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Post: Hug a Cognos Admin Day™: 10 Ways to Say Thanks

There are several things that the majority of Cognos admins have in common. They are dedicated, hardworking, and don’t anticipate accolades. They are willing to do whatever it takes to keep Cognos environments up and running and their end users happy, but how often are they thanked?

On September 30, 2014, we will celebrate our first international Hug a Cognos Admin Day! This holiday came about to pay tribute to all of these devoted BI heroes around the globe. After “working in the trenches” all day, we encourage every employee to thank their Cognos Admin in the best way possible- a big hug!

We’ve also compiled a top 10 list of more ways to thank your Cognos admin, which can be seen below. Beyond bear hugs and suggestions from our top 10 list, we will also be giving the Cognos Admin Ninja Award™ to someone who has delivered exceptional performance in their role as a Cognos Administrator. Today, September 26th, is the last day to submit your nomination to explain why your Cognos admin deserves this prestigious award! Besides recognition as a Cognos Ninja™, the chosen one will receive a full conference pass to this year’s IBM Insight conference.

Top 10 Ways to Thank your Cognos Admin

10) Let them work with the lights off for a day.

9) Buy them a box of donuts, but don’t make a big deal out of it.

8) They don’t have a case of the Mondays. They have a case of the botched-ETL-required-emergency-DB-restore-late-Sundays.

7) Don’t play with the figurines on their desk. They’re collectibles, not toys. And don’t plug in the Portal turret so you can pretend you’ve been hit.

6) Pens. They can never have enough pens. And they don’t have to be expensive.

5) Discuss the art of robots and donuts, while sharing that box you gave them from #9.

4) Quit saying, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” when they talk about IBM Insight.

3) Compliment them on the elegance of their latest package level drill throughs.

2) Three words: Haribo Gold Bears.

1) Above all, what makes a Cognos Admin happy is a Cognos environment that’s doing its job: producing actionable, critical information when you need it. We tell them when things go wrong, how about we thank them for all the times things go right?!

No matter how you decide to celebrate your Cognos Admin, make sure to thank them for all their work behind the scenes today!

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