Business Intelligence, Analytics and Cognos

Finally, my Cognos Analytics Dashboard Video Course is available on three platforms that I was intending. This provides flexibility to the learners to use the platform of their choice, and avail best pricing and offers. Posting all three links here: O'Reilly:  https://learning.oreilly.com/videos/first-guide-to/9781800203419 Packt:  https://www.packtpub.com/data/first-guide-to-dashboards-using-ibm-cognos-analytics-v11-1-r5-second-edition-video Udemy:  https://www.udemy.com/course/first-guide-to-dashboards-using-ibm-cognos-analytics/ Happy Learning to everyone!

Cognos has always had a very powerful feature called 'Dimensionally Modelled Relational (DMR)' schema. Basically, even if you are not using a pure Dimensional Database (like Transformer Cubes or TM1), Cognos allowed modelling Dimensions, Hierarchies, Levels, etc on top of the Relational Data sources. This way it allowed the Report Authors to drag only a specific element from the dimension rather than dragging the whole column and then filtering for values. It also allowed using the Dimension functions like Children(), Siblings() etc. This feature is also available out of box when using Cognos Analytics. In Cognos Analytics, when you create a Data Module, and specify a data item (column) as Identifier or Attribute, you can enable the 'Members' property. When you do that, Cognos will find the Unique Members or Elements from the column and show them in the tree. These 'members' can be then independently dragged on the rows or columns, essentially creating a filtere

I am pleasantly surprised that a very powerful tool for data analysis and visualization is now available for free, for personal use. This tool is Microstrategy Desktop. Microstrategy is a leading Dashboarding tool in the space of Relational Data. This free Microstrategy Desktop tool enables users to learn how to connect Microstrategy to various data sources, or feed the data using Excel or CSV files and then build beautiful Dashboards.  So don't wait. Download today. It is available at this link: https://www.microstrategy.com/us/get-started/desktop 

I am excited to present the second edition of video course on Building Stunning Dashboards using IBM Cognos Analytics v11.1 R5. This course is now available on O'Reilly. Luckily many professionals have a corporate account provided by employers for O'Reilly.  So do check out:  https://learning.oreilly.com/videos/first-guide-to/9781800203419