IBM Cognos Business Intelligence v10: The Complete Guide

Book description

Maximize the Value of Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos v10 -- Hands-on, from Start to Finish
This easy-to-use, hands-on guide brings together all the information and insight you need to drive maximum business value from IBM Cognos v10. Long-time IBM Cognos expert and product designer Sangeeta Gautam thoroughly illuminates Cognos BI v10’s key capabilities: analysis, query, reporting, and dashboards.

Gautam shows how to take full advantage of each key IBM Cognos feature, including brand-new innovations such as Active Reports and the new IBM Cognos Workspace report consumption environment. She concludes by walking you through successfully planning and implementing an integrated business intelligence solution using IBM’s best-practice methodologies. The first and only guide of its kind, IBM Cognos Business Intelligence v10 offers expert insights for BI designers, architects, developers, administrators, project managers, nontechnical end-users, and partners throughout all areas of the business—from sales and marketing to operations and lines of business. If you’re pursuing official IBM Cognos certification, you’ll also find Cognos certification sample questions and information to help you with the certification process.

Coverage Includes
• Understanding IBM Cognos BI’s components and open, extensible architecture
• Working with IBM Cognos key “studio” tools: Analysis Studio, Query Studio, Report Studio, and Event Studio
• Developing and managing powerful reports that draw on the rich capabilities of IBM Cognos Workspace and Workspace Advanced
• Designing Star Schema databases and metadata models to answer the questions your organization cares about most
• Efficiently maintaining and systematically securing IBM Cognos BI environments and their objects
• Using IBM Cognos Connection as your single point of entry to all corporate data
• Building interactive, easy-to-manage Active Reports for casual business users
• Using new IBM Cognos BI v10.1 Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) to improve performance with complex heterogeneous data
• Identifying, exploring, and exploiting hidden data relationships
• Creating quick ad hoc queries that deliver fast answers
• Establishing user and administrator roles

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Contents at a Glance
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. About the Author
  10. Part I: Introduction to IBM Cognos BI
    1. Chapter 1. Introduction to Business Analytics and Business Intelligence
      1. Business Analytics
      2. Actionable Insights Help Answer Business Critical Questions
      3. Business Analytics and Optimization
      4. How Business Intelligence Fits in Business Analytics?
      5. Introduction to Business Intelligence
      6. Transactional System Versus Data Warehouse or Data Mart
      7. Requirements for Building a Data Warehouse or Data Mart
      8. Why Use IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Version 10?
      9. Who Can Use IBM Cognos BI?
    2. Chapter 2. IBM Cognos 10 BI Architecture and Components
      1. Open Architecture
      2. Supported Operating Systems
      3. Supported Data Sources
      4. Global Audience
      5. Locales
      6. Extendibility
      7. Dynamic Query Mode
      8. IBM Cognos Security Model
      9. IBM Cognos BI Multitiered Architecture
      10. Examine IBM Cognos BI Components and Studios
      11. Additional New Features and Enhancements in IBM Cognos BI v10
      12. Platform Enhancements
      13. Globalization: Multilanguage Support
      14. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    3. Chapter 3. Explore IBM Cognos Connection
      1. IBM Cognos Connection Overview
      2. Security in IBM Cognos Connection: Roles and Responsibilities
      3. Cognos Reports
      4. IBM Cognos Connection User Interface
      5. Getting Ready
      6. Examine Options in the Actions Column
      7. My Inbox
      8. My Watch Items
      9. Add Comments on Saved Reports
      10. My Preferences
      11. My Activities and Schedules
      12. Create a New Job
      13. Globalization
      14. Skin Management
      15. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
  11. Part II: Working with IBM Cognos Studios
    1. Chapter 4. Analysis Studio
      1. Launch Analysis Studio
      2. Analysis Studio High-Level Interface
      3. Dimensional Data
      4. Data Analysis Techniques
      5. Working with Sets
      6. Apply Filters
      7. Drill-Through
      8. Working with Crosstabs
      9. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    2. Chapter 5. Query Studio
      1. Launch Query Studio
      2. Query Studio High-Level Interface
      3. Report Types
      4. Open an Existing Report
      5. Create a List Report
      6. Run the Report
      7. Change Layout
      8. Create a Crosstab Report
      9. Create Filters
      10. Summarize Report
      11. Sort Data
      12. Create Calculations
      13. Create Charts
      14. Define Conditional Styles
      15. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    3. Chapter 6. IBM Cognos Active Report
      1. Key Features of Active Reports
      2. Targeted Active Report Users
      3. Active Report for End Users
      4. Active Report for Report Authors
      5. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    4. Chapter 7. Event Studio
      1. Event Studio Capabilities
      2. Launch Event Studio
      3. Event Studio High-Level Interface
      4. Event Studio High-Level Tasks
      5. Create Agent Views
      6. Bringing It All Together...
      7. Schedule the Agent
      8. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    5. Chapter 8. IBM Cognos Workspace
      1. Cognos Workspace Audience/Users
      2. Cognos Workspace User Interface
      3. Widgets and Widget Types
      4. Bringing It All Together—Build Your Own Workspace
      5. Do More...
      6. Legacy Go!Dashboard Users
      7. Multilingual Support Using Cognos Workspace
      8. Integrating Content into Cognos Workspace
      9. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    6. Chapter 9. IBM Cognos Workspace Advanced
      1. Cognos Workspace Advanced Audience/Users
      2. Data Sources and Content
      3. Working with Cognos Workspace Advanced Packages and Reports
      4. Reporting Styles and Layouts
      5. Report Layouts
      6. Opening an Existing Report
      7. Exploring the Cognos Workspace Advanced User Interface
      8. Creating a New Report
      9. Working with Relational Style Reports
      10. Working with Dimensional Style Reports
      11. Working with External Data
      12. Financial Reporting
      13. Working with Charts
      14. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
    7. Chapter 10. IBM Cognos Report Studio
      1. Launch Report Studio
      2. Templates
      3. Report Studio User Interface
      4. Creating a Simple Report
      5. Running Reports
      6. Report Building Techniques
      7. Building Crosstab Reports
      8. Creating Calculations
      9. Filters and Summaries
      10. Conditional Highlighting
      11. Prompts and Parameters
      12. Queries
      13. Conditional Blocks
      14. Drill-Through Reports
      15. Burst Reports
      16. Working with Charts
      17. External Data
      18. Working with Dimensional Reports
      19. Maps
      20. IBM Cognos Statistics
      21. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
  12. Part III: Developer Tools
    1. Chapter 11. IBM Cognos Framework Manager
      1. Understanding Client Requirements and Environments
      2. Analyzing Data Requirements
      3. Supported Data Sources
      4. General Modeling Terms
      5. Framework Manager Workflow
      6. Framework Manager User Interface and Objects
      7. Modeling Recommendations
      8. Create a Project
      9. Preparing the Model to Build Sample Outdoor Company Reports
      10. Creating and Publishing Packages
      11. Verifying a Package or a Model
      12. Modifying a Package
      13. Deleting a Package
      14. Publishing a Package
      15. Analyzing Publishing Impact
      16. Running Model Advisor
      17. Dimensional Modeling
      18. Set Up Drill-Through Parameters in Framework Manager
      19. Multilingual Options
      20. Durable Models
      21. Governors
      22. Framework Manager External Repository Control
      23. Creating Model Documentation
      24. Framework Manager Security
      25. Implementing Multitenancy in Framework Manager
      26. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
      27. IBM Cognos BI Administrator Perspective
  13. Part IV: Secure IBM Cognos Environment
    1. Chapter 12. Securing IBM Cognos BI Environment and Its Objects
      1. Introduction
      2. Initial Security
      3. Things to Do Before You Set Up Security
      4. IBM Cognos Security Model
      5. Securing the Data Source Sign-Ons
      6. Securing the Content Store
      7. Managing Users in an IBM Cognos BI Environment
      8. Trusted Credentials or Proxy
      9. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
  14. Part V: Maintain IBM Cognos BI Applications
    1. Chapter 13. Maintaining Your IBM Cognos BI Application
      1. Administration Process Flow
      2. Launch IBM Cognos Administration
      3. Explore High-Level Cognos Administration Portal
      4. System Monitoring
      5. Scheduling
      6. Audit
      7. Automatic Credential and Sign-On Renewals
      8. Creating Data Source Connections
      9. Manage Own Data Source Sign-Ons
      10. Backup and Recovery Options
      11. Deployment
      12. Dynamic Query Mode
      13. Content Archival (FileNet): Archiving Saved Report Output to External Repositories FileNet
      14. Administering an Index Search
      15. Multitenancy
      16. Dynamic Cubes
      17. Upgrading to IBM Cognos V10 from IBM Cognos 8
      18. Lifecycle Manager: Report Testing and Validation
      19. Cognos Configuration Validation Tool
      20. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
  15. Part VI: Managing IBM Cognos Project
    1. Chapter 14. Manage IBM Cognos Project: An Overview
      1. IBM Cognos BI Product Roadmap and Versions
      2. High-Level Flow of a BI Application
      3. Thinking Dimensionally
      4. High-Level Data Flow in a BI Application
      5. BI Application Development: Agile/Iterative Approach
      6. Types of BI Implementation
      7. Product Migration Guidelines
      8. Managing an IBM Cognos BI Project
      9. BI Project Phases: Overview
      10. Project Phases and Associated Tasks/Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
      11. BI User Community
      12. BI Project Execution Team: Resource List Versus Task List
      13. Reporting Requirements, Cognos Tools, and Resource Map
      14. BIG Data: Impact, Considerations, Tools, and Resources
      15. In a Nutshell: Reviewing by IBM Cognos BI Audience
  16. Part VII: Appendixes
    1. Appendix A. Chapter 9 Project External Data File
    2. Appendix B. IBM Cognos V10 BI Certification: Sample Exam Questions
      1. Exam 622—IBM Cognos 10 BI Administrator
      2. Exam 612—IBM Cognos 10 BI Author
      3. Exam 632—IBM Cognos 10 BI Metadata Model Developer
      4. Exam 645—IBM Cognos 10 BI Multidimensional Author
    3. Appendix C. Project Plan
    4. Appendix D. Sample Reports Requirements Template
      1. Report Name
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: IBM Cognos Business Intelligence v10: The Complete Guide
  • Author(s): Sangeeta Gautam
  • Release date: November 2012
  • Publisher(s): IBM Press
  • ISBN: 9780132724784