IBM Cognos 8 Planning Contributor: Develop Applications (V8.4)

IBM Cognos 8 Planning Contributor: Develop Applications (V8.4) is a four-day, instructor-led course in which participants will learn to build, administer, and deploy Contributor applications through the Contributor Administration Console. In particular, participants will learn how to develop the Contributor application (based on a Cognos 8 Planning - Analyst model), manage security using the Cognos 8 security model, perform administrative tasks, such as importing and publishing data, and deploy the application to the Cognos 8 portal. They will also learn how to create events using Cognos 8 Event Studio, which will monitor changes in published Planning data. This course also contains a case study that helps participants further develop their skills as they create and administer a Contributor application.

This is an expert course for Modelers.

Introduction to IBM Cognos 8 Planning - Contributor Administration

• Review IBM Cognos 8 Performance Management (PM) Solution
• Identify IBM Cognos 8 Planning and its components
• Identify IBM Cognos 8 BI and its components
• Examine the IBM Cognos 8 Planning architecture
• Examine IBM Cognos 8 Planning - Contributor and its components
• Examine the development process for the Contributor solution

Build a Contributor Application

• Examine best practices for building the underlying IBM Cognos 8 Planning - Analyst model
• Configure the Contributor Administration Console
• Create a Contributor application using the Application wizard
• Specify navigation, orientation, and application settings
• Import the e.List and rights
• Run Go to Production and preview a Contributor application

Manage Workflow and Web Application Activities

• Access the application in Cognos Connection
• Examine the user roles and workflow states
• Create annotations
• Attach documents to Contributor application items
• View and delete commentary
• Bounce users from the application
• Work offline

Apply Security

• Examine Cognos 8 Planning security: authentication and authorization
• Examine Cognos 8 Planning roles
• Assign access rights to end users
• Examine levels of user rights
• Create saved selections
• Examine and create access tables
• Identify network considerations

Administer Applications

• Review what happens during Go to Production
• Back up the datastore
• Display Invalid Owners and Editors
• Create a planning package
• Reset workflow states
• Set advanced options for subsequent Go to Production processes
• Examine job management and the types of jobs that can be performed
• Create help text for end users
• Verify that data entered is valid

Administer Applications

• Review what happens during Go to Production
• Back up the datastore
• Display Invalid Owners and Editors
• Create a planning package
• Reset workflow states
• Set advanced options for subsequent Go to Production processes
• Examine job management and the types of jobs that can be performed
• Create help text for end users
• Verify that data entered is valid

Manage Data

• Synchronize the Cognos 8 Planning - Contributor application with the Cognos 8 Planning - Analyst model
• Import data into the Contributor application as a planner, reviewer and administrator
• Publish Contributor data

Use Extensions

• Examine Cognos 8 Planning - Contributor extensions
• Report from Contributor data using extensions
• Configure Contributor extensions
• Use administration extensions

Automate Applications

• Examine automation of common administration tasks using macros
• Create and publish a macro
• Group related tasks into one macro
• Examine how to run macros

Consume Planning Data in Cognos 8 BI

• Examine Cognos Connection
• Create a portal page to group different types of content into a single view
• Examine how to access live data in Cognos 8 Studios
• Create and run agents based on planning data in Events Studio

Case Study

• Create a Contributor application
• Ensure planners and reviewers have the required access to the appropriate data
• Modify the application to accommodate the addition of new locations
• Bring test data into the application in an administrator role and an end user role
• Publish data for reporting and automate this task

Use the Contributor Add-in for Excel (Optional)

• examine the Cognos 8 Planning - Contributor Add-in for Excel
• enter, save, and submit Contributor data using the Excel Add-in
• modify the display of Contributor data in Excel
• annotate data in Excel
• save a workbook as a template

Move Data Between Analyst and Contributor (Optional)

• Export data from Analyst for use in Contributor
• Integrate Contributor with Analyst
• Move data from Analyst to Contributor using a D-Link
• Move data from Contributor to Analyst using a D-Link
• Compare D-Links to importing data in the Administration Console

Translate a Contributor Application (Optional)

• Examine the translation cycle
• Create a translation
• Translate applications into different languages
• Export files for translation