IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook Front cover

6

Chapter 6.

Individual and collaborative user experience

In this chapter, we introduce IBM Cognos Business Insight, the web-based interface that allows you to build sophisticated, interactive dashboards that provide insight and that facilitate collaborative decision making.

In this chapter, we discuss the following topics:

򐂰

Dashboard overview

򐂰

Introduction to IBM Cognos Business Insight

򐂰

Interaction with the dashboard components

򐂰

Collaborative business intelligence

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2010. All rights reserved.

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6.1 Dashboard overview

Dashboard

is a term that is used commonly in the context of business analytics and that is a popular way of presenting important information. Different users have different understandings of what a dashboard is and how it should look, based on their business needs. Nevertheless, properties that are in common for all dashboards can be summarized in following key features:

򐂰 At-a-glace view of business performance

A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information about business performance. For business users, a dashboard is the key to understanding trends or spotting anomalies in performance. Information is consolidated and arranged in a way that makes it easy to monitor.

򐂰 Interactivity and personalization

A dashboard is more than just a static set of reports. It has to be intuitive and interactive to allow business users to personalize content to fit their needs.

Business users can use a free-form layout to add dashboard elements such as reports, images, RSS feeds, textual objects, or slider filters. In addition, they can interact with reports to sort or filter data, to add additional calculation, and to change list or crosstab reports to a chart or vice versa.

򐂰 Pro activity and collaboration

Business users can take action directly from within the dashboard using collaboration and workflow integration. They can collaborate with team members to make decisions.

򐂰 Assembling information from various different sources

Dashboards combine data from various different data sources (enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management, data warehouses, different data marts, and so forth) to give users a complete view on business performance.

򐂰 Visibility on non-business intelligence content

In addition to a variety of reports, dashboards can contain non-business intelligence data, such as websites or RSS feeds.

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IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook

6.2 Introduction to IBM Cognos Business Insight

IBM Cognos Business Insight is a web-based user interface that allows you to open or edit a dashboard or to create a dashboard.

No read-only dashboards: You cannot create a read-only version of a

dashboard. If a business user has permission to access a particular dashboard, that user can also make changes to it.

You can launch IBM Cognos Business Insight using one of the following methods:

򐂰 From the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) Welcome page

򐂰

From IBM Cognos Connection by clicking New dashboard or by clicking the hyperlink of an existing dashboard object

򐂰 From the Launch menu in IBM Cognos Connection and IBM Cognos

Administration

򐂰

Directly in web browser by entering a URL using the following format: http://machinename/ibmcognos/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=icd

You can open an IBM Cognos Business Insight interface in two modes:

򐂰

Chrome mode

򐂰

Chromeless mode

Chrome mode includes the toolbars and menus of a web browser, and chromeless mode does not these elements.

When you launch IBM Cognos Business Insight directly in a web browser by entering a URL, it opens in chrome mode. If you use any of the other options to launch IBM Cognos Business Insight, it opens in chromeless mode.

Chapter 6. Individual and collaborative user experience

163

Figure 6-1 shows the user interface.

Figure 6-1 Business Insight user interface

The user interface has the following components:

򐂰 A Getting Started page that displays when you launch IBM Cognos Business

Insight

򐂰 An application bar

򐂰 A dashboard layout area

򐂰 A content pane that includes the Content and Toolbox tabs

򐂰 Widgets and filters

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6.2.1 The Getting Started page

Figure 6-2 shows the page that opens when you launch IBM Cognos Business

Insight.

Figure 6-2 The Getting Started page

You can complete the following activities from this page:

򐂰 Create a new dashboard

򐂰 Open an existing dashboard

򐂰 View and open favorite dashboards from Favorites

򐂰 View how-to videos that provide an overview to Business Insight

When you select any of the options on the Getting Started page, the page closes.

If you do not want this page to display when you launch IBM Cognos Business

Insight, disable it using the My Preferences menu option.

6.2.2 Application bar

The

application bar

displays the name of the current dashboard and contains the icons for different actions that you can perform in the dashboard layout area. For example, you can access the Action Menu, create a dashboard, open an existing dashboard, send an email or collaboration, change the layout, or search for content. In the following examples, we demonstrate the features of some of these


165

icons. For the complete list of available icons, refer to IBM Cognos Business

Insight User Guide.

6.2.3 Dashboard layout area

The

dashboard layout area

is the workspace on which you can combine data from different sources to gain insight into your business. You can add various widgets with BI content (lists, crosstabs, or chart reports), non-BI content (text, images, HTML pages, and RSS feeds), or you can add filters to narrow the scope of the data (sliders or select value filters).

6.2.4 Content pane

The

content pane

contains all that objects that you can add to a workspace. It is includes the following tabs:

򐂰

The Content tab displays IBM Cognos content in a hierarchy of folders and subfolders with dashboards that you can open and reports that you can add to a workspace. This content is the same content as in IBM Cognos Connection with My Folders (personal content and dashboards) and Public Folders

(content that is of interest for many business users).

Within the Content tab, you can enable or disable the display of information cards and refresh the display to get the current content. You can display content in thumbnail, list, or tree view.

In addition, you can filter the entire content using one of the following criteria:

– All Content (default): Displays all the content that is available and that is supported in IBM Cognos Business Insight

– My Favorites: Displays dashboards and reports that are marked as

Favorite

– My Folders: Displays the contents only from My Folders

– Search: Displays the result of the search after a search is performed; otherwise, this view is unavailable

򐂰 The Toolbox tab includes the following types of widgets that are provided by

IBM Cognos Business Insight:

– Widgets that can add additional content to a business user’s workspace, such as images, HTML content, or RSS feeds

– Widgets that allow you to filter already added content, sliders, and select value filters

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6.2.5 Widgets

Widgets

are containers for all objects that you can add to the workspace. For business users, widgets allow the interaction and manipulation with the content that they contain, whether it is a report or a filter.

When you select a widget or it is in focus, an on demand toolbar displays, as

shown in Figure 6-3. Depending on the type and content of a widget, a variety of

toolbar options are available.

TrailChef Campaign

Seeker Campaign

Rising Star Campaign

Outdoor Protection Campaign

Hibernator Campaign

Extreme Campaign

EverGlow Campaign

Course Pro Campaign

Canyon Mule Campaign

Big Rock Campaign

0 40,000,000

Figure 6-3 A widget with the on demand toolbar

80,000,000

Revenue

Gross profit

Widgets can communicate with other widgets. For example, you can use the slider filter to filter the data dynamically in one or more report widgets.

Alternatively, if you have two report widgets that are created on the same dimensionally-modelled data source, when the data in one report is changed, the second report is updated based on user interactions in the first report.

You can change the manner in which content displays in a widget. You can specify the title, language, top-level location where the navigation begins, summarized or detailed view, how the links in a widget are opened, and so forth.


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There are two types of widgets inside IBM Cognos Business Insight:

򐂰

Content widgets

򐂰

Toolbox widgets

In the following sections, we discuss each of these widgets and when and how you can use them.

Content widgets

You can use

content widgets

when adding IBM Cognos content to the Content tab of a workspace. This section describes the content widgets.

Report widget

Business users use the

report widget

to add reports or individual report parts (for example list, crosstab, or chart) to a workspace. A report widget includes the following reports:

򐂰

IBM Cognos Report Studio

򐂰

IBM Cognos Query Studio

򐂰

IBM Cognos Analysis Studio

򐂰

IBM Cognos Metric Studio

򐂰

Report views and saved report output versions

Reports objects that contain prompts, drill through, and navigation are supported.

It is leading practice to use report

parts

whenever possible instead of entire reports to improve the layout and usability of dashboards. Reports parts are smaller and provide consolidated information for business users. If you add the entire report with several report parts to a dashboard, all report parts that include the header and the footer are added to a single widget, which is not the best choice for a dashboard.

If IBM Cognos Metric Studio is installed and configured as part of your IBM

Cognos BI environment, you can navigate to IBM Cognos Metric Studio content in the Content tab and add the following IBM Cognos Metric Studio content to a dashboard:

򐂰 Watch lists

򐂰 Scorecards

򐂰 Strategies

򐂰 Metric types

򐂰 Individual metrics

When you add an individual metric to the dashboard, historical data for the metric displays in a form of a bar chart. For any other IBM Cognos Metric Studio content that you add, the content displays as a list of metrics for the selected item. Each

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metric in the list has a hyperlink that opens the individual metric in IBM Cognos

Metric Studio.

If business users do not have a need for the most current data in some reports, they can use report output versions in report widgets. Users can choose to view the saved report output versions (by default, it is the latest saved output version) or the live version of the report. Users can also create watch rules based on

specific conditions and thresholds for a given report version (see 6.3.6, “Work with report versions and watch rules” on page 207).

Support for reports in HTML format: IBM Cognos Business Insight supports

only report versions that are saved in HTML format.

You can change several properties of a report widget using the widget Actions

Menu button. For example, you can change the title of a widget, the maximum number of rows per page, the location, or the report specification. We use some of these actions in examples later in this chapter. For details about all properties that are available refer to the IBM Cognos Business Insight User Guide.

PowerPlay widget

If IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio is installed and configured as part of your IBM

Cognos BI environment, you can navigate to IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio content in the Content tab and add IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio reports to a dashboard using this widget.

Communication note: IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio report content does

not interact with the slider filter and select value filter widgets.

Widget-to-widget communication is also not supported.

When added to a workspace, a IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio report displays in

HTML format, but you can also view the report in PDF format.


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You can take the following standard IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio actions on this widget:

򐂰

Switch between crosstab and indent crosstab display

򐂰

Select a chart to display data

򐂰

Swap rows and columns

򐂰

Hide and show categories

򐂰

Create a calculation by using rows or columns

򐂰

Rank categories

򐂰

Zero suppression

򐂰

80/20 suppression

򐂰

Custom exception highlighting

򐂰

Custom subsets

򐂰

Drill through

TM1 widget

If IBM Cognos TM1 is installed and configured as part of your IBM Cognos BI environment, you can add applications that are developed in TM1 to a workspace.

Communication note: TM1 widgets do not interact with the slider filter and

select value filter widgets. By default, TM1 Cube Viewer widgets listen to each other.

You can add the following TM1 content to a dashboard:

򐂰

TM1 Websheet: Displays a spreadsheet with the TM1 data that you can view in a web browser

򐂰 TM1 Cube View: Displays a view of a TM1 cube

򐂰

IBM Cognos TM1 Contributor: Displays a web page with a URL that points to a TM1 Contributor Web Client

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TM1 objects are displayed in HTML format in a dedicated TM1 Viewer widget

with TM1 toolbar buttons on top of the widget, as shown in Figure 6-4.

Figure 6-4 TM1 widget


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TM1 Navigation Viewer is incorporated in the Content pane and is not available as separate widget. Entire TM1 content is located in a folder in the Content pane with two main folder at the highest level of the tree, which is Applications and

Views, as shown in Figure 6-5. The Views folder contains original TM1 Cubes

and TM1 Cube views objects, and the Applications folder has more sub-folders,

TM1 Websheet objects, or TM1 Cube Views® objects.

Figure 6-5 Example of TM1 Navigation Viewer

You can add only the individual TM1 content objects to a workspace (that is, TM1

Websheets, Cube Views, or TM1 Contributors), not the entire folders.

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IBM Cognos Navigator

The IBM Cognos Navigator is a navigation browser that displays IBM Cognos BI

content such as folders, packages, and reports, as shown in Figure 6-6.

Figure 6-6 Navigator widget

Toolbox widgets

You can use

toolbox

widgets when adding non-Cognos content to a workspace, either to add additional information or to filter the content of existing widgets in the workspace.

In this section, we describe the toolbox widgets.

Web page widget

This widget displays HTML based content such as a Web page on a dashboard.

Using the web page widget: You must add the web page URL to the trusted

domain list as defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.

Image widget

This widget displays the image on the dashboard. The image must be a single file that is accessible by a URL.

The image can also be used as a link. For example, you can configure the image widget to broadcast a specified URL in the web page widget or a new browser window when the image is clicked.

Using the image widget: You must add the image URL to the trusted domain

list as defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.


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My Inbox widget

This widget displays an RSS feed of a user’s secure approval requests, ad-hoc tasks, and notification requests from My Inbox in IBM Cognos Connection.

Text widget

You can use this widget to display text on the dashboard.

RSS feed widget

This widget displays the content of a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or an

Atom news feed that is specified by a URL address.

Using the RSS feed widget: You must add the RSS or Atom feed URL to the

trusted domain list as defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.

The specified URL must point to a valid RSS or Atom feed and not a web page, because the valid RSS feed link opens an XML file, not a web page.

The RSS or Atom channel includes a list of links to specific web pages. You can specify how these links open in the web page widget or whether the web page widget listens to broadcasts from the RSS feed widget automatically.

Select value filter widget

You can use this widget to filter report data dynamically on the report widgets that you added to a workspace previously. For example, you can filter on the product

line or region, as shown in Figure 6-7.

Figure 6-7 Select value filter widget

Select value filter widgets are useful in a situation when you have several reports on a dashboard that show data by a variety of locations, product lines, subsidiaries, or customers. With these filters, you can narrow the scope of data, which makes reports easier to read.

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When adding a select value filter, you can select data items that you can filter with the corresponding report widget to which the items belong.

Selecting data for the filter: It is not possible to select one data item for more

than one filter.

You can also filter the reports on data items that are not shown in the report. The report must be authored in a way that allows this type of filtering. You must include the data item or items based on the items that you want to filter in the report query, and you must name the filter

_BusinessInsight_

. Therefore, additional data items must exist in the initial query (but do not have to display on the chart or crosstab) and in this separate query.

For example, a bar chart shows returned quantity by product lines. However, you

can filter the chart by years, as shown in Figure 6-8, because the report was

authored in the manner that we described previously.

Figure 6-8 Filter report based on data that is not displayed

You can specify the list of values that you want in a select value filter, for example just some specific product lines or years. In addition, you can choose whether users can select single or multiple values in the filter widget.


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Slider filter widget

You can use this widget, which is similar to the select value filter, to filter report data dynamically. Depending on the settings of the slider filter, this widget can filter single values or value range. This type of filtering is especially useful when

filtering on a data range (see Figure 6-9) or numeric items, such as revenue and

quantity.

Figure 6-9 Slider filter widget

As with a select value filter, you can also choose the data items on which to filter reports. In addition, you can filter data based on values that are not displayed on report widgets.

6.3 Interaction with the dashboard components

Dashboards created with IBM Cognos Business Insight allow business users an integrated business intelligence experience together with collaborative decision making. Users can complete a wide variety of tasks quickly and easily. For example, you can view and interact with reports, sort data or perform additional calculations, or share information with the other members of the team. Users have different needs for reports and data, so they can make use of the free-form layout and can rearrange reports or add new reports.

6.3.1 Personalize content

When launching IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can choose whether to open an existing dashboard or create a dashboard. Regardless of your selection, in the workspace that opens (either an empty dashboard or a dashboard that contains widgets), you can add and rearrange new widgets. All dashboards are editable. Thus, if business users have permission to access a particular dashboard, they can also change it.

Advanced business users or report authors can create reports and basic dashboards for a group of business users to include all information that is necessary for that group of users to work. Then, business users can personalize the dashboards to fit specific needs. These needs might include rearranging the layout, changing a pie chart to a bar chart, sorting data easily to see how

176


measures are ranked from highest to lowest values, and searching for an additional report and adding it to a workspace.

We demonstrate the unified business experience that IBM Cognos Business

Insight provides to using the fictional Great Outdoors (GO) company scenario

that we introduced in Chapter 3, “Business scenario and personas used in this book” on page 21.

Our goal is to create a dashboard for Great Outdoors company executives and business users that combines all the relevant information that is needed to gain better insight into business performance of the company. The dashboard must include data about sales performance as well as product returns, sales forecasting, marketing data, and external data.

In this scenario, Lynn Cope is an Advanced Business User in the Great Outdoors company. Her role is to enable senior management to have access to all relevant information in a dashboard. She uses the IBM Cognos Business Insight interface to create and change dashboards, including data that is relevant for the users, but is missing in the current version of a dashboard. Later, she interacts with the reports, creates additional calculations, and adds filters to allow users to narrow the scope of data. She begins by opening the current version of the GO Sales

Dashboard, making some changes on the layout, and removing reports that are redundant.

To begin this scenario:

1. Open the IBM Cognos Connection using the following URL: http://

machinename

/ibmcognos

2. On the My Actions pane click Create my dashboards to open a Getting

Started Page of IBM Cognos Business Insight.

On this page, you can create a new existing dashboard. Open an existing dashboard to change it by clicking Open Existing and navigating to the folder where you imported the deployment archive that is provided in the additional material that is supplied with this book. Open the Business Insight folder,

and click GO Sales Initial Dashboard, as shown in Figure 6-10.


177

Figure 6-10 Getting Started Page: Open an existing dashboard

3. Click Open. The GO Sales Initial Dashboard opens, shown in Figure 6-11.

Figure 6-11 GO Sales Initial Dashboard opens in Business Insight

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4. To better understand the information shown in each report, turn on the titles on the widgets. You usually want titles hidden so they do not take much space on a dashboard.

Showing titles: It is not possible to show the titles of just selected widgets.

You can show or hide the titles of all widgets on a dashboard. By default, the titles are hidden.

To show titles: a. On the Application bar, click Layout and Style, and then click Edit

Dashboard Style.

b. In the Edit Dashboard Style window, click Show Titles as shown in

Figure 6-12.

Figure 6-12 Turning on the titles

5. By taking a closer look at data in a report, you can rearrange the layout of a dashboard. Change the places of the

Gross profit by Region

and

Revenue

Planned versus Actual

widgets. To move a widget, select it. Then, while hovering over the Application bar, you should see the cursor in a shape

shown in Figure 6-13 on page 180. Right-click, and drag the widget to another


179

location on the dashboard. Dotted guidelines display on the dashboard when you insert, move, or resize widgets. These lines provide a visual aid to assist you in aligning widgets.

Figure 6-13 Moving a widget

6. Rearrange the widgets so that they do not overlap.

7. Notice that you have reports that show almost the same data and that you need space on the dashboard for additional reports. To make room for additional reports, remove the

Return Quantity by Products and Order

180


Methods

report. Click the widget, click Widgets Action, and then click

Remove from Dashboard. When prompted, click Remove, as shown in

Figure 6-14.

Figure 6-14 Deleting a widget


181

8. Next, change the display type for the Return Quantity by Product Lines report.

Using a column chart instead of a pie chart makes it easier to compare values for different product lines. Right-click the widget, and select Change Display

Type



Column Chart, as shown in Figure 6-15.

Figure 6-15 Changing the display type

9. Turn off the widget titles in the same way as described in Step 4 on page 179.

Clear the “Show titles” option.

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The dashboard should now look as shown in Figure 6-16.

Figure 6-16 Modified dashboard

6.3.2 Add new content to broaden the scope

You can add new widgets to a dashboard by dragging them from the Content or

Toolbox tabs. Using the same method, you can add reports, report parts, metric

lists or individual metrics, TM1 objects, or in fact, any object described in 6.2.5,

“Widgets” on page 167.

You can use the IBM Cognos Business Insight enhanced search feature to find and add relevant content to the dashboard. This feature is a full-text search similar to popular search engines.

Index note: IBM Cognos content must be indexed before you perform a

search.


183

When using the search capability, keep in mind the following rules:

򐂰

Search results include only the entries for which you have permission to access at the time of the last index update.

򐂰 Searches look for matching prompts, titles, headings, column names, row names, and other key fields.

򐂰

Searches are not case-sensitive. For example, searching for

report

and

Report

returns the same result.

򐂰 Searches include word variations automatically. For example, if you enter

camp

, results also include

camps

and

camping

.

򐂰

When using more than one word in a search, the result includes entries that contain all of the search keywords and entries that contain only one of the search keywords. To modify this type of search, use the following operators as you use them in other search engines:

– A plus sign (+)

– A minus sign (-)

– Double quotation marks (“ ”)

򐂰

If a search term matches a specific item on a dashboard, the dashboard is included in the search results, but the individual item is not included.

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When the search is complete, the results are ranked according to the search

term match relevance, as shown in Figure 6-17.

Figure 6-17 Result of the search in IBM Cognos Business Insight

Search note: In addition to the IBM Cognos content, you can search

annotations and IBM Lotus Connections dashboard activities.


185

After a search is complete you can refine search results using the following filters

(see Figure 6-18):

Result

Type

Shows only report parts or hides report parts

The type of IBM Cognos object, such as dashboards, reports, or

Part

Date

Owner

queries

The type of report part, such as crosstab, list, or pie chart

The year of creation

The owner of the object

Metadata

The metadata or packages that were used for to create this object

Figure 6-18 Refine search option

186


Now, back to our scenario. Lynn Cope made changes to a dashboard, and it now

looks as shown in Figure 6-16 on page 183. She wants to add a report that

contains marketing data for the Great Outdoors company promotions, including gross profit information.

To add this report:

1. Locate the Search window in the upper-right corner of the IBM Cognos

Business Insight user interface, type promotion revenue

, and press Enter.

2. Refine the search by clicking Refine Search, as shown in Figure 6-19.

Figure 6-19 Search for objects containing “promotion revenue”

3. A window opens next to the search results. Go to the Metadata section, and click GO Data Warehouse (query) to narrow the result set.

4. Among the search results, locate a Promotion Data (Revenue vs Gross Profit) report, and drag it onto a dashboard.

5. To close a search and return to the standard Content view, click Search

Results for “promotion revenue”



All Content as you shown in

Figure 6-20.

Figure 6-20 Closing a search


187

6. To change the color palette of the report, click Change color palette



Jazz

on the widget toolbar, as shown in Figure 6-21.

Figure 6-21 Changing the color palette of the widget

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The dashboard now looks as shown in Figure 6-22.


6.3.3 Sort and filter data and perform calculations

Apart from changes in the visual display of data in reports, you can interact with report widgets and apply custom sorting. In addition, you can add basic calculations using data in the report, and you can filter data. We describe these features in this section.

Sorting data

Sorting

organizes data in either ascending or descending order, based on an alphabetical or numeric value. Sorting is useful when you want to see, for example, the ranking. You can sort on a column that lists revenue in descending order to view revenue data from the highest to the lowest.

In IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can sort lists, crosstabs, and charts.


189

When sorting data, consider the following rules:

򐂰

For crosstab reports with sorting applied in IBM Cognos Report Studio, IBM

Cognos Business Insight Advanced, or IBM Cognos Query Studio, the sorted information displays in the information bar in the report widget. However, with

IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, sorted information for crosstabs does not displays in the information bar in the report widget.

򐂰 Sorting by label is not available in crosstab reports for summary rows or columns, nested measures, calculations, or rows and columns based on single dimensional members.

򐂰

Sorting by value is not supported on the outer edges of a nested crosstab or in relational crosstabs.

In this scenario, Lynn Cope wants to use the possibility to sort the data in the report on a dashboard. For the

Revenue and sales target by region

report, she sorts the Revenue column to display the regions with the highest revenue at the top of the report. This sorting makes it easier for senior management to identify the best performing regions.

To sort this data:

1. On the

Revenue and sales target by region

report, click the information bar to

see the current sorting on the report (as shown in Figure 6-23). Notice that

the report is sorted in ascending order by the label

Branch region

.

Figure 6-23 Information bar with current sorting status

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2. To sort the report on the Revenue column in descending order, click the

Revenue column. Then, click Sort Descending on the toolbar, as shown in

Figure 6-24.

Figure 6-24 Sorting column in a report

The report now looks as shown in Figure 6-25.

Figure 6-25 Report with sorted column


191

Adding simple calculations

In IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can perform basic calculations for list and crosstab reports using data from one or more report items (for example, to divide the values from two columns).

Calculation results: The results of calculation are not stored in the

underlying data source. Instead, IBM Cognos Business Insight reruns the calculation each time the report is refreshed. The results are always based on the current data in the data source.

IBM Cognos Business Insight includes the following calculations:

򐂰

Sum (+)

򐂰

Difference (-)

򐂰

Multiplication (*)

򐂰

Division (/)

򐂰

Difference (%)

Performing more complete calculations: If you need to perform more

complex calculations, click Do More to open the report in IBM Cognos

Business Insight Advanced.

Lynn Cope wants to modify the Promotion Data (Revenue vs Gross Profit) report to convert the report to a list report, to add one additional column (Gross Profit

Margin=Gross Profit/Promotional Revenue), and to filter the report to obtain only the campaigns that are the most profitable.

To modify the report:

1. First, convert the chart to a list report. Go to the Promotion Data (Revenue vs

Gross Profit) report, and click Change Display Type



List Table.

2. Next, add a column by clicking the “Promotion revenue” column, pressing the

Ctrl key on keyboard, and clicking the “Gross Profit” column. On the widget toolbar, follow these steps: a. Click Calculate



Gross Profit/Promotion Revenue, as shown in

Figure 6-26, to insert an additional column with a default name of

profit/Promotion revenue

.

Gross

192


Figure 6-26 Perform simple calculation

b. To move the newly created column to the last position in a list report, right-click the column, and click Move



Right on the menu.

The report now looks as shown in Figure 6-27.

Figure 6-27 Report with added calculated column

c. To rename a column, right-click it, and click Rename. Enter Gross Profit

Margin as the name.


193

3. Next, narrow the data in a report and display only the campaigns with the high

Gross Profit Margin (for example >0.4). Right-click the Gross Profit Margin for Extreme Campaign (value 0.41119418). Click Filter



=0.41119418.

You can only filter data by selecting values from a report. You cannot type the value manually.

Applying more detailed filtering: To apply more detailed filtering to the

report, click Do More to open the report in IBM Cognos Business Insight

Advanced.

4. Resize the report widget. The report now looks as shown in Figure 6-28.

Figure 6-28 Promotion Data report after filtering

5. Click Actions Menu, and click Save to save this version of the dashboard.

Note that the changes that you made are saved with the dashboard when you save it, but the original reports are not changed. When you save a dashboard for the first time, a copy of each report widget is created for the saved dashboard. After you open and change the report (for example, you apply a sort or add a calculation), the changes are saved in this copy. If you want to revert to the original report, use the Reset option on the widget Actions Menu button.

Using the Reset option: The Reset option is not available for saved

output reports or for the reports where the original report was deleted or disabled. When the report content is reset, any changes that you made to the content are lost.

Filtering

Filtering

is a way to narrow the scope of data in reports by removing unwanted data. As shown in the previous example, only the data that meets the criteria of the filter displays.

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You can find the information about all the filters that are applied to the report on the information bar. In the case of our previous example, the applied filters look

as shown in Figure 6-29.

Figure 6-29 Information bar displaying applied filters

Note that if you apply a filter or sort to data in a table report that is changed to a chart, the information bar displays the filter and sort information in the chart.

However, you cannot filter on chart data in the report widget by using the filter actions from the report widget toolbar or context menu.

User can filter the data on reports using one of the following options:

򐂰 Prompt

򐂰 Filter in individual report widget using filter actions

򐂰 Slider or select value filter

You receive prompts to select the parameter values before the report runs.

Based on the parameter values that you select, the report is filtered.

You can filter the individual report widget using filter actions on numeric and non-numeric values. When filtering on values that are non-numeric in a list or in

crosstab reports, for example the name of the campaign as shown in Figure 6-30 on page 196, you can use the Include or Exclude conditions. You can select

multiple non-numeric values (in list reports within the same column and in crosstabs in column or row headings) on which to filter. All values are included in the condition.


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Figure 6-30 Filtering non-numeric data

For numeric data you can use conditions (for example > , >= , < , >= ) if only one value is selected, or you can use

Between

and

Not Between

if two values are

selected (see Figure 6-31).

Figure 6-31 Filtering numeric data

In case of compound reports that consist of more report parts, if all parts share the same query, a filter applied to one report part is also applied to the other. If the query is not shared, the filter is applied only to the selected report part within the report widget.

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If you want to remove a filter from a report widget on the information bar, click the

delete icon next to the filter that you want to remove, as shown in Figure 6-32.

Figure 6-32 Removing filter

Note that you can delete only filters that are created using one of the following methods:

򐂰 The filter button

򐂰 The filter context menu

򐂰 The slider filter

򐂰 The select value filter

You cannot remove filters applied in IBM Cognos Analysis Studio, IBM Cognos

Query Studio, or IBM Cognos Report Studio in this manner.

We discuss advanced filtering using slider filters and select value filters in the next section.

6.3.4 Use advanced filtering

Filtering data in the report widget using a slider widget or a select value filter widget filters data in all reports that communicate with that particular filter. Thus, if you have a select value filter for

regions

, it filters all reports that have

regions

as a data item. Also, it filters data only on those reports that communicate with that filter. When you select a value on a filter widget, the report widget refreshes to display the filtered data items that you selected.


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Widget communication

Communication between widgets in IBM Cognos Business Insight has an important role in understanding how filter widgets work. By default, widgets communicate with each other. For example, report widgets can interact with each other and with filter widgets. Based on the type of interaction, the following types of widgets are available:

򐂰 A

source

widget is a widget that is broadcasting information.

򐂰 A

target

widget is a widget that is listening to other widgets.

The results of actions in the source widgets are shown in the associated target widgets. Filter widgets broadcast the information (sending the data based on your input or selection). Report widgets can be both source and target widgets.

Image and RSS feed widgets are also source widgets. For example, an image widget can broadcast a specified URL in a web page widget when the image is clicked.

By default, two report widgets listen to each other. If they are based on the same dimensionally-modelled data source and if the report contains items from the same hierarchy, drilling in one report widget affects a drill in the other report widget.

If you do not want a target widget to receive information from any or all source widgets, you must disable the communication in the target widget. You can also choose to disable some widget events while leaving other widget events enabled.

For example, you might want a widget to listen to filter events and to not listen to drill events from another widget.

Using filter widgets

Filter widgets are especially useful if you have several reports on a dashboard that share the same data items.

In our business scenario, Lynn Cope wants to add a select value filter for regions to make filtering easier for the users of the dashboard. This filtering allows business users to narrow the scope of data and to focus on analyzing data for a specific region or to have a global overview on all regions.

After adding a select value filter, Lynn notices that the filter is impacting one report that she does not want to filter. She needs to modify the communication between these widgets to change this behavior.

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The Great Outdoor company Sales Dashboard currently looks as shown in

Figure 6-33.

Figure 6-33 Dashboard before adding filter widget


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To modify the dashboard to change the communication between widgets:

1. Drag Select Value Filter from the Toolbox tab to the dashboard. The

Properties - Select Value Filter window opens, as shown in Figure 6-34. You

can filter on the Region data item for reports Revenue Planned versus Actual and Gross Profit by Region. Select Region. Leave the default setting for the remainder of the options, and click OK.

Figure 6-34 Select Value Filter properties window

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The widget opens on the dashboard (see Figure 6-35).

Figure 6-35 Select a value filter widget by region

2. Select values for Central Europe, Northern Europe, and Southern Europe, and click Apply. Note that the Revenue Planned versus Actual and Gross

Profit by Region refresh and now display data just for the selected regions, as

shown in Figure 6-36.

Figure 6-36 Dashboard with filter applied for the region

3. You do not want to filter the data on the Revenue Planned versus Actual report, so you can remove filtering on that report widget. Click Action, and then click Listen to Widget Events.


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4. Scroll down to Select Value Filter, and clear that option as shown in

Figure 6-37. Now, this widget will not communicate with the select value filter

widget.

Figure 6-37 Listen for Widget Events window

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5. Go to the filter widget, and select Americas and Asia Pacific. Click Apply.

The Gross Profit by Region report is filtered again and now shows data for these two regions. However, the Revenue Planned versus Actual report remains the same, because it is not listening to the filter widget anymore (see

Figure 6-38).

Figure 6-38 Filtering report after changes in Listening for Widget Events properties


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6. You want the Revenue Planned versus Actual report to display data for all regions, so you remove filtering that was applied previously with the select filter widget. Go to the information bar, and remove the filter as shown in

Figure 6-39.

Figure 6-39 Removing filter from a report widget

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The dashboard now looks as shown in Figure 6-40.


6.3.5 Add non-BI content to a dashboard

In addition to IBM Cognos BI content, you can add non-BI content, such as images, text, web pages, or RSS feeds, to a dashboard. In our business scenario, Lynn Cope wants to include stock exchange reports and news from various websites.

To add non-BI content:

1. Assure that the Atom feed URL (

*.ibm.com

in this case) is added to the trusted domain list that is defined in the IBM Cognos Configuration tool.

2. Drag the RSS Feed widget from the Toolbox pane to the dashboard. In the

Properties RSS Feed window, shown in Figure 6-41, enter the following URL:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/rssfeed.wss?keyword=null&maxFeed=& feedType=RSS&topic=80

3. Click OK.


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Figure 6-41 Add RSS Feed to a dashboard

The widget is added to a dashboard (see Figure 6-42).

Figure 6-42 RSS Feed widget

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6.3.6 Work with report versions and watch rules

Usually, reports are run directly against the underlying data source so that they reflect the latest data. However, at time, reports can use older data for comparisons. For example, you might want to see older data to compare monthly revenue for a region before and after features are added. Alternatively, if reports are running against a data warehouse that is refreshed once daily, you do not need reports that are executed multiple times during working hours on the same data set. In this types of scenarios, you can use the report output versions in report widgets. Report outputs are saved when the report runs in the background.

You can choose to view the saved report output versions (by default, it is the latest saved output version) or to view the live version of the report, as illustrated

in Figure 6-43.

Figure 6-43 Report version options

Reports in HTML format: Only report versions saved in HTML format are

supported in IBM Cognos Business Insight.

For the output versions of the reports, you can define the watch rules to monitor events of interest.

Watch rules

are based on event conditions that are evaluated when the report is saved. The watch rule sends an alert when a specific condition in a saved report is satisfied.


207

Watch rules can generate one of the following types of alerts:

򐂰

Send the report by email

򐂰

Publish a news item

򐂰

Send a notification to the task inbox

Enabling watch rules: The report owner must enable watch rules for the

report to allow users to add a watch rule for the report. For the details, refer to

IBM Cognos Connection User Guide.

The next example shows how to use the watch rules in the business use case of the Great Outdoors company. Lynn Cope created a list report with the campaigns by product lines and the gross profit. She noticed the negative Gross Profit in case of the Extreme Campaign for Outdoor Protection product lines. To enable other users to monitor that result and to take measures if necessary, she wants to add a watch rule to that value.

To add a watch rule:

1. Open IBM Cognos Business Insight, select the Create New option, and navigate to the folder where you imported the deployment archive that we provided with the additional materials accompanying this book. Open the

Business Insight Source Reports folder, and add the

Campaigns by product lines

report to the dashboard.

2. Click Actions Menu, click Versions, and inspect the options that are available.

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3. To add a watch rule to the negative Gross Profit value for Extreme Campaign, right-click the intersection of Gross Profit and Outdoor Protection -

Extreme Campaign, and click Alert Using New Watch Rule as shown in

Figure 6-44.

Figure 6-44 Add new watch rule

4. A window opens where you can specify the rule. Select the “Send an alert based on a thresholds” option. Leave the performance pattern as “High values are good.”


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5. Enter the value 10000 in the first box and 0

in the second (see Figure 6-45).

Click Next.

Figure 6-45 Watch rule specification

6. A window opens where you can specify an alert type. You can set up a watch rule to send different alerts depending on the performance status of a condition (good, average, and poor). Set the alert to send an email in the case of average performance and to publish a news item in case of good

performance. Make a selection as shown in Figure 6-46.

Figure 6-46 Alert type specification

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7. Define the headline and text of the news item by clicking Edit the options for

Publish a news item.

8. Define the list of users that you want to receive the email by clicking Edit the

options for Send a notification.

9. Click Next. Enter the following text as the name for a watch rule:

Gross Profit for Outdoor Protection has met a threshold condition

10.Click Finish.

The watch rule is added, and you can view it if you click Watch New Versions on

the report widget toolbar as shown in Figure 6-47.

Figure 6-47 Watch new versions menu

6.4 Collaborative business intelligence

Collaboration plays an important role in decision making and resolving any business issues. Creating reports and dashboards and analyzing data are tasks that are performed by individual users. However, when it comes to making business decisions based on that information, a team of users typically creates reports and dashboards and analyzes data.


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Users can share a dashboard with other colleagues using various methods:

򐂰

Email a link to the dashboard using the Email Link option on the Actions Menu button. Your email client opens with a message that is populated with the dashboard name in the subject line and the link to the dashboard in the message body.

򐂰 Send a URL in an instant message or put the URL in a document using the

Copy Link to Clipboard option on the Actions Menu button.

Recipient permissions: The recipients of the shared dashboard URL

must have permission to view dashboards. Otherwise, they cannot access it.

򐂰 Print individual reports to PDF format using the Print as PDF option on the

Actions Menu button of a report widget. This option opens Adobe® Reader with a PDF version of a report with full data and a preview of how that data will print. Note that you cannot print the entire dashboard. To print the entire dashboard, you can use Ctrl+P to use the web browser printing.

򐂰

Export individual reports to any of the following formats:

– PDF

– Microsoft Excel 2007

– Microsoft Excel 2002

– CSV

– XML

In addition, you can collaborate with other users while creating reports or monitoring dashboards in IBM Cognos Business Insight. You can achieve collaboration using one of the following methods:

򐂰

Annotations

򐂰

IBM Lotus Connections activities

6.4.1 Create annotations

Comments or

annotations

allow users to collaborate with other members of the team on the content of an individual report on the dashboard. These comments are visible to other users who view the same report. These users can also add further comments about that report, providing additional information. For example, comments can be a reminder to investigate low sales results in a particular region or an explanation of some anomalies in data, such as low sales figures for a product that was recently released and has been on the market for a few months.

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Using comments: Comments available in IBM Cognos Viewer are completely

separate from comments in IBM Cognos Business Insight and work in a different way.

You can comment live reports and saved output versions. When printing a PDF version of a report or exporting a report to PDF or Excel output, the comments are included. You can add comments to the following elements:

򐂰

Reports or reports part

򐂰

Data items in reports and report parts

򐂰

Individual cells in list and crosstab reports

You can add comments by selecting the required report cell or report widget and clicking Comment in the widget toolbar. All users who can access the report can see comments that are added to it.

Adding or editing comments: To add or edit comments, users must have

execute access for live reports and read and traverse access for saved output versions.

When adding comments to individual cells be aware of the following rules:

򐂰

The comment belongs to the cell, not to the value.

In the example shown in Figure 6-48, when the report is refreshed with data

and cell value changes (perhaps the percentage is significantly lower), the comment on that cell still exists and will is visible.

Figure 6-48 Comments on individual cells in report


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򐂰 The cell value is added to the comment by default.

As shown in Figure 6-48, the value of a cell is added automatically. The

original value stays in the comment after the report is refreshed.

򐂰 A comment is specific only to the cell in the current report.

If you have another report that has the same cell (in the previous example, the same cell is the

Percentage of customers

who returned a product with the

reason listed as

Wrong product shipped

), the report does not include the comment added previously. These reports are not linked and do not share the comments.

򐂰 If there are multiple comments for the same cell or report widget, they display in reverse chronological order.

򐂰

For each comment, you can see the user’s name, date, and the time the

comment was written (see Figure 6-48).

You can add, edit added comments, or delete comments during the current dashboard session. You cannot edit or delete the comments added by other users.

Dashboard note: When the dashboard is closed, it is no longer possible to

edit or delete comments from that session.

6.4.2 IBM Lotus Connections activities

One step further from collaborating by using comments is setting up activities in a web-based collaboration tool. IBM Lotus Connections is a collaboration service that allows users to interact in an online location where they can create and share ideas and resources. Users can post messages, share files, link to websites or their dashboards, and create and assign to-do items. Because activities are integrated with IBM Cognos Business Insight, users can use activities for collaborative decision-making in a single place.

For example, users can use activities to post a link to their IBM Cognos Business

Insight dashboard so that other users can use it for future analysis or to track and audit decisions and initiatives. Users can include stakeholders or other interested parties involved in the decision-making process.

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When you want to collaborate with other members of the team to resolve an issue or to perform an investigation, start a dashboard activity from the

application bar (see Figure 6-49) to create an IBM Lotus Connections activity

that is connected to that particular dashboard. After that, you can work with the activity in IBM Lotus Connections.

Figure 6-49 Start a dashboard activity in Business Insight

In IBM Lotus Connections you can complete the following activities:

򐂰 Add members to an activity and change the access to an activity

򐂰 Add entries to an activity, for example additional files or bookmarks

򐂰 Add to-do items and assign them to activity members

򐂰 Add comments

򐂰 Complete to-do items or mark an activity as complete

In IBM Cognos Business Insight, you can view the list of activities that are started for that dashboard. For each activity, the activity title, the name of the user who performed the last update, the date and time of the update, and the activity priority and due date are reported if they are set up.

If you expand an activity by clicking More, a summary of the last three updates and the activity goal displays. When clicking an activity or specific entry within it, the activity opens in IBM Lotus Connections.


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216


IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook Front cover

Individual and collaborative user experience

161

6.1 Dashboard overview

Dashboard

162

6.2 Introduction to IBM Cognos Business Insight

No read-only dashboards: You cannot create a read-only version of a

163

164

6.2.1 The Getting Started page

6.2.2 Application bar

application bar

165

6.2.3 Dashboard layout area

dashboard layout area

6.2.4 Content pane

content pane

166

6.2.5 Widgets

Widgets

167

Content widgets

content widgets

Report widget

report widget

parts

168

Support for reports in HTML format: IBM Cognos Business Insight supports

PowerPlay widget

Communication note: IBM Cognos PowerPlay Studio report content does

169

TM1 widget

Communication note: TM1 widgets do not interact with the slider filter and

170

171

172

IBM Cognos Navigator

Toolbox widgets

toolbox

Web page widget

Using the web page widget: You must add the web page URL to the trusted

Image widget

Using the image widget: You must add the image URL to the trusted domain

173

My Inbox widget

Text widget

RSS feed widget

Using the RSS feed widget: You must add the RSS or Atom feed URL to the

Select value filter widget

174

Selecting data for the filter: It is not possible to select one data item for more

175

Slider filter widget

6.3 Interaction with the dashboard components

6.3.1 Personalize content

176

machinename

177

178

Showing titles: It is not possible to show the titles of just selected widgets.

Dashboard Style.

Gross profit by Region

Revenue

Planned versus Actual

179

Return Quantity by Products and Order

180

Methods

Remove from Dashboard. When prompted, click Remove, as shown in

181

Type

Column Chart, as shown in Figure 6-15.

182

6.3.2 Add new content to broaden the scope

Index note: IBM Cognos content must be indexed before you perform a

183

report

Report

camp