Cognos 8 BI for Consumers: A Step-by-step Introductory Guide to Cognos Connection

According to leading analysts, Business Intelligence (BI) has been a top priority for worldwide organizations within the past five years, and it will continue to be a priority in the near future. With a global user base of millions, Cognos is known as a leading provider of Business Intelligence tools. Cognos' latest release is Cognos 8 BI, a powerful suite of modules that share one common infrastructure for the creation, management and deployment of queries, reports, analyses, scorecards, dashboards and alerts--all designed to support an organization's Business Intelligence objectives. As a consultant with over 10 years of Cognos BI experience, Juan A. Padilla is an expert in helping organizations develop and implement Business Intelligence solutions. As the first in a series of books on Cognos products, with Cognos 8 BI for Consumers, Padilla provides a step-by-step introductory guide for the key component of the Cognos infrastructure: Cognos Connection. This book walks the reader through the fundamentals of Cognos Connection, the powerful web portal that is the foundation for all users of Cognos 8 BI, from end users to administrators. The guide relies heavily on screen images that demonstrate product workflow and available features; even readers who do not have "live" access to Cognos software can learn about it! This guide has been designed for: - companies evaluating Cognos as a potential BI solution and need to know the capabilities before purchasing; - those planning to use Cognos products professionally, e.g. job-seekers or consultants; - organizations using previous versions of Cognos who need to evaluate the latest version before upgrading or migrating; and - novice "hands-on" users of Cognos, for whom this guide will be an "anytime, anywhere" tutorial and reference source. In this book, you will discover: - how Cognos Connection functions; - how to work with reports, including scheduling, setting parameters and changing formats; - how to customize the look and feel of the interface to your preferences; - a simulation of Cognos' security features; and - report samples that show the powerful reporting capabilities of Cognos 8 BI.

The Cognos 8 BI Book Series is composed of step-by-step guides that focus on user and power user functionality. The guides start with the basics required by all Cognos 8 BI users and steadily expand to the advanced options available to power users who are developing complex reports and dashboards.

The initial guide concentrates on Cognos Connection.

• Cognos Connection is the Cognos 8 BI standard portal that provides a single point of access to all Business Intelligence objects. The user can access public and personal folders where he or she can execute reports, access queries, view analyses, monitor scorecards, and execute monitoring agents. From Cognos Connection, the user is able to access and browse content, see properties, assign permissions, and schedule objects, among other tasks.

Additional guides are being developed for the major Cognos 8 BI authoring modules. The modules, called Studios, are used by authors to develop content for consumers. Four guides are in the pipeline, focusing on the following modules with their respective roles:

• Query Studio is a very user-friendly ad hoc query tool that allows users to easily access information. With Query Studio, the user drags and drops fields to execute queries. With multiple options available at a touch of the mouse, Query Studio can group data, create summaries, display charts, filter information, and export data. An author who has access to Query Studio is referred to as a Business Author.

• Metrics Studio is a powerful scorecard tool that allows an organization to create and monitor goals. An author who has access to Metrics Studio is a Business Manager.

• Analysis Studio is the user-friendly tool used to quickly analyze summarized information with powerful dimension and variable crossing for complex analysis, discovery of trends, and forecasting. An author who has access to Analysis Studio is a Business Analyst.

• Report Studio is the professional report-authoring tool. The tool allows for the development of pixel-perfect reports, such as invoices and statements, as well as very complex layouts, such as those required for enterprise dashboards. An author who has access to Report Studio is a Professional Author.