7.

2 Choose a reporting style

Before users start authoring reports, it is imperative that they choose the
reporting style that they will adopt in working with data: relational or dimensional.
When choosing the reporting style, users must answer the following questions:
_ Do you think about your data as tables and columns?
If yes, use relational reporting style.
_ Do you think about your data as a number of dimensions intersecting at cells?
If yes, use dimensional reporting style.
The reporting style determines how to insert, filter, sort, and customize reports.
Mixing both reporting styles in one report can cause unpredictable results.
7.3 Change existing reports
Lynn Cope, an Advanced Business User of a GO Americas subsidiary, needs to
analyze which product lines result in the greatest number of returns so that the
GO Americas management can focus on these product lines to decrease the
number of returns.
Lynn knows that there is one chart inside the IBM Cognos workspace of the
Great Outdoors company that already displays the return quantity by product
lines. So, Lynn decides to use this existing report as a base for her analysis. To
make this possible and easy, the IBM Cognos interface provides a seamless
integration between the IBM Cognos Business Insight and IBM Cognos Business
Insight Advanced products.
Resource information: You can use the relational reporting style even when
you create reports that are based on a dimensional data source. For more
information about leading practices when using relational or dimensional
reporting styles, refer to the Relational Reporting Style and Dimensional
Reporting Style sections in the IBM Cognos Report Studio User Guide.
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 231
Using this integrated approach, Lynn follows these steps:
1. Open the IBM Cognos workspace of Great Outdoors by clicking My
Folders Business Insight GO Sales Dashboard_6.3.4 on IBM
Cognos Connection.
2. Find the chart for which she is looking, and click Do more on the top of the
report’s frame (Figure 7-12).
Figure 7-12 Business Insight and Business Insight Advanced integration: Modifying an existing report
After Lynn clicks Do more, the IBM Cognos Business Insight Advanced interface
replaces the IBM Cognos Business Insight interface and shows the selected
report.
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7.3.1 Sort data
With the IBM Cognos Business Insight Advanced interface opens, Lynn makes
improvements to the report to meet her needs. First, she changes the sorting
configuration for the chart to allow her to see the product lines in the chart sorted
by the return quantity of their products. To execute this task:
1. Click in the chart area to see the chart components (see Figure 7-13).
Figure 7-13 Selecting the chart area
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 233
2. Click Product line in the Series area (Figure 7-14).
3. On the top toolbar, click Sort, and then click Edit Layout Sorting.
4. In the Sort type section, click Descending.
5. Click Intersection (tuple), and click the ellipsis (...), which opens a window
that allows you to insert a tuple, as shown in Figure 7-14.
Figure 7-14 Advanced Layout Sorting option: Set Sorting window
234 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
6. Click GO Data Warehouse (analysis) Sales and Marketing (analysis)
Returned items Returned items (Figure 7-15).
Figure 7-15 GO Data Warehouse package tree: Expanding Returned items folder
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 235
7. Click the Return Quantity data item under the Returned items metrics folder,
and drag it onto the Intersection members and measures area (Figure 7-16).
Figure 7-16 After the Return quantity member has been added
8. Click OK. The Set Sorting window opens again.
9. Click OK to close the Set Sorting window.
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After executing these steps, Lynn determines that Outdoors Protection is the
product line that has the worst performance in terms of the return quantity of all
Great Outdoors subsidiaries, as shown in Figure 7-17.
Figure 7-17 Report after sorting has been performed
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 237
7.3.2 Filter data
To meet her business needs, Lynn needs to filter the report to display only GO
Americas and 2007 (current year) totals.
Using Context filters
Because Lynn is working with a dimensional data model, she can easily filter her
data using the Context filter feature by following these steps:
1. Navigate to GO Data Warehouse (analysis) Sales and Marketing
(analysis) Sales Organization (Figure 7-18).
2. Click GO Americas under the Organization dimension, and then drag it onto
the Context filter area.
Figure 7-18 Adding a Context filter
238 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
After performing these steps, Lynn notices that, in fact, the performance of the
Outdoors Protection product line and the performance of the Camping
Equipment product line in terms of return quantity are extremely close, as shown
in Figure 7-19.
Figure 7-19 Report after GO Americas Context filter is applied
The current report shows the total of Return Items for all of the years (2004,
2005, 2006, and 2007). To have the best insight about the return quantity for the
current scenario, Lynn needs to filter the report to show only the data for the
current year (2007).
To achieve this result, she follows the same steps to apply another Context filter
for 2007 (Figure 7-20):
1. Navigate to GO Data Warehouse (analysis) Sales and Marketing
(analysis) Sales.
2. Drag 2007 under the Year dimension to the Context filter area.
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 239
Figure 7-20 Report after 2007 Context filter is applied
Now, Lynn can determine that, in fact, only one product line, the Camping
Equipment product line, has an extremely high number of returns.
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7.3.3 Perform calculations
If we think about the business problem, a Product line with a high number of
returns for its products does not necessarily mean a large percentage of returns
based on the number of products sold for the product line. To find more
meaningful information, Lynn needs to calculate the percentage of returns
against the number of products sold.
Lynn can create this calculation easily by using the Query Calculation object in
the Insert Objects pane, as shown in the following steps:
1. Click Query Calculation inside the Insert Objects pane. Drag this object to
the same place as the Return quantity metric - Default measure (y-axis), as
shown in the Figure 7-21 on page 241.
2. In the Name field, type % of Items Return.
3. Click Calculated measure.
Measures: To create this calculation, use the following measures:
_ One measure from the Sales folder
_ One measure from the Returned Items folder
Do not set the Measure Dimension.
For more information about how to use the Measure Dimension, refer to
the IBM Cognos Business Insight Advantage User Guide.
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 241
Figure 7-21 Creating a query calculation
242 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
4. Open the Data Items tab. Drag the [Return quantity1] measure to the
Expression Definition area (see Figure 7-22).
Figure 7-22 Inserting a member from the Data items tab into Expression Definition
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 243
5. Open the Function tab, expand the Operators folder, and drag the forward
slash character (/) into the Expression Definition area (Figure 7-23).
Figure 7-23 Inserting operator into Expression Definition
244 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
6. Open the Source tab, and navigate to Go Data Warehouse (analysis)
Sales and Marketing (analysis) Sales Sales fact.
7. Drag [Quantity] to the Expression Definition (see Figure 7-24).
Figure 7-24 Inserting [Quantity] item into Expression Definition
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 245
8. To validate the expression, click the Validate icon at the top of the window
(see Figure 7-25 and Figure 7-26).
Figure 7-25 Starting Expression Definition validation
246 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
Figure 7-26 Validation results
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 247
After these changes, Lynn determines that the Camping Equipment product line
has 1.8% of its items returned (see Figure 7-27).
Figure 7-27 Report with the new percent of Returned items metric
After performing these steps, Lynn realizes that the sorting is not working as
expected. To solve this issue, she follows these steps:
1. Click Product line in the Series area.
2. On the top toolbar, click the Sort icon, and then click Edit Set Sorting.
3. Under the Intersection (tuple), click the ellipsis (...).
4. In Intersection members and measures, click Return quantity.
5. Click the left arrow.
6. Click the Calculate members and measures tab.
7. Click % of Returned items.
248 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
8. Click the right arrow (see Figure 7-28).
Figure 7-28 Members window after the Return quantity member has been removed
9. Click OK to close the Members window.
10.Click OK to close the Set Sorting window.
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 249
After performing these steps, the chart shows the bars in the correct order (see
Figure 7-29).
Figure 7-29 Report after sorting change to percent of Returned items
250 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
7.3.4 Set the right level of detail for the analysis
To complete her analysis, now Lynn needs to discover which brands have the
highest percentage of returned items. She uses the drill-down and drill-up
features as follows:
1. To drill down into the data, double-click Camping Equipment, and the report
is updated to show the product types (see Figure 7-30).
Figure 7-30 Drill down on the product line
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 251
2. After this action, double-click again on the Lanterns product type (see
Figure 7-31).
Figure 7-31 Drill down on the product type
3. After this action, Lynn is satisfied with the results, but she needs to fix the
sorting of the report. To fix the sorting (as shown in Figure 7-32 on page 252):
a. Click in the chart area.
b. In the Series section, click the <#children(Lanterns)#> data expression.
c. On the top toolbar, click the Sort icon.
d. Click Edit Set Sorting.
e. On the Set Sorting window, click Descending.
252 IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.1 Handbook
f. Click Intersection (tuple).
g. To the right of the Intersection (tuple) field, click the ellipsis (...).
h. Click the Calculated members and measures tab.
i. Click % of Returned items.
j. Click the right arrow.
k. Click OK to close the Members window.
l. Click OK to close the Set Sorting window.
Figure 7-32 Set Sorting properties for percent of Returned items
Chapter 7. Self service interface for business users 253
After performing these steps, Lynn has a report that shows the products that
have a higher percentage of returned items