Business Intelligence, Analytics and Cognos

I received feedback on the 'Extending Module – Creating Custom Calculations' video from my ' First Guide to Dashboards using IBM Cognos Analytics (V11) ' video course, that I was too fast in this video and hence some viewers are not able to follow what I am trying to teach in the NULL handling (IF .. ELSE) part.  Hence I am trying to elaborate on this topic in this blog. In this video, we are learning how to create simple mathematical calulcation items using our own (customized) calculation expression.  We are start with simple subtraction of two items namely: Potential Sales and Actual Sales. We are calling it Lost Opportunity .  The expression for Lost Opportunity is: Potential Sales minus Sales Qty. This would work fine when we are values for both the data items. However, there could be certain months, for certain products, where we have 'Potential Sales' data but the Actual Sales Quantity is not present (NULL) and vice versa. It is the standard behaviour of ...

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!

Congratulation to Ankit Garg on publication of his book on Cognos TM1! Another addition to PACKT's cookbook series with this great contribution by Ankit Garg to the world of BI. Please do check out this book today. . A comprehensive developer’s guide for planning, building, and managing practical applications with IBM TM1 . No prior knowledge of TM1 expected . Complete coverage of all the important aspects of IBM TM1 in carefully planned step-by-step practical demos . Practical recipes that illustrate the use of various TM1 features http://www.packtpub.com/ibm-cognos-tm1-for-planning-budgeting-forecasting-solutions-cookbook/book

Finally I got chance to write this book on Cognos 8 Report Studio to provide practical and real-life resource to my fellow report developers and super-users. While there has been some manuals and guides out there in market to tell you what each component does, this book will tell you how to use them. The main feature of this book is it will tell you how to over-come many limitations of Report Studio !! Over 90 great recipes for taking control of Cognos 8 Report Studio Learn advanced techniques to produce real-life reports that meet business demands Tricks and hacks for speedy and effortless report development and to overcome tool-based limitations Peek into the best practices used in industry and discern ways to work like a pro Part of Packt's Cookbook series-each recipe is a carefully organized sequence of instructions to complete the task as efficiently as possible To read more about the book and to buy it, please refer to this link: http://www.packtpub.com/ibm-cognos-8-report-...