An IBM Proof of Technology Workshop 1 Working with Cognos Workspace What is Cognos Workspace? IBM Cognos Cognos Workspace is a web-based tool which allows you to use Cognos content and external data sources to interact, analyze and build sophisticated interactive dashboards that facilitate collaborative decision making. Workshop Objectives In this workshop, you will: Familiarize yourself with the Cognos Workspace interface. Consume and interact with content within Cognos Workspace. Create a new workspace with advanced features 1.1 Getting started 1. If the following home page appears, select My home. Page 6 Workshop 1
IBM Software 2. In the Cognos Connection portal, navigate to the sales area by clicking on folders Samples > Models > Cognos Workspace Samples and finally click on the Cognos Workspace Tabbed Workspace. Maximize the window to display the entire workspace if it is not already maximized. Final workspace display should appear as: Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 7
An IBM Proof of Technology 1.2 Interacting with content 3. 4. Note the variety of widgets (lists, crosstabs, charts, navigation, and filters) as well as the available interactivity. See the sliding filters on the left hand side for different date ranges. Modify the filter to see how the displayed results change. In the Select a value box on the left, slide the right indicator to 2013. Notice how the widgets (ones that contain dates) automatically respond and redisplay based on the selected filtering. 5. To demonstrate additional interactivity, change a chart s color scheme. Click on the Revenue by Product Line chart widget to display widget main menu bar. Select Change Color Palette > Excel 2007. Page 8 Workshop 1
6. IBM Software Now let s see how we can change the type of a chart. Click on the Revenue Planned vs Actual chart widget and select the Change Display Type > More. Select the ALL tab and note the variety of different chart formats that include (but not limited to) bar, column, gauge and pie. Let s select Table to see the underlying numbers. Click OK The chart then changes to a crosstab view that displays the numbers underlying the chart: v Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 9
An IBM Proof of Technology 7. In the prior crosstab view, click to right of the text in the cell with Camping Equipment (do not click directly on the underlined Camping Equipment text as that will execute a drill-down action). Right mouse click to display a context menu of additional options. Note the various other interactions that are available including the following list. Do not select any of these options at this point, just click elsewhere on the workspace to remove the menu. Drill Up/Down Go To (link to another report, drill across) Filter Sort Calculate Swap Rows/Columns Freeze row or column headings Lineage (data derivation) Page 10 Workshop 1
8. IBM Software Perform a drill down action within a widget. To see the underlying details that aggregate up to Camping Equipment, simply click directly on the text for Camping Equipment to drill down into the details for that product. 9. Perform a Drill Up action by clicking directly on the Camping Equipment text at the bottom row of the table. 10. We can add a new comment to any widget. You can add a comment by right-clicking a cell, row or column, or an overall widget and selecting Comment. In this example, on the Revenue Planned vs Actual widget select to the right of the column header text January 2011. Then the widget s icon and select Add. Enter Example comment and select Done. Once the comment has been added, hover over the red thumbtack symbol in the upper right corner of the Jun/2011 cell to view the comment. 11. You can use email in addition to comments for collaboration within Cognos Workspace. You can send the URL of the current workspace by email and customize the email message or copy the URL to the clipboard so it can be pasted into other documents. Select the main menu icon on the overall workspace (not an individual widget) and select Email Link or Copy Link to Clipboard. For this step, select Email Link. When the email screen appears, just review the contents then close the window without sending. Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 11
An IBM Proof of Technology 12. Swap Rows and Columns in our crosstab. Select the crosstab widget we have been working with and click the icon 13. To see how to print a widget s content, select the crosstab widget we have been working with and its main menu icon, select the Print as PDF option. Page 12 Workshop 1
14. IBM Software View the report, then scroll down to the second page which has a full listing of all of the comments for that particular widget. Close the PDF window when you are finished reviewing the content. 15. To see the variety of export formats available for a widget, select the crosstab widget s main menu icon, select Export to to view the list of options, but do not run any of the exports. Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 13
An IBM Proof of Technology 1.3 Augmenting workspace with additional content Add additional content to the workspace There are several ways to locate content for use in a workspace. In these steps you will see how to use the built-in search functionality as well as how to browse content to find reports and report parts to place into an existing workspace. 16. First you must open the Content pane. From the toolbar menu at the top of the page, select Insert > Insert Content. This will open a pane on the right-hand side of the page with content that can be placed onto the workspace. Only content that the currently logged in user has access to will be displayed in this content area. This pane can also be viewed/hidden by clicking the blue arrow bar that separates the Content pane from the workspace. in the middle of the 17. To reduce clutter in the workspace in preparation for the next several steps, remove the Crosstab widget we have been working with by selecting the widget s main menu and Remove from Workspace option and select Remove in response to the prompt. Note this is not required. You can place widgets on top of widgets if desired. Page 14 Workshop 1
IBM Software 18. Let s see how we can locate content by browsing to relevant reports using a Windows Explorer-like paradigm in the Content pane. Navigate to Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Sales (analysis) > Report Studio Report Sample > 2011 Sales Summary > Combination Chart 11111 19. Select the Combination Chart11111 report part and drag it onto the workspace where the Crosstab used to be and resize it to fit. Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 15
An IBM Proof of Technology 1.4 Create a new workspace using advanced features Up to this point, we have only manipulated an existing workspace adding widgets etc. This section highlights how to create a new workspace using some of the more advanced features of Cognos Workspace. 20. Select the workspace main menu button and select New. (Or if you have skipped the prior sections and are opening Cognos Workspace for the first time, start Cognos Workspace from the Launch menu in Cognos Connection portal OR Page 16 Workshop 1
IBM Software 21. A blank workspace will appear with the Content pane expanded. Note the small icon on the left hand side. Select that icon to expand the Global area pane. This is an area that is common to all tabs in the workspace. Here you can keep any object in view as you click through the tabs in the workspace. In addition, this area gives you the flexibility to add filters that apply across all tabs versus just a single tab. This will be covered in more detail in upcoming steps in this exercise. 22. Cognos Workspace provides a variety of ways to customize the aesthetics of the display. You can customize the style and background of your workspace using styles in Cognos located under Layout and Style in the main toolbar across the top of the workspace. For this exercise, we will demonstrate how to add a custom image for the background of the overall workspace. In the main toolbar, select Layout and Style > Edit Workspace Style. Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 17
An IBM Proof of Technology 23. In the Edit Workspace Style screen that displays, select the Widgets tab at the top and note the variety of options available to format widgets. 24. Still in the Edit Workspace Style screen, select the Tabs and Global Area tab. Select the color dropdown and select Set Colory. Select a background color and press OK button. You may also use images which demonstrates the flexibility Cognos Workspace offers to use a variety formatting options to make your workspace more consistent with a company s web pages or other user interface standards. Page 18 Workshop 1
Add widgets to your custom workspace IBM Software One of the powerful features of Cognos Workspace is the ability to insert entire reports or portions of reports from a variety of different subject areas providing a user-specified consolidated view of data regardless of source. 25. To illustrate, let s first locate some sales content. In the Content pane on the right side of the screen, navigate from Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Data Warehouse (analysis) > Cognos Workspace Source Files and expand the Employee Satisfaction report. 26. Drag and drop the Employee Survey to the top portion of the workspace and the Employee Satisfaction column chart and Combination Chart to the middle of the workspace. The display should appear like this: Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 19
An IBM Proof of Technology 27. Up to this point we have a workspace with just employee data, but suppose you needed to incorporate other information you have access to such as sales data that reside in other reports or areas within IBM Cognos? Navigate to Public Folders > Samples > Models > GO Sales (analysis) > Report Studio Report Samples and expand the 2011 Sales Summary report. Drag and drop the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe charts (not the entire report) across to the bottom of the workspace. 28. Double click on Tab 1 in the lower left of the display and rename the tab to Employee Satisfaction. Press OK. Page 20 Workshop 1
IBM Software 29. Create a new tab by clicking on the main menu button for the overall workspace in the upper left hand corner and select New Tab. Double click on Tab 2 and rename the tab to Regional Performance. Press OK. 30. Locate sales rep performance data. Navigate to Public Folders > Samples > GO Data Warehouse (analysis) > Cognos Workspace Source. Expand the Number of Sales Reps and Sales Data folder. Drag and drop the Number of Sales Reps chart and Revenue Map list report parts onto the Regional Performance tab as illustrated below. Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 21
An IBM Proof of Technology Add action buttons and filtering to the global area on your custom workspace In this section, we will see that a workspace includes an area that is common to all tabs in the workspace. This global area can be optionally displayed or hidden. Within this global area, you can keep any object in view as you click through the tabs. This can include report widgets or other toolbox items such as action buttons and filters. For example, you can add a Territory filter in the global area so that you can have that same filter applied across all tabs, not just a single tab that was demonstrated earlier in the workshop. 31. Be sure the global area on the left hand side of the screen is expanded and visible by clicking on the small arrow icon located in the vertical bar on the left side of the screen. 32. Add two action buttons to the Global area. Under the right side Content pane, select the Toolbox tab located at the bottom of the pane:. Drag and drop an Action button from the Toolbox to the global area pane on the far left side of the page. Leave the Action set to Go To First Tab. Enter Employee Satisfaction as the Customized Label. Press OK. Position the button. Page 22 Workshop 1
IBM Software 33. Drag and drop a second Action button from the Toolbox into the global area. Set the Action to Go To Regional Performance. Enter Regional Performance as the Customized Label. Press OK. Position the button as you see below. Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 23
An IBM Proof of Technology 34. Let s now see how to easy it is to add a filter to the global area with no programming required. Drag and drop a Select Value Filter from the Toolbox into the global area. In the Select a data item to filter on: area, scroll down until you see Year and select it. Keep all other items at their default values. Note that in the properties of the filter you have numerous options such as values to be used, whether the filter is multi-select, and the display format of the filter (list vs checkbox). Press OK. Position the filter as you see in the screen shot below. Also note that when the Select Value Filter was activated, the system automatically found all the appropriate data items across all of the widgets on all the tabs that were candidates for this type of filter for you. No programming was necessary to create this filter making this a very accessible feature to business users. Note 35. Let s see how these buttons and filters operate. In the Select a Value filter, uncheck 2010 and 2011. Select Apply. 36. Click both action buttons to toggle between the two tabs to see that the widgets across both tabs reflect the filtered values. Page 24 Workshop 1
IBM Software 37. 38. To review, the content oriented widgets that are available to you in Cognos Workspace include: BI content o Reports and/or report parts o Active Reports o PowerPlay reports o Alerts, Events, Inbox o URL s o Folders (will display as navigation panes similar to Cognos Connection) o Prompts Metric Studio Content o Watch Lists o Scorecards o Strategies o Metric Types o Individual Metrics TM1 Content o TM1 Websheet o TM1 Cube view Cognos for Real Time Content Furthermore, there are several additional toolbox widgets that could be brought into your workspace beyond the ones we have dealt with in this workshop. The complete list is illustrated below: Experience Business Intelligence with IBM Cognos Page 25
An IBM Proof of Technology 1.5 Summary IBM Cognos Workspace is a web-based tool that allows you to use IBM Cognos content and external data sources (RSS feeds, web pages etc.) to build sophisticated interactive workspaces that provide insight and facilitate collaborative decision making. Cognos Workspace provides users with a unified workspace that they can view, interact with and personalize in ways that support the unique way that they analyze data and make decisions. Historical information alongside current data and predictive analytics help them to quickly move from insight to decision all from within a single dashboard. In this workshop, you performed the following: Familiarize yourself with the Cognos Workspace interface. Consume and interact with content within Cognos Workspace. Create a new workspace with advanced features Page 26 Workshop 1
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