Upcoming Cognos Upgrade: March 1, 2026

Description

The IT Data Analytics Architecture team is preparing to upgrade the university’s Cognos Analytics environment from version 11.7 to 12.1. IBM is ending support for our current version in April 2026, and this upgrade is necessary to ensure we remain on a secure and supported platform. The upgrade is scheduled for February 28 – March 1, 2026.

Query Studio Deprecation

As part of this upgrade, IBM is deprecating Query Studio, and it will no longer be available after the upgrade. We believe all Query Studio users have been identified and contacted. If you have not been contacted or need assistance transitioning, please reach out to Victoria Arnold directly.

Aside from some user interface changes, other Cognos functionality will remain the same. Users will continue to be able to create, modify, run, and schedule reports as they do today.

For additional details on what’s new or changed in Cognos Analytics 12.1, please refer to IBM’s documentation: New and changed features in 12.1.x – IBM Documentation

Primary Contact: Victoria Arnold, Sr. Manager, IT Data Analytics Architecture, UM System

 Windows 11 and Office 365 Upgrades

Description

ITS is currently reaching out to faculty and staff with campus-managed Windows 10 systems to provide recommendations for those systems. Many of the remaining Windows 10 systems will have a convenient option to upgrade to Windows 11 while preserving stored data, as long as the system has enough free space to run the upgrade.

ITS is also providing an Office 365 upgrade for campus-managed Windows systems running Office 2016 or Office 2019. These systems will receive a pop-up notification when the Office 365 upgrade is ready, and this takes only a few minutes to install.

The UMSL helpdesk can assist with questions about these upgrades or with freeing up disk space.

Thanks for your partnership in keeping campus computers secure.

More information:

• Upgrading to Windows 11
• End of support for Office 2016 and 2019