Category: cognos

Discuss Cognos ”; Previous Next IBM Cognos Business intelligence is a web based reporting and analytic tool. It is used to perform data aggregation and create user friendly detailed reports. IBM Cognos provides a wide range of features and can be considered as an enterprise software to provide flexible reporting environment and can be used for large and medium enterprise. Cognos also provides you an option to export the report in XML or PDF format or you can view the reports in XML format. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Quick Guide ”; Previous Next Data Warehouse – Overview A Data Warehouse consists of data from multiple heterogeneous data sources and is used for analytical reporting and decision making. Data Warehouse is a central place where data is stored from different data sources and applications. The term Data Warehouse was first invented by Bill Inmom in 1990. A Data Warehouse is always kept separate from an Operational Database. The data in a DW system is loaded from operational transaction systems like − Sales Marketing HR SCM, etc. It may pass through operational data store or other transformations before it is loaded to the DW system for information processing. A Data Warehouse is used for reporting and analyzing of information and stores both historical and current data. The data in DW system is used for Analytical reporting, which is later used by Business Analysts, Sales Managers or Knowledge workers for decision-making. In the above image, you can see that the data is coming from multiple heterogeneous data sources to a Data Warehouse. Common data sources for a data warehouse includes − Operational databases SAP and non-SAP Applications Flat Files (xls, csv, txt files) Data in data warehouse is accessed by BI (Business Intelligence) users for Analytical Reporting, Data Mining and Analysis. This is used for decision making by Business Users, Sales Manager, Analysts to define future strategy. Features of a Data Warehouse It is a central data repository where data is stored from one or more heterogeneous data sources. A DW system stores both current and historical data. Normally a DW system stores 5-10 years of historical data. A DW system is always kept separate from an operational transaction system. The data in a DW system is used for different types of analytical reporting range from Quarterly to Annual comparison. Data Warehouse Vs Operational Database The differences between a Data Warehouse and Operational Database are as follows − An Operational System is designed for known workloads and transactions like updating a user record, searching a record, etc. However, Data Warehouse transactions are more complex and present a general form of data. An Operational System contains the current data of an organization and Data warehouse normally contains the historical data. An Operational Database supports parallel processing of multiple transactions. Concurrency control and recovery mechanisms are required to maintain consistency of the database. An Operational Database query allows to read and modify operations (insert, delete and Update) while an OLAP query needs only read-only access of stored data (Select statement). Architecture of Data Warehouse Data Warehousing involves data cleaning, data integration, and data consolidations. A Data Warehouse has a 3-layer architecture − Data Source Layer It defines how the data comes to a Data Warehouse. It involves various data sources and operational transaction systems, flat files, applications, etc. Integration Layer It consists of Operational Data Store and Staging area. Staging area is used to perform data cleansing, data transformation and loading data from different sources to a data warehouse. As multiple data sources are available for extraction at different time zones, staging area is used to store the data and later to apply transformations on data. Presentation Layer This is used to perform BI reporting by end users. The data in a DW system is accessed by BI users and used for reporting and analysis. The following illustration shows the common architecture of a Data Warehouse System. Characteristics of a Data Warehouse The following are the key characteristics of a Data Warehouse − Subject Oriented − In a DW system, the data is categorized and stored by a business subject rather than by application like equity plans, shares, loans, etc. Integrated − Data from multiple data sources are integrated in a Data Warehouse. Non Volatile − Data in data warehouse is non-volatile. It means when data is loaded in DW system, it is not altered. Time Variant − A DW system contains historical data as compared to Transactional system which contains only current data. In a Data warehouse you can see data for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, etc. OLTP vs OLAP Firstly, OLTP stands for Online Transaction Processing, while OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing In an OLTP system, there are a large number of short online transactions such as INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE. Whereas, in an OLTP system, an effective measure is the processing time of short transactions and is very less. It controls data integrity in multi-access environments. For an OLTP system, the number of transactions per second measures the effectiveness. An OLTP Data Warehouse System contains current and detailed data and is maintained in the schemas in the entity model (3NF). For Example − A Day-to-Day transaction system in a retail store, where the customer records are inserted, updated and deleted on a daily basis. It provides faster query processing. OLTP databases contain detailed and current data. The schema used to store OLTP database is the Entity model. In an OLAP system, there are lesser number of transactions as compared to a transactional system. The queries executed are complex in nature and involves data aggregations. What is an Aggregation? We save tables with aggregated data like yearly (1 row), quarterly (4 rows), monthly (12 rows) or so, if someone has to do a year to year comparison, only one row will be processed. However, in an un-aggregated table it will compare all the rows. This is called Aggregation. There are various Aggregation functions that can be used in an OLAP system like Sum, Avg, Max, Min, etc. For Example − SELECT Avg(salary) FROM employee WHERE title = ”Programmer”; Key Differences These are the major differences between an OLAP and an OLTP system. Indexes − An OLTP system has only few indexes while in an OLAP system there are many indexes for performance optimization. Joins − In an OLTP system, large number of joins and data are normalized. However, in an OLAP system there are less joins and are de-normalized. Aggregation

Cognos – Analysis Studio ”; Previous Next Analysis Studio is used to focus on the items that are important for the business. You can do comparisons, trend analysis and analysis like top and bottom performers and also allow you to share your analysis with others. Analysis Studio is not only used by BI Analysts but also by business users who understand business and want to find answers to business queries using historical data. You can use Analysis Studio to compare and manipulate data to understand the relationships between data and its relative importance. Whether you want to assess revenue growth or to identify top performers, Analysis Studio provides the filtering, calculating, and sorting support you need for analysis. Interface The Analysis Studio consists of several areas that are shown in the following areas and are explain in detail as well. Insertable Object Pane − The Source tab of the Insertable Objects pane contains the source tree for the package selected for the analysis. Information Pane − The Information pane shows the name, level, attributes (if any), and aggregation associated with the selected item in the source tree, as well as any additional information provided by the data modeler. Properties Pane − You can use Properties pane to make several changes and apply them at the same time, instead of running different commands. Work Area − This area contains the crosstab or charts to perform the analysis. You can display analysis in the form a Crosstab, chart or a combination of both. And lastly there is the Overview Area as well. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Notification Methods ”; Previous Next An agent can use different notification methods to notify business users. An agent can notify business users by − An email to business users. Publishing a news item to a folder frequently used by users. Email to Business Users You can notify people by email using either a report task or an email task. To help you decide which method to use, you should understand how they differ. You can use either a report task or an email task − To send a single email text message. To attach a single report in the specified output formats. If you attach only one HTML report and leave the body field empty, the report appears in the message body. To add links to a single report for the specified output formats. News Item Published In this, you can publish a news item/headline to a folder whose content can be viewed in a Cognos Navigator portlet and in any folder view. When a Business user clicks on the headline, it can open the content or view it as a web page. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Open Existing Analysis ”; Previous Next To open an existing Analysis, locate the name of the analysis that you want to open and click it. It is opened in Analysis Studio. You can make any changes as per the requirement. Save the analysis. You can also open a new analysis while working in an existing analysis, click the new button on the toolbar. The new analysis maintains the state of the source tree in the Insertable Objects pane and maintains any items on the Analysis Items tab. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Report Administration ”; Previous Next Report Administration allows you to give permissions to different users on the report level. You can define various other properties like output versions, permissions, general properties, etc. To open Report Properties and the permissions tab, go to More Options in the IBM Cognos home page. You can select the following actions in more options − In the permission tab, you can specify access permissions for this entry. By default, an entry acquires its access permissions from a parent. You can override those permissions with the permissions set explicitly for this entry. You can also move, copy or delete a report in More Options. You can create a shortcut entry or report view of the report. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Event Studio ”; Previous Next Cognos Event Studio is a Web-based tool that allows you to create and manage agents to monitor data and perform tasks when the data meets predefined thresholds. Events You can specify an event condition to perform a task. An event is defined as query expression in a data package. When a record matches the event condition, it causes an agent to perform tasks. When an agent runs, it checks the data for any event instances. Event Instance An agent monitors data, each event instance is detected. Task execution rules are followed to determine if an agent will perform the task. Task frequency defines that a task should be performed once or repeated for each event instance. Event List You can categorize the event as per the task performed. The event list shows all the events that are executed by an agent. Different event categorization includes − New Ongoing and Changed Ongoing and Unchanged Ceased An event key is used to determine whether an event is new, ongoing but changed, ongoing and unchanged, or ceased. Event Studio compares the event instances detected in each agent run with those detected in the previous run. To ensure it correctly matches the event instances for comparison, you must define an event key. The event key is the combination of data items that uniquely defines an event instance. Agent An agent runs to check occurrences of the event. An agent performs a task for events that meet the execution rules. Tasks A task can be used to notify users about a change in business event. Users can take appropriate actions as per the event. You can create a task for the following functions − Add an Item Send an Email Publish a new item Run a Job Run an import Run an Export and many more. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Filters ”; Previous Next Filters are used to limit the data that you want in your report. You can apply one or more filters in a Cognos report and the report returns the data that meet the filter conditions. You can create various custom filters in a report as per the requirement. Select the column to filter by. Click the drop down list from the Filter button. Choose Create Custom Filter. The Filter Condition dialog displays. In the next window, define the filter’s parameters. Condition − click the list arrow to see your choices (Show or Don’t show the following values). Values − click the list arrow to see your choices. Keywords − allows you to search for specific values within the values list. Values List − shows the field values which you can use as filter values. You can select one or many. Use the arrow button to add multiple values. Select a value and click the right pointing arrow to move the value into the selected column. You can use the Ctrl key to add multiple values at tone time. Click OK when the filter is defined. Note − You can view filters in the Query Explorer page and not the page explorer. You can go to the query explorer and view the filters. Deleting a Filter A filter can be deleted by using the following steps − Go to the Query Explorer as shown in the above screenshot Click on Query and Locate the Detail Filters pane in the upper right side of the window as shown in above screenshot Select the filter that you want to delete and press the delete button You can also cut/copy a filter Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Report Run with Options ”; Previous Next You can run the report with different options. To set the report options, go to Run options. You get different options − Format − You can select from different format. To select Paper size − You can select from different paper sizes, orientation. Select Data mode − All data, limited data, and no data. Language − Select language in which you want to run the report. Rows per page and prompt option, etc. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;

Cognos – Add Data to a Report ”; Previous Next You can add objects from a data source. Each object has a representative icon and can insert all the following objects to a report. Print Page Previous Next Advertisements ”;