Entries by Geoff Speare

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Evolve or Die: Business Intelligence’s Future

Business intelligence has been around for a long time. From decision support systems in the 1960s through Ralph Kimball’s books on dimensional modeling in the 1980s, the core concepts of the discipline are decades old. As these concepts and the products built around them mature, more advanced techniques and technologies come to light that evolve […]

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ETL vs. ELT – What’s the Big Difference?

ELT is a term heard increasingly in today’s analytic environments. Understanding what it means, and how you can make use of it, requires understanding the traditional nature of how data warehouses are loaded and how data movement tools work. That’s why we’ve pulled this article together: to break down the ETL vs. ELT divide and […]

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Data Warehousing Basics

Cognos makes extensive use of data warehousing concepts. Most data warehouses are built using dimensional modeling techniques (also known as the “Kimball style”). Data is divided into fact and dimension tables, which are joined together in star schemas. Restructuring data in this fashion takes a great deal of effort, both in planning and implementation. These […]

Building Effective IBM Cognos Active Reports: Part 3

Part 1 of Building Effective IBM Cognos Active Reports, described Active Report variables, connections, and how they work together to make dynamic content possible in Cognos 10 Active Reports. Part 2 began a discussion of static controls and how to make larger changes to an Active Report display. This article, Part 3, continues that discussion […]

Making Business Insight Dashboard Components with Report Studio

Dashboarding with Business Insight Business Insight is a new tool in Cognos 10. With it, pieces of existing reports can be combined into interactive dashboards. This allows users with less report authoring experience to create dashboards using components from more complex reports. (Business Insight should not be confused with Business Insight Advanced, a report creation […]