What is IBM Cognos Planning ?Cognos 8 Planning provides the ability to Plan, Budget and Forecast in collaborative manner. Cognos Analyst and Cognos
Contributor are the two major components of Cognos Planning Suite.
Cognos AnalystCognos Analyst is used to define the business models which includes Planning / Forecast Drivers, and content required for Planning, budgeting and Forecasting.
D-Cubes: An Analyst model is a collection of interlinked D-Cubes, which hold all of the model data.
D-Lists: The D-Lists define the dimensions of the D-Cube.
D-Links: D-Links transfer data between D-Cubes or between external sources and D-Cubes.
What Cognos Analyst Model?In IBM Cognos Planning - Analyst, a model is a group of D-Cubes connected by D-Links with all associated D-Lists and other objects. A model might contain objects which are stored in several different libraries.
Cognos ContributorModels created in Cognos Analyst are distributed to managers using web based architecture of Cognos Planning Contributor.
What highlevel steps involved in building Planning Models ?1. Create list of all dimensions, members and its formuls in D-Lists definition tool.
2. Create D-Cube from D-Lists, i.e. create Cubes from lists of dimensions.
3. Create D-Links to load data, identify the data sources, create mapping.
4. Automate the process using macros.
What is D-Lists?Think of a D-List as a field in a database. Example D-Lists are Measures Dimension, Time Dimension, Entity, Products,
Versions dimensions.
D-Lists can have formulas.
Example: [Net Interest Margin] = [Gross Margin] - [Interest Expense]
Operators include +, -, / *, also you can use IF, THEN, ELSE, AND, OR conditional commands in formulas.
What is D-Cube?D-Cube is a storage of Planning model which is made up of D-Lists. It is multi-dimensional cube with Rows, Columns and Pages.
In addition to normal dimensions, D-Cube can also contain virtual dimensions.
What is D-Link?D-Link is Cognos Planning D-Lists mapping tool. It is used to map the source and target dimensions. There are two ways to pair the source and target.
1. Using Allocation Tables (one-to-many, many-to-one, one-to-one, many-to-many)
2. Match based on field descriptions (typically one-to-one)
You can import Fixed width file or delimited file to D-Link. Data File Map is used to map the input file to D-Lists dimension members. Once you define the file delimiter, D-Link is used to pair them to D-Lists members.
What is A-Table (Allocation Tables)A-Table is used for transferring data when there is no character match between source and target items.
What are the basic building blocks in Cognos Analyst?- D-Cubes
- D-Lists
- D-Links
- A-Tables
- File Maps (define the delimiter / fixed type)
- Macros (use to automate the operations)
- Formats
- Sections
- Libraries
What are Cognos Planning Built-in-Functions (BiFs)?As name describes, Cognos BiFs include depreciation, cashflow, forecasting and more. Built in funcations can refer members from other dimensions.
Cash paid, Mar = +((Opening, Jan)+(Invoices, Jan))*(%period+3,Jan)/100
+((Invoices, Feb)*(%next period, Feb)/100)
+((Invoices, Mar)*(%this period, Mar)/100)