GENOME COMPANY: Taking Security off the Critical Path

PROBLEM
A major Genome company with a significant Cognos installation could no longer manually administer security. Over time, the implementation had expanded to more than 2,000 locations, each requiring its own security rules for data access. The company had more than 8,000 users subject to data access rules in their Cognos production environment.
Securing G/L (by Expense Department, Plant, Company, and Account) and Sales (by Territory and Product) was a fundamental requirement. Team members needed to administer security across multiple dimensions within Transformer and Framework Manager. In addition, constant hierarchy changes always placed security on the critical path.
Objectives
A major Genome company with a significant Cognos installation could no longer manually administer security. Over time, the implementation had expanded to more than 2,000 locations, each requiring its own security rules for data access. The company had more than 8,000 users subject to data access rules in their Cognos production environment.
Securing G/L (by Expense Department, Plant, Company, and Account) and Sales (by Territory and Product) was a fundamental requirement. Team members needed to administer security across multiple dimensions within Transformer and Framework Manager. In addition, constant hierarchy changes always placed security on the critical path.
Objectives
- Reduce administrative burden by 90% or more;
- Generate all memberships via automated process;
- Update Framework Manager containing more than 8,000 filters;
- Update Transformer models with more than 2,000 custom views.
- Who has access to various cubes and packages in Cognos Connection?
- What memberships did individual users have across the entire environment?
- Which administrators were responsible for security changes within the environment?

SOLUTION
Security 4X provided the following key benefits:
Security 4X provided the following key benefits:
- Security was built into Framework and Transformer models;
- Framework Manager was completely updated in less than 2 hours;
- Transformer models were completely updated in less than 2 hours.
- Security policies for content and data are created from a centralized console;
- Security adheres to a consistent and easily understood rules;
- Auditable security configuration with compliance reporting was enabled;
- Comprehensive security reporting was provided across Cognos Connection.

RESULT
- Complex security was easily, quickly and reliably administered;
- User administration was removed from IT/ BI development to administrators in the business unit. In addition to freeing up development resources, end user productivity increased due to rapid access to data required for their business role;
- The company scaled to thousands of users without any additional administration burden;
- Compliance and audit information is now readily available, essentially on-demand in real-time.