COGNOS 8 Series

Date: 21st Feb 2010 Location : Bangalore Presented by: Ravi Shankar Reddy

Agenda
History of Cognos BI
Cognos 8 BI overview Architecture Tier 0 Tier 1 Tier 3 Security Work Flows

Comparison

History
"C8 - Cognos vision for business intelligence & 15 years of solutions expertise" In the early 90s - Cognos introduced leading reporting and analysis tools Impromptu and PowerPlay. In 2003, The game in BI changed forever with the launch of Cognos ReportNet. "Cognos ReportNet is phenomenally successful; its web-based architecture addresses the pent-up demand among customers looking for a single reporting product to meet all of their reporting needs. Cognos 8 One product on a single, proven, and modern architecture. Cognos 8 BI takes the strength of the ReportNet platform and delivers a single, Web services architecture for all business intelligence capabilities. It offers reporting, query, and analysis; dashboards and scorecarding; event lifecycle management; and the unifying power of centralized metadata in one product, on a single, proven service oriented architecture. Cognos 8 BI delivers all of these capabilities through a 100 percent Web browser interface for all users. The promise of business intelligence is all users accessing at the right time all of their data, in any way they want, to understand what is happening, why, and determine what actions they should take to help the organization succeed. Impromptu PowerPlay Transformer Metrics Manager Visualizer

COGNOS Desktop S/W

COGNOS ReportNet

Report Studio Query Studio COGNOS Connection

COGNOS 8 Series

Cognos Connection Report Studio Query Studio Analysis Studio Event Studio Metric Studio Cognos Office Connection Cognos Go!

Overview (1 of 3)
Cognos 8 BI assist organizations to improve their overall performance by helping them to plan, track, monitor, analyze and report the business activities.
Cognos 8 Business Intelligence is the only BI product to deliver the complete range of BI capabilities: Reporting, Analysis, Scorecarding, Dashboards, Business event management Data integration on a single, proven architecture with Zero Footprint Technology* Functional: human-centred, easy to use, coverage, appealing, adaptive, configurable, rely on results/solutions already found, flexible, based on autonomous processes, Technical: Web-centred, ontology-based, push mechanisms, autonomous processes, and interdependence among knowledge layers Architectural: interoperability, integration, flexibility, scalability, sustainability, heterogeneous inter-related knowledge sources, and large knowledge sources End Users' Requirements
* Zero Footprint technology allows users to connect to the database and see the reports through web browsers which doesn't require them to install any software to do so. With the help of this Zero Footprint technology, the reports that were only availabale to top executives, now can be seen by any employee making them to participate and contribute towards the decision making.

Overview (2 of 3)
All BI Capabilities Against Any Data Cognos 8 BI is the first BI product to eliminate barriers to data access. Extended open data access capabilities allow the complete range of BI functionality -- reporting, analysis, dashboarding, scorecarding and event management -- to be performed against any organizational data, whether relational or OLAP, helping to eliminate information silos that can inhibit decision-making. While competing solutions require separate tools to view different types of data, Cognos 8 BI uniquely delivers a single metadata layer and a single query engine, providing customers with a single, trusted place for all relevant data and a complete and consistent view of any business issue or driver.
Dimensional Reporting and Dynamic Dashboards Its comprehensive reporting capabilities are suitable for business style and production and business style reports, real-time dashboards, as well as ad-hoc queries. New in Cognos 8 BI is the ability to report OLAP data and maintain dimensional awareness, enabling consumers of a report or dashboard to simply click and drill down to the right level of information required for decision-making. Also, new chart styles such as gauges and maps, as well as rich graphical formatting, enable the creation of more dynamic and high-impact reports and dashboards. Deep, Comparative Analysis To simplify the exploration and discovery of information, Cognos 8 BI makes it easier for users to perform complex analysis, even against very large data sources. Enhancements include the ability to apply compound filters, nest subsets of information, and compare different levels of information -- all with drag-and-drop ease. Now, for example, comparing the top five sales reps in the bottom five regions, across the top five products, can be done quickly and easily. Analysis can also be performed against multi- dimensionally modeled relational data in addition to OLAP data

Metric s Mana geme nt

Email Notifi catio n

Overview (3 of 3)
Powerful Business Event Management and Process Integration Based on the proven Cognos alerting capability, Cognos 8 BI offers the industry's only business event management. It automatically monitors data and alerts users in real-time of key operational or performance events -- with information in context - via email or Web-based news items through the RSS channel. It eliminates the SPAM that normally occurs with first-generation alerting technology by only notifying users when there has been a change to the status of the event. With Cognos 8 BI, events can be sequenced.
Actionable BI Scorecarding has been enhanced with advanced initiative tracking, enabling managers to monitor actions and decisions to correct and improve performance associated with a key metric. This enables decisions to be tracked over time and provides a formal corporate decision-making memory that will help users learn from the past when faced with new problems and opportunities. Users can also now get a quick feel for a metric's trend by simply moving their mouse over a metric and viewing an advanced history chart. Integrated Performance Management As part of its open data access, Cognos 8 BI capabilities can natively access Cognos Planning and Consolidation data. Using Cognos 8 BI, production reports that show budget vs. actual can be easily created, as can alerts that track budget variances and proactively notify management before any damage is done. Agents can even be created to monitor the status of plan and budget completion. Increased Self-Service Cognos 8 BI also enables extended self-service across BI capabilities, alleviating IT resources and allowing users to work with personalized, consistent information using familiar interfaces that fit their needs and skills. For example, users can easily perform ad-hoc queries against relational or OLAP data, graphically format the result using corporate templates, and then share the report with colleagues -- without ever involving skilled report authors or IT.

Architecture (1 of 10)

Presentation Layer

Application Layer

Data Layer

Architecture TIER 0 (2 of 10)

User Interfaces (Tier 0)
This is the layer where the user interacts with Cognos 8. Cognos 8 has Web-based and Windows-based user interfaces. Windows-based interface Framework Manager Metric Designer Transformer Map Manager Office Connection Web-based interfaces Cognos Connection Report Studio Query Studio Analysis Studio Event Studio

Architecture TIER 0 (3 of 10)

Framework Manager is the Cognos 8 modeling tool for creating and managing businessrelated metadata for use in Cognos 8 analysis and reporting. Metadata is published for use by reporting tools as a package, providing a single, integrated business view of any number of heterogeneous data sources. OLAP cubes are designed to contain sufficient metadata for business intelligence reporting and analysis. Because cube metadata may change as a cube is developed, Framework Manager models the minimum amount of information needed to connect to a cube. Cube dimensions, hierarchies, and levels are loaded at run time.

Metric Designer is the Cognos 8 modeling tool used to create extracts for use in Cognos 8 scorecarding applications. Extracts are used to map and transfer information from existing metadata sources such as Framework Manager and Impromptu Query Definition (.iqd) files.

Transformer is a modeling tool for creating PowerCubes for use with Cognos Series 7 and Cognos8.

Map Manager Administrators and modelers use a Windows utility named Map Manager to import maps and update labels for maps in Report Studio. For map features such as country and city names, administrators and modelers can define alternative names to provide multilingual versions of text that appears on the map.

Architecture TIER 0 (4 of 10)

Cognos Connection is a Web portal provided with Cognos 8, providing a single access point to the corporate data available for its products. It provides a single point of entry for querying, analyzing, and organizing data, and for creating reports, scorecards, and events. Users can run all their Web-based Cognos 8 applications through Cognos Connection. Other business intelligence applications, and URLs to other applications, can be integrated with Cognos Connection. Cognos Connection includes Portal pages: Users can use portal pages to see content on a customisable page that uses portlets to show different types of content at the same time. Public Folders: Public Folders store shared Cognos 8 content, such as packages reports, agents, shortcuts, and jobs. My Folders: My Folders store personal Cognos 8 content, such as reports, shortcuts, and jobs. Preferences: Preferences can be used to customize the Cognos Connection interface. Directory: Directory is used to specify Cognos 8 data sources and their connections; define groups and roles for security purposes; and specify distribution lists, contacts, and printers. Drill-through Definitions: Drill-through Definitions are used to navigate through related data when querying or analyzing data. Portal Administration: Portal Administration is used to manage your portlets and portal layout. Capabilities: Capabilities are used to control access to administrative interfaces, the Cognos 8 studios.
Cognos Office Connection is a smart client for retrieving content from Cognos reporting products, such as Cognos 8, within Microsoft Office workbooks and presentations. Cognos Office Connection makes use of Microsoft .NET Framework to allow clients to interact with server-based components through the use of Web services. Cognos Office Connection has been developed to provide the zero-administration and zero-deployment benefits that are available for Microsoft .NET Framework applications. Event Studio is a Web product for creating and managing agents that monitor data and perform tasks when the data meets predefined thresholds. Event Studio is a new component that delivers complete event lifecycle management. Automate the detection and management of important business events. Use Event Studio to notify decision-makers in your organization of events as they happen, so that they can make timely and effective decisions. Cognos GO!: Search engine provided by Cognos & Google also known as Text Miner which is used to search Cognos Portal, reports, related links. It uses machine learning techniques which retrieves very fast the search subject (and related information's).

Architecture TIER 0 (5 of 10)

Report Studio & Query Studio are Web-based reporting tools that professional / Adhoc report authors use to build sophisticated, multiple-page, multiple-query reports against multiple databases. With Report Studio, you can create any report that your company requires, such as invoices, statements, and weekly sales and inventory reports.
New in Cognos 8 Reporting Introduction of Office connection, Cognos GO! Introduction of Gauges, Maps from MapInfo, Tree Prompt, Metric Diagrams Drill Through From Charts & Gauges Introduction of Joins & Cardinalities in Tabular Objects Query Level Analyse option provided with in Report Studio to do slice n dice. Analysis Studio is a Web-based product for exploring, analyzing, and comparing dimensional data to help you answer business questions. .Analysis is used to compare and manipulate data to understand the relationships. Using Analysis Studio, you can Find and focus on items that are important to your business Understand trends and anomalies Compare data, such as details to summaries, or actual results to budgeted results Assess performance by focusing on the best or worst results Establish relative importance using calculations such as growth or rank Share your findings with others Metric Studio is a Web application for managing business metrics by monitoring, analyzing, and reporting them at all levels of the organization. It helps you manage the performance of your organization by monitoring and analyzing metrics. Using Metric Studio you can: At-a-glance view of performance against targets. Ensure accountability by linking metrics to owners. Understand performance trends with direct access to reports and analysis. Out-of-the-box initiative tracking to manage corrective actions. Use metric data to drive your enterprise planning for integrated performance management.

Architecture TIER 1 (6 of 10)

The Cognos 8 Web server tier contains one or more Cognos 8 gateways.
`Web communication in Cognos 8 is typically through gateways, which reside on one or more Web servers. A gateway is an extension of a Web server program that transfers information from the Web server to another server. Web communication can also occur directly with a Cognos 8 dispatcher, although this option is less common than using gateways. If you install the gateway component on a different computer from Content Manager or Application Tier Components, you must configure the gateway computer so that it knows the location of a dispatcher, preferably one on an Application Tier Components computer. For failover protection, you can configure more than one dispatcher for a gateway computer. Cognos 8 supports several types of Web gateways, including CGI ISAPI Apache_mod Servlet Attaches environment variables for the Web server Adds a default namespace to the request to ensure that the server authenticates the user in the correct namespace Passes requests to a Cognos 8 dispatcher for processing

Architecture TIER 2 (7 of 10)

The Cognos 8 applications tier contains one or more Cognos 8 servers. A Cognos 8 server runs requests, such as reports, analyses, and queries, that are forwarded by a gateway. A Cognos 8 server also render the Cognos Connection and Metric Studio interfaces. Each Cognos 8 installation includes:
Application Tier Components Content Manager

Architecture TIER 2 (8 of 10)

Application Tier Components, which include a dispatcher, that operates services and routes requests. The dispatcher starts all Cognos 8 services configured and enabled on a computer, and routes requests. The dispatcher is a multithreaded application that uses one or more threads per request. Configuration changes are routinely communicated to all running dispatchers.
The dispatcher includes Cognos Application Firewall to provide security for Cognos 8. Presentation Service, Report Service Batch Report Service Job Service Log Service Metrics Manager Service Delivery Service Event Management Service Agent Service System Service Content Manager, which manages Cognos 8 information. Content Manager is the Cognos 8 service that manages the storage of customer application data, including security, configuration data, models, metrics, report specifications, and report output. The information stored by Content Manager includes Reports Report packages Metric packages Agents Server configuration Personal user information Language information

Architecture TIER 3 (9 of 10)

Cognos 8 data tier: contains the Content store Data sources Metric store
Content store The content store is a relational database that contains data that Cognos 8 needs to operate, such as report specifications, published models, and the packages that contain them; connection information for data sources; information about the external namespace, and the Cognos namespace itself; and information about scheduling and bursting reports. Design models and log files are not stored in the content store. Data Sources Data sources are relational databases, dimensional cubes, files, or other physical data stores that can be accessed through Cognos 8. Application Tier Components use data source connections to access data sources. Metric Store A metric store is a relational database that contains content for metric packages. A metric store also contains Metric Studio settings, such as user preferences. More than one metric store may be created. For example, one metric store may contain content for a sales application and another metric store may contain content for a finance application.

Architecture Security (10 of 10)

Cognos 8 provides 3 level Security Capability Data Level Security Package Level Security User Level Security
A user must be Authenticated and have proper Authorization in order to use Cognos 8. Authentication is the process of verifying the users identity at log in. Authentication may be done against LDAP or any Directory Server Software (e.g. SunOne). Allows users to log in with Enterprise User ID (EUID) and Enterprise Password Single Sign-On is enabled that allows the user to access Cognos 8 Portal. Authorization is done within Cognos 8 via roles. Capability depends on the functions that are specific to the licenses. Divided into two distinct types: Capability: What functions you can perform like View and run reports, Query Studio, Report Studio, Analysis Studio, Administration, Software Developers Kit. Data: What data you can access like Finance, Human Resources, Student, Contributor Relations.

Workflow (1 of 2)
Planning for Implementation
Installing Cognos 8 components: Cognos BI Server gateways Application Tier Components (Consists Of Cognos Configuration, Cognos Connection, Report Studio , Query Studio, Event Studio, Metric Studio) Content Manager Configuring Cognos 8 One of the tools installed with Cognos 8 is Cognos Configuration. You use it immediately after installation to set the initial Cognos 8 configuration. Some of the things you can configure are Logging: You can specify the destination log for messages generated by Cognos 8. Security: You can run Cognos 8 with or without security. By default, the only security that is enabled is Cognos Application Firewall. If you want to set up security, you should configure security settings immediately after installing Cognos 8 Data access :You must specify database connection information for the Cognos 8 content store

Use Cognos 8 BI to do all your Reporting, Analysis, Scorecarding, Dashboards & Event Management

Workflow (2 of 2)
A model serves as an insulating layer between Cognos 8 reporting users and the database. Packages are model subsets that ensure users are provided with data appropriate for the reporting they need to do, and that the data is structured in ways that make sense from a business perspective.
Modeling Framework Manager is used to create a model that provides users with a single, integrated, business view of the database, and to provide Cognos 8 with information about how data is accessed, related, and secured. Packaging After a model is created, packages are published to locations on the Cognos 8 server where report authors can use them to create reports. Authoring Reports Cognos 8 can be used to create many different types of reports, including lists, crosstab reports, charts, master and detail reports, dashboards, and user-designed reports. You create planned, professional reports in Report Studio, and ad hoc reports in Query Studio. You can explore and analyze data in Analysis Studio. You can use report data from Report Studio, Query Studio, and Analysis Studio in Microsoft Office workbooks and presentations through Cognos Office Connection.

System Architecture
Cognos Connection-WebBrowser (Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox)
-ReportStudio & QueryStudio -AnalysisStudio -MetricStudio -EventStudio -C8 Connection Tools

Oracle db 10g

Windows Server 2003 -Cognos Configuration -Framework Manager -PowerPlay Transformer (For C8 Mobile Users) -Metric Manager -Map Manager -Data Manager

Comparison (1 of 2)
COGNOS 8 Series vs. ReportNet The enhancements include: Faster reporting with 60 out-of-the-box, customizable report templates for common business requirements, enabling end users to get data and produce reports more quickly without IT assistance. Reports can access not only historical information in the data warehouse but also up-to-date transaction data from SAP and Siebel.

Office Connection live integration with Excel and PowerPoint, transmitting data changes directly from the BI repository to these reports as they occur.
The power of Cognos 8 (reporting, querying, dashboarding, scorecarding and event-driven analysis) transparently, all from the same user interface. Broader, Internet-like Go Search capabilities that use contextual metadata to retrieve reports based on cell content and probability ranking, not just report titles. By improving the search engine, Go Search reduces the time wasted recreating existing reports that users were unable to find. Go Search also enables users to call up other reports on the same topic merely by clicking on the word, similar to a hyperlink.

Cognos ReportNet
P O w e r P l a y Cogos Connection PPES Framework Manager Transformer Content Store

Cognos 8
Visualizer / Metric Manager / DS

Comparison (2 of 2)

Q & A .

THANK YOU