Example - Create an Analysis

In IBM® Cognos® Analysis Studio, you can manipulate items in your data interactively so that you can identify and understand the problems and issues in your business.

In this exercise, you will learn how to

  • Drill down
  • Create a top filter
  • Create a summary calculation
  • Create a crosstab and a chart

You are a business analyst for the Sample Outdoors Company. You want to further analyze the returns business items to find out where and why products are the most frequently returned, and that have the biggest impact on the profit of the company.

To perform this exercise, you must have the appropriate licensing and security permissions.

Things to notice:

  • The items and measures that you can add to your analysis appear in the Insertable objects pane.
  • The overview area above the work area is a convenient place to quickly explore and change the contents of your analysis. You manipulate rows and columns, drill up or down, and provide context for the work area.
  • Cognos Analysis Studio uses sets, which are collections of similar items. You manipulate items by applying actions to sets. You can sort, filter, and nest sets. You can also save custom sets and view subtotals for your sets.

Procedure

  1. Open IBM Cognos Connection:
    1. Start your web browser.
    2. In the address bar, type the URL supplied by your administrator, and then press Enter. The URL looks something like this: http://servername/cognos
  2. In the IBM Cognos Welcome page, click Analyze my business.
  3. Click Samples, Cubes, Sales and Marketing (cube).
  4. Click Blank Analysis, and click OK.
  5. Insert data in the crosstab:
    1. In the Insertable objects pane, expand Measures. Drag Returns to the Measure zone.
    2. Drag Products to the Rows zone.
    3. Expand Time and Time. Select all four years (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) and drag them to the Columns zone.

    You now see the returns for all the product brands over a four-year span. The total number of returns is visible in the Total column.

  6. Filter the top 10 product brands, based on their total returns over the last four years:
    1. In the overview area, right-click Products and click Down a Level.

      The overview area is located above the work area. You can use the overview area as a convenient place to quickly explore and change the contents of the work area. The overview area shows any applied filters and sorting.

    2. Repeat the previous step to see a list of all individual products.
    3. In the overview area, right-click Products (depth 3) and click Top or Bottom > Top > 10.

      You see that the top 10 products with the most returns are now the only products in the crosstab.

      A screen capture of the crosstab showing the top 10 products only.
      Tip: To use a specific product name rather than having to drill down multiple layers, in the Insertable objects pane, navigate to the product that you want. Select the product that you want, and in the Information pane, drag the level name into the crosstab.
  7. Create a summary calculation to see what the average returns are per year for the top 10 products:
    1. In the overview area, right-click Time (list) and click Summarize > Average (Time (list)).

      The Average (Time (list)) summary is added to the crosstab. This summary shows the average number of returns over the four years in the crosstab.

  8. View your analysis as a chart to see whether there is a trend or spike in any of the top 10 returns:
    1. Click View > Select Chart Type > Line Chart > Standard.

      Take note of the top 10 products with the highest returns. There may be some products, like BugShield Lotion, that are anomalies. You may want to exclude them from your analysis, or you may decide that you need to be comparing returns to other metrics; such as quantity sold or gross profit.

      A screen capture showing the analysis as a standard line chart and a crosstab.
  9. Change the top 10 definition to filter on year 2013 to give you the most recent data for product returns.
    1. In the overview area, right-click Products (depth 3) and click Top or Bottom > Top > Custom.
    2. In the Define top or bottom filter pane, from the For column list, select 2013.

      By specifying 2013 in the top definition, you change the filter context to focus on the highest 10 returns for the year 2013. In addition, you see the other years in the crosstab, to give you some additional historical information.

      Tip: In the definition, you can specify the number of items you want by number, percentage, or sum.
    3. Click OK.

      Notice that EverGlow Lamp has the highest number of returns.

      Tip: In the overview area, by using the Time (list) column, you can also filter on 2013. The data that is returned when you use this filter is different from the data that is returned when you set the 2013 context in the top definition. Only 2013 data appears in the crosstab, and historical data does not appear.
      A screen capture showing the standard line chart and crosstab with EverGlow Lamp showing the highest number of returns in 2007.
  10. Save the analysis as Returns vs Gross Profit over Time.

Example

For report formatting and layout control, edit the report in IBM Cognos Report Studio. With Cognos Report Studio, you can extend the report definition to include other reporting elements, or enhance the report by defining bursting rules. To use Cognos Report Studio, you must have the appropriate licensing and security permissions.

Tip: From the File menu, click Open in Report Studio. After you save an analysis in Cognos Report Studio, you can no longer edit the analysis in Cognos Analysis Studio.

What to do next

For information about using Cognos Analysis Studio, see the Cognos Analysis Studio online help.

Parent topic: IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Examples