace with latest technologies.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Anna University, India.

SKILLS

Development

Reporting (BI) Tools C, C++, Core Java

Cognos 8/ReportNet (Report Studio, Query Studio, Frame work Manager, Cognos Connection & Access Manager). Cognos 7.x (Impromptu Administrator, PowerPlay Transformer, PowerPlay Enterprise Server (PPES), Impromptu Web Reports (IWR), Upfront, Scheduler).

Web/Application Servers Java Web Server, IIS 4.0/5.0, Netscape Directory Server, Apache Web Server, Tomcat 4.01

Operating Systems Windows 98/XP, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000

Databases Oracle 8i/9i/10g, SQL7.0/2000, DB2, MS Access, Excel, PeopleSoft.

Tools Toad, SQL Developer, Data Manager, VM Ware, db visualizer & SQL *Plus.

Programming Languages PL/SQL & SAS.

EXPERIENCE

Info Crossing, Jefferson City, MO (Mar’10 – Present)

(State government of Missouri)

Role: Sr. Cognos Developer

Infocrossing is an IT service provider for the Medicare & Medicaid Information systems (MMIS) of Missouri State government. The objective of this project is to develop complex reports & dashboards in Enhancement -16 (E16 module) & Business analysis unit of MMIS. Validating FM packages & ETL business rules developed by Ingenix.

• Created complex reports using Report Studio and Ad-hoc web based reports using Query Studio.

• Involved in Relational and Star schema database design and loading data.

• Designed Standard List Reports, Cross-tab Reports, Charts, Master-Detail and Drill through Reports using Report Studio.

• Created complex Dashboards using Cognos connection like displaying Cognos navigator, Cognos search & Cognos viewer in a single page.

• Deploying the Reports, Packages & dashboards from testing environment to production environment.

• Validated multiple FM packages (Accounts Receivable, Drug rebate, Claims, Prior auth-Pro cert, Reference & Participant packages) & ETL Business rules (Age calculation, status code generation, Claim Type code etc…)

• Developed various SAS reports in Cognos environment.

• Developed metadata models with appropriate Joins, organized Folders according to the Business view and published the packages using Framework Manager onto Cognos Connection.

• Extensively used Microsoft SharePoint for issue tracking purposes.

• Applied Security in Cognos Connection by controlling privileges for users, groups and roles to the various packages, reports & dashboards.

• Created Jobs to Schedule multiple reports in Cognos Connection.

• Created custom templates and updated the default XML code in the Cognos install files to show the Template in welcome screen of Report studio.

• Created Users, User Classes in Access Manager.

• Optimizing the complex reports developed in Report studio.

• Used advanced report options like Table of contents, Reference objects & Report Bursting etc.

Environment: Cognos 8.4 BI Report Studio, Cognos 8.4 BI Query Studio, Cognos 8.4 BI Suite, Cognos Connection, Cognos 8.4 BI Framework Manager, Cognos Scheduler, Access Manager, Configuration Manager, Windows XP, Oracle 8i/10G, DB2, SAS, PL/SQL, SQL developer, db Visualizer.

Tennessee Valley Authority, Chattanooga, TN (May’09 – Jan’10)

(Federal government)

Role: Sr. Cognos Developer/Administrator

Worked through Deloitte for in The Nuclear power generation department of TVA.

The purpose of this project is to document & develop 120 reports using Report studio & FM model development.

• Created Metadata Modeling by using multiple databases in Cognos 8 BI Modeling.

• Developed Complex Reports in Report Studio.

• Created Cognos packages by using Framework Manager.

• Used Query Studio to develop ad hoc reports.

• Created Dimensionally Modeled relational data (DMR) in Framework Manager.

• Created Scheduled Jobs by scheduling multiple reports in a job.

• Gathered Reporting requirements from end users.

• Documented Technical specifications of the Reports.

• Published PowerPlay Cubes onto Cognos Connection by using Cognos 8 BI Modeling.

• Generated Data Marts in Star Schema by using Data Manager.

• Developed dashboards for accurate on-time representation of data and data flow analysis.

• Imported metadata from various sources such as Relational Databases, Report Net models, Impromptu Catalogs into the Framework Manager.

• Did Unit Testing for all reports and packages.

• Analyzed the DMR model for Facts and Dimensions.

• Detected Determinants in the data source.

• Resolved Ambiguous relationships in model (DMR).

• Day-to-day administration activities like monitoring Scheduled jobs.

• Creating report views with saved prompts and schedule according to the business requirement.

• Personalized Cognos Connection, Specified display options, regional options and personal information.

• Implemented security in Framework Manager Packages & Reports.

• Implemented Data & Object security in Framework manager models.

• Developed Cubes according to business requirements.

Environment: Cognos 8.4 BI Report Studio, Cognos 8.4 BI Query Studio, Cognos 8.4 BI, Cognos 8.4 BI Suite, Cognos Connection, Cognos 8.4 BI Modeling, Framework Manager, Data Manager, Power play Enterprise Server 7.4, Power play Transformer 7.4, Cognos Scheduler, Cognos Upfront 7.4, Access Manager, Configuration Manager, Windows 2000, Oracle9i/10G, PL/SQL, Toad.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Malden, MA (Jan’09 – Apr’09)

(State government of Massachusetts)

Role: Sr. Cognos Developer/Administrator

The purpose of this project is to extract data from the Department’s Education Personnel Information Management System (EPIMS), load it into a new data mart in the Department’s data warehouse, provide parameter driven reports and analysis cubes for the Department’s and District’s staffs to access and analyze the information. EPIMS data will also be combined with relevant Student Information Management System (SIMS) data to support further analysis.

• Development and maintenance of data warehouse application programs

• Developed Cognos reports using Report Studio.

• Troubleshooting Cognos 8 Report Data & formatting issues.

• Implemented Cognos security in PowerPlay Cubes and Framework Manager Models.

• Implemented Category level security in Cubes.

• Resolved issues that client was facing in Report Studio and PowerPlay Cubes.

• Created Data level security in Framework Manager Models.

• Applied Security to both EPIMS & SIMS Cubes using Power Play Transformer.

• Developed Cubes according to business requirements.

• Enhanced framework manager models & published packages.

• Develops appropriate programs and systems documentation.

Environment: Cognos 8.2 BI Report Studio, Cognos 8.2 BI Query Studio, Cognos 8.2 BI Suite, Cognos Connection, Framework Manager, Power play Enterprise Server 7.4, Power play Transformer 7.4, Cognos Scheduler, Cognos Upfront 7.4, Access Manager, Configuration Manager, Windows 2000, Oracle9i/10G, PL/SQL, Toad.

Prudential, Roseland, NJ (Jun’07 – Dec’08)

Role: Sr. Cognos Developer/Administrator

Prudential Financial companies serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including mutual funds, annuities, real estate brokerage franchises, relocation services, and more.

• Installed and Configured Cognos 8BI version 8.3 Suite in single server environment on Windows.

• Migrated Cognos Series–7 and ReportNet Reports, Packages, Cubes and Data Source Connections into Cognos 8.3 BI.

• Migrated existing Cognos series 7 application to Cognos 8.3

• Created Metadata Modeling by using multiple databases in Cognos 8.3 BI Modeling.

• Created and published packages from Cognos 8.3 BI Modeling.

• Created Complex Reports in Cognos 8.3 BI Report Studio.

• Developed dimensional models using Relational data (DMR) in Framework manager.

• Created PowerPlay Reports by using Analysis Studio.

• Used Query Studio to develop ad hoc reports

• Scheduled Content Store Backup.

• Created Scheduled Jobs by scheduling multiple reports in a job.

• Published PowerPlay Cubes onto Cognos Connection by using Cognos 8.3 BI Modeling.

• Integrated Series 7 Security within Cognos 8.3BI.

• Deployed Packages and Reports from DEV Environment to UAT and PROD Environments.

• Created different Portlets as per the Dashboard requirements.

• Developed dashboards for accurate on-time representation of financial data and cash flow analysis.

• Created Metadata modeling by using Framework Manager.

• Imported metadata from various sources such as Relational Databases, Report Net models, Impromptu Catalogs into the Framework Manager.

• Did Unit Testing for all reports and packages.

• Day-to-day administration activities like monitoring Scheduled jobs like Cube refresh and Impromptu scheduled reports.

• Creating report views with saved prompts and schedule according to the business requirement.

• Created Jobs to Schedule multiple reports in Cognos Connection.

• Personalized Cognos Connection, Specified display options, regional options and personal information.

• Implemented security in Framework Manager Packages.

Environment: Cognos 8.3 BI Report Studio, Cognos 8.3 BI Query Studio, Cognos 8.3 BI Analysis Studio, Cognos 8.3 BI Suite, Cognos Connection, Report Net 1.1, Framework Manager, Cognos Impromptu Administrator 7.1/7.3, Power play Enterprise Server 7.1/7.3, Impromptu Web Reports 7.1/7.3, Power play Transformer 7.1/7.3, Cognos Scheduler, Cognos Upfront 7.1/7.3, Access Manager, Windows 2000, Oracle9i/10G, DB2, PL/SQL, Toad.

Marriott International, Inc., Bethesda, MD (Mar’06 – May’07)

Role: Sr. Cognos Programmer/Administrator

Marriott International, Inc., is a leading worldwide hospitality company. Marriott has nearly 2,800 lodging properties located in the United States and 66 other countries and territories. The Ritz Cognos project was initiated to automate the reporting needs of Ritz-Carlton group of hotels, which was a total of 160 reports.

I was the sole consultant hired to stabilize this million-dollar project, which was designed and delivered by a prior company in a very haphazard manner, resulting in slow execution times and database time out errors. Extensive research was done with the development partners and Cognos to debug the existing issues and implemented several fixes.

• Trained 3 people completely new to the Cognos reporting environment to be self-sufficient.

• Parameterized many distinct reports with the introduction of prompts to reduce the total number of reports to support.

• Tuned SQL scripts to reduce run time.

• Modified several complex reports to reflect the users ever changing requirements to present the data at different slices.

• Removed hard coding in scripts wherever possible to keep the application generic in the volatile environment.

• Used data from PeopleSoft as source for creating Packages & Reports.

• Installed the Test and Development Reporting environments from scratch.

• Simplified some extremely complex reports with multiple queries to solve the Shared Memory Pool Error in the Database.

• Created and maintained the User access to Cognos Connection.

• Cleaned up data in the database, and introduced indexes for faster access times.

• Created Acrobat jobs for bundling various reports into a package and automated the process, using Sequences.

• Regularly backed up the Content Store and Reports.

• Reverse engineered the Framework Manager Model to remove the redundant tables and folders.

• Created many documents for future support of the environment in terms of the Process Flows, Potential issues as we rolled into special calendar day’s government by the business rules.

• Migrated Cognos schema from the Development to the Production environment.

Environment: Cognos 8 BI, Cognos Reportnet1.1, Report Studio, Query Studio, Cognos Connection, Framework Manager, Cognos Impromptu Administrator 7.1/7.3, DB2, PowerPlay Enterprise Server 7.1/7.3, Impromptu Web Reports 7.1/7.3, PowerPlay Transformer 7.1/7.3,Redhat Enterprise Linux, PeopleSoft, Cognos Scheduler, Cognos Upfront 7.1/7.3, Access Manager, Configuration Manager, IIS, Oracle 8i/9i, PL/SQL, TOAD, Windows 2K

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, MA (Dec’05 – Feb’06)

(State government of Massachusetts)

Role: Sr. Cognos (ReportNet) Programmer

DHCFP is a Division within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts whose mission is to improve the delivery and financing of health care by providing information, developing policies, and promoting efficiencies that benefit the people of Massachusetts. “Hospital Benchmarking” Utility was built in order to facilitate the availability of relevant Health care delivery system data to meet the needs of health care purchasers, providers, consumers and policy makers. Also to advise and inform decision makers (Medicare, Medicaid) in the development of health care policies and pricing.

• Organized and Chaired meetings extensively with the Business users and Policy makers to gather Application specifications and User Requirements.

• Involved with the Upgrade of ReportNet 1.1 MR1 to MR2

• Created the Metadata model in Framework Manager using the Star Schema.

• Organized accessed data sources into Transformer models, Dimensional maps and Developed Power-Cubes, which can be changed in many ways to ‘Slice and Dice’ and drill-through data for further multi dimensional analysis.

• Fine tuned Tabular joins, Table organization and set appropriate Query Item Properties

• Formulated specialized Calculations and Filters in the Metadata Model and Published the Package to Cognos Connection.

• Implemented Package Access within the Metadata Model leveraging Cognos Series 7 namespace.

• Created the System DSN ODBC data source, adjusting properties and specifying access permissions.

• Designed and built the report in Report Studio using the published Package in Cognos Connection.

• Effectively generated Union Queries using Tabular sets and other Tabular reference queries.

• Harnessed the full suite of prompting options in Report Studio to achieve a highly flexible and dynamic reporting.

• Extensively used Bookmarking to enable intuitive navigation across the report.

• Used the Cascading prompt, Drop down prompt and Search and Select prompt all in one prompt screen to give the user maximum flexibility and catering to various Users.

• Implemented the auto execution of reports, scheduling and emailing (bursting) the same to select users.

• Enabled Auto Sorting and optimized the numerous queries to lower response times.

• Created PowerPlay Cubes to demonstrate OLAP features of Cognos.

• Involved with the Server Administration, Dispatcher and ReportNet Server tuning, Content Manager and Log Setting.

• Governed the execution of reports in Cognos Connection by setting appropriate administrative properties in Cognos Connection

• Wrote PL/SQL Procedures and SQL DTS schedules to automate Data warehouse updates.

• Conducted numerous User Training Sessions for Business Users in Query Studio and Report Studio enabling them to build their own ad-hoc reports in Query Studio or simple authored reports in Report Studio.

Environment: Cognos Reportnet1.1, Report Studio, Query Studio, Cognos Connection, Framework Manager, Cognos Impromptu Administrator 7.1/7.3, Power play Enterprise Server 7.1/7.3, Power play Transformer 7.1/7.3, Cognos Scheduler, Cognos Upfront 7.1/7.3, Access Manager, Configuration Manager, Microsoft IIS, Oracle 8i/9i, PL/SQL, SQL Server, TOAD, MS-Access, Windows 2K

GE Capital, Stamford, CT (Sept’04 - Nov’05)

Role: Cognos Developer/Administrator

The business leadership at GEEM has expressed a need to develop ad-hoc reporting solutions to respond to situations in which critical business data may not be available in an existing report, or putting data together in a certain format would take a long time using existing reports. A decision was made to start the Equipment Management project using a tool called ReportNet, which includes Query Studio, Report Studio and Framework Manager (a new tool of Cognos Series 7 version 2), which will allow ad-hoc reporting capability to be made available to users.

• Migrated existing Cognos series 7 applications to Cognos ReportNet 1.1.

• Interacted with Management and Development teams to gather Business requirements for new models.

• Involved in Relational and Star schema database design and loading data.

• Migrated Impromptu Web Reports (IWR) to Cognos ReportNet 1.1.

• Integrated Cognos Series 7 Security to ReportNet.

• Integrated Cognos Upfront News-boxes and News-Items in Cognos Connection.

• Created Jobs to Schedule multiple reports in Cognos Connection.

• Maintained Security in Cognos Connection by controlling privileges for users, groups and roles.

• Involved in design and development of joins, filters, calculations and conditional variables in Packages within Framework Manager.

• Created complex reports using Report Studio and Ad-hoc web based reports using Query Studio.

• Created and Modified Catalogs for different applications by using Impromptu Administrator.

• Developed Standard Reports, Cross-tab Reports, Charts, Master-Child Drill through Reports and Multilingual Reports and published them onto Cognos Connection.

• Created multi-dimensional cubes using Power Play Transformer and deployed the same along with reports using PowerPlay Enterprise Server.

• Created Calculated Measures in Transformer.

• Maintained Dimension level Security for Cubes in Power Play Transformer.

• Implemented Centralized Security in Access Manager.

• Created Users, User Classes and Database Signons in Access Manager.

• Performed Pivoting, Drill-down, Slice & Dice and Filtering operations done for all OLAP applications.

• Tuning the Performance of power-cubes to reduce Query time and Partitioned Cubes.

• Optimizing by assigning Relative Weights to the Tables in the Catalog for Query Performance.

• Helped developers rewrite many of their slow running stored procedures. Worked with developers in reducing lock contention by streamlining the order in which various tables were accessed. Involved in the effort to reduce long running and log intensive transactions, and to remove user interaction within transactions.

• Developed standard Templates for various kinds of reports.

• Trained end users on Query Studio for Ad-hoc reporting as well as involved in the Documentation.

Environment: Cognos Reportnet1.1, Report Studio, Query Studio, Cognos Connection, Framework Manager, Cognos Impromptu Administrator 7.1/7.3, PowerPlay Enterprise Server 7.1/7.3, Impromptu Web Reports 7.1/7.3, PowerPlay Transformer 7.1/7.3, Cognos Scheduler, Cognos Upfront 7.1/7.3, Access Manager, Configuration Manager, Microsoft IIS, Oracle 8i/9i, PL/SQL, SQL Server, TOAD, Windows 2K.

PacifiCare, Cypress, CA (Apr’03- Aug’04)

Role: Cognos Developer

This is one of the leading health care providers and provides a wide range of services. Project involved development and implementation of Data Warehouse, which helps the high level management to achieve an outstanding understanding of the business processes. The DW is a data repository that uses common data assignment processes and utilities to facilitate reporting and to provide access to accurate and consistent data for end users and applications.

• Created complex reports by using Report Studio.

• Created and enhanced existing power cubes as per user requirement.

• Developed Landing pages for each business by using Cognos ReportNet.

• Developed and exported Packages by using Framework Manager.

• Used Query Studio to develop ad hoc reports

• Involved in diagnosing and resolving performance issues and in fine-tuning SQL Servers.

• Involved in the de-normalization of some of the tables to improve performance.

• Resolved production issues and extensively worked with production support team.

• Involved in the documentation preparation for User Training.

• Worked closely with clients to understand, gather and document business requirements.

• Developed technical specifications and deployed efficient Business Intelligence solutions.

• Upgraded from Cognos 7.0 to Cognos Series 7 version 2 and configured various tools including Cognos PowerPlay Enterprise Server, IWR Server, IIS Web Server, Access Manager, and Netscape Directory Server and responsible for maintenance of this system.

• Created and Maintained different User Classes in Access Manager.

• Created the Shared and Distributed Catalogs for the Users also Managing & Testing of the same with Cognos Impromptu.

• Published Impromptu Web Reports (IWR) and PowerPlay cubes & reports onto the Upfront using Cognos IWR administration as well as PowerPlay Enterprise Server

• Created News boxes in Upfront.

• Set security for News boxes and News Items in Upfront.

• Used Cognos Transformer to build multidimensional cubes and used it in Cognos PowerPlay to build graphs and charts of sales data.

• Created Calculations, Conditions and Prompts in catalogs.

• Created various reports (List, Cross tab, Mailing Labels, Form Letter, Free Style) using Cognos Impromptu tool by querying the database.

Environment: Cognos ReportNet1.1, Framework Manager, Report Studio, Query Studio, Cognos Impromptu 7.0MR2/7.1MR3, Impromptu Web Reports 7.0MR2/7.1MR3(IWR), Cognos Scheduler, Cognos PowerPlay Transformer 7.0MR2/7.1MR3, Cognos PowerPlay Enterprise Server 7.0MR2/7.1MR3, Cognos Upfront 7.0MR2/7.1MR3, Access Manager 7.0MR2/7.1MR3, Configuration Manager 7.0MR2/7.1MR3, Microsoft IIS 7.1, Oracle 8.0, PL/SQL, SQL Server, TOAD, HTML, MS-Access, MS-Excel, Unix, Windows NT

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