IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning Tips and Techniques Controller, ... Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Reclassifications - 2 EP Solution - Use remapping attributes and D-Cube allocation in

Based on EP 8.4

IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning

Tips and Techniques

Agenda

• Introductions

• Who is Senturus?

• Today’s format

• Who is presenting?

• Cognos EP Tips & Techniques • Overview of additional Training Options

• Q&A

• Wrap-up

Introductions

• Senturus, Inc – John Peterson

• Co-Founder, Chairman & COO

• Phone: (650) 347-4043

• Email: jpeterson[at]senturus.com

– Steve Chapman • Senior Consultant, Planning Practice

• Phone: (888) 601-6010

• Email: schapman[at]senturus.com

– Amin Shaker • Senior Consultant, Planning Practice

• Phone: (888) 601-6010

• Email: ashaker[at]senturus.com

Who is Senturus, Inc.?

• Consulting firm specializing in corporate performance management

– Business Intelligence and Enterprise Planning

– Platform-independent

• Our three pillars: Pragmatic business experience + Technical expertise + professional project management

• Experience & Credentials

– 350+ clients in a range of industries and geographies

– IBM Advanced Partner 2009, Cognos Platinum Partner 2002-2008

What is happening?

Scorecards and Dashboards

Why did it happen?

Analytics

What do I want to happen?

Planning

Budgeting

Consolidation

What will happen?

Forecasting

What happened?

Reporting

Corporate Performance Management

Flexible Service Offerings

• Complete project implementations

• Staff augmentation

• Assessment and Roadmap consultations

• Upgrade & Support packages

• Training:

– Classroom, Onsite, Remote, Mentoring, Workshops & Webinars

– Led by professional trainers and seasoned consultants

A few of our 350+ Clients

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Today’s Format

• Demonstration will begin shortly

• Please submit questions via the GoToWebinar

Question pane in the GoToWebinar control panel

• We will address questions LIVE at the conclusion

of the presentation, so if you do not get an

immediate response, please HOLD ON!

• We will try to answer EVERY question via email if

we do not get a chance to respond while you are

attending the Webinar

• The Webinar is being recorded and will be

available on our website

Who is presenting today?

Steve Chapman

• Senior Consultant , Senturus Planning Practice

• 30 years experience in operations management, finance, IT and consulting.

• Extensive experience in inventory management, off-shore sourcing, customer operations and financial management for the retail, distribution, apparel and electronics manufacturing industries.

• Prior to joining Senturus in 2004, Steve consulted to: The Nature Company, Gymboree, goshopwireless.com, Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm Ltd., Sun Microsystems, Cisco, and Nortel.

• Steve has also held positions of CIO, Director of Operations, Finance Controller, Business Systems Manager and Senior Director of International Systems for companies including: The Gap (15

years), Dakin Inc., and Fritzi Apparel Mfg.

• Steve has done Cognos Enterprise Planning implementations for the past five years

Today’s Course Level & Prerequisites

• Software/Tools Covered:

– Cognos 8.4 Analyst & Contributor

• Recommended Experience:

– Attendees should be comfortably

conversant and experienced with D-

Lists, D-Cubes, D-Links, Macros,

Manager, and the Contributor Admin

Console (importing e.Lists and

Access Tables). Entry

Intermediate

Advanced

Bode Miller

Cognos EP Tips & Techniques Topics

Business Planning Opportunities and Problems

1. Control which accounts, departments and items are

planned within the EP model

2. Reclassify history for accurate amount referencing and to

support top-down planning (using breakback /

spread calculations)

3. Prevent loss of Contributor data when e.List names

change

4. Perform multiple, flexible expense allocations with

different bases

Time permitting, or in a later Webinar:

5. Automate Access Table control and maintenance

6. Create summaries with additional dimensions

Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Attribute D-Cubes - 1

Business Opportunity or Problem

- Control what items to plan and their roll-up’s within EP.

Business Advantages

- Plan for only those accounts, departments and items that should

be active. (Others may be obsolete or contain minimal data.)

- Web users see active items only, which also results in a smaller

Contributor model, and improves performance.

- Control planned items within EP rather than through external SQL

or customized data base views that require IT maintenance.

- Leverage automated list and parent updates, but override them

when needed.

Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Attribute D-Cubes - 2

EP Solution

- Use Attribute D-Cubes to choose planned items and

conditional D-List parents to customize their

hierarchies.

EP Technique

- Link in available, external attributes and parent values.

- Override and adjust them within an EP attribute D-Cube.

- Use conditional formulas to generate hierarchical D-Lists (and the

e.Lists for Contributor web applications).

Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Attribute D-Cube - 3




Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Reclassifications - 1


- Reclass history for discontinued, inactive or unplanned

items for accurate historical referencing and to support

accurate top-down planning (breakback / spread

patterns).

Business Advantages

- Includes all historical volumes for correct breakback / spread

calculations and top-down goal-setting and planning.

- Provides complete reference amounts when account, department

or item structures change.


EP Solution

- Use remapping attributes and D-Cube allocation in D-

Links to reclassify data from discontinued, inactive or

unplanned items to planned accounts, departments and

items

EP Technique

- Stage all historical data (for both planned and unplanned accounts,

departments and items).

- Add a “reclass to” planned item to the attribute D-Cubes for each

dimension.

- Link the historical, staged data using D-Cube allocation for the

account, department and item dimensions.


• For Planning data management, we recommend “E-L-T”

instead of the classic, data warehouse process of

“E-T-L” . . .

E = Extract (from external sources)

L = Load (into Analyst staging D-Cubes)

T = Transform (reclassify as needed within EP)

• Planning operational advantages:

- No SQL or db view logic to maintain after initial setup

- Easier to balance and reconcile to external sources

(before further model processing).











Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: E-List ID’s - 1


- Changing E-List Display Names causes Contributor

data loss.

» Even one character or a blank is a change!

Business Advantages

- Names can change often and should not cause D-List Items to

be considered “new” (which causes automatic delete and add

actions within Contributor).


EP Solution

- Use the unique part of the D-List rather than the full

Display Name for the E-List’s Item ID in Contributor.

EP Technique

- Export the D-List as an E-List.

- Use an Excel formula to strip the unique part of the item for only

the lowest level E-List nodes for the Contributor Item ID.

- Import the result into Contributor as the E-List.

- Subsequent E-List changes will match on the unique ID and

change the Display Name without loss of data. (Hint: Also change

Analyst to Contributor D-Links to match on unique ID’s only.)



EList Export Column => Contributor Use

EListItemName => Item ID

EListItemCaption => Item Display Name











Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Allocations - 1


- Allocate planned expenses with these rules:

- Each pool to be allocated may be defined by multiple

departments (source departments).

- There may be multiple departments in the target pools.

- Each allocation step may use a different basis for allocation.

(For example, square feet, headcount, sold units, or

revenue dollars.)

- There are multiple allocation steps, some using the allocated

results of the previous step.

(For example, department 123 maybe the target of an

occupancy expense allocation, and then contribute as a

source to the next allocation pool – that includes its own

incoming allocations.)


EP Solution

- Use a department attribute D-Cube to control both allocation pool

sources and targets.

- Use an account attribute D-Cube to control the source allocation

pool expenses if not all should be used.

- Use one allocation calculation D-Cube dimensioned by the

number of allocation steps needed.

EP Technique

- Pairs of department attributes define each allocation step.

- D-Cube allocation links populate the source pool expenses and the

target department allocation bases.

- Macros sequence the allocation steps and then link the credits to

sources and debits to targets for the allocation accounts.





Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Access Tables - 1


- Automate Access Table updates and make them

dependent upon:

- the type of data contained in each month, and

- each Contributor tab

Example1: for an input cube

- “Actual” months => READ

- “Forecast” months => WRITE

Example 2: for an inventory summary cube

- “Actual” months => NODATA

- “Forecast” months => READ


EP Solution

- Use a D-Cube for Access Levels which is dimensioned

by both month and by Contributor tab.

EP Technique

- Conditionally calculate (or enter) Access Levels in an Analyst D-

Cube, then export text files for each Contributor tab for importing

into the Contributor Admin Console.

- Automate using a .bat file and Contributor macro.


D-Cube with Access Levels by tab and month


Conditional tests by tab and month attribute


Analyst Macros to

Export text (per tab)


Export Options


Example D-Cube Export txt files (per tab)


Overwrite option requires Erase and Rename step


Erase and Rename bat file


Contributor macro: Erase/Rename txt files,

then for each tab: Export from Analyst,

then Import Access Table into Contributor


Imported Contributor Access Tables


Finance Admin Operations Steps

1. Change monthly Act/Fcst flag 2. Run Contributor macro

Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Additional Summaries


- Provide planned data summaries for Publish or Export

that have additional business dimensions that are not

used for planning.

AKA: Turning an “attribute” into a dimension.

Business Advantages

- Avoids forcing summary or reporting dimensions into

the planning process and model.

Example: Plan by Product and Territory (dimensions);

but also need to summarize by Package Type and

Production Line (which are attributes).


EP Solution

- Use an attribute D-Cube and D-Cube allocation links for

mapping items to additional dimensions.

EP Technique

- Link in or Enter the additional dimension values as attributes.

- Create summary D-Cubes that use those attributes as dimensions.

- Use D-Cube allocation type D-Links to map planned data to the

summary D-Cubes with the additional dimensions.

– OR –

- Link the attributes into the calculation D-Cubes and use

Accumulation D-Link types for mapping to the summaries.


Product attributes used for specific summaries


Product attributes added to the calculation D-Cube


All product attributes structured as dimensions

(using an Accumulation Link Type)


Contributor application with nested dimensions

Cognos EP Tips & Techniques - Review

Business Planning Opportunities and Problems

[and our recommended EP techniques]

o Control which accounts, departments and items are planned within

EP [Technique: Attribute D-Cubes with conditional hierarchies]

o Reclassify history when needed (e.g., for reference or breakbacks)

[Technique: Item / account / department remapping and D-

Cube allocation type D-Links]

o Prevent loss of Contributor data when e.List names change

[Technique: Unique e.List Item ID’s replace Display Names]

o Allocations [Technique: D-Cube control of source and target pools]

o Automate Access Table control and maintenance [Technique:

Access Levels in one D-Cube for all Contributor tabs]

o Create summaries with additional dimensions [Technique: Attribute

D-Cubes combined with D-Cube allocation

and Accumulation Link Types]

Q & A and Follow-up

• If you have submitted a question via GoToWebinar, we will be responding as quickly as possible

Next Senturus Planning Training course:

• Three-Day IBM Cognos EP Planning Training Course:

Intro Level; April 26-28, San Francisco and Remote

• Please visit www.senturus.com/events.php for more events like this. • Or check out www.senturus.com/training.php for details on the full range of training offerings

http://www.senturus.com/events.php

http://www.senturus.com/training.php

Today’s Special

• For attending today’s webinar, you are eligible for a special, one-time discount on future events, training and selected consulting services.

• Please contact us and mention the following Promotion Code to secure your savings:

SAVE10-EP1

* Also, please note that today’s session will be posted on

the Senturus website in a few days.

www.senturus.com

Today’s Trainer: Steve Chapman

[email protected]

or Contact:

[email protected]

http://www.senturus.com/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning Tips and Techniques Controller, ... Cognos EP Tips & Techniques: Reclassifications - 2 EP Solution - Use remapping attributes and D-Cube allocation in