Social Icons

Cognos Metric Studio

In Metric Studio, you can create and deliver a customized scorecarding environment for monitoring and analyzing metrics throughout your organization. Users can monitor, analyze, and report on time-critical information by using scorecards based on cross-functional metrics.

Example- Monitor Performance

With IBM Cognos Metric Studio, you can track the performance of your organization against its objectives. At a quick glance, decision makers at every level of the organization can see the status of the organization, and then react or plan.
A metric is an indicator of key measures that compares actual results to targets. A metric also records who is responsible for the results and the impact of the metric.

A scorecard is a collection of performance metrics and projects that reflects the strategic goals of a unit in an organization.

This exercise shows how to

  1. Review a strategy map for a visual representation of the strategy and the objectives of that strategy for an organization
  2. Review and understand the performance of a metric on a scorecard
  3. Create an action on a metric
  4. Add a metric to your watch list


You are a sales manager for a region for the Sample Outdoors Company. You regularly look at a scorecard that contains metrics about your sales area. The metrics give you an instant idea of how the current sales compare to the sales targets set by the company. Return quantity is one of the metrics.

To perform this exercise, you must have the appropriate licensing and security permissions for this functionality. 

Things to notice:
  • Metrics appear as either Poor (red), Average (yellow), or Excellent (green).
  • For each metric, you can see whether the trend is improving, staying the same, or getting worse.
  • When you move your pointer over the title of a metric, you see a history chart that shows the performance of the metric. A fly-out menu extends when you pause your pointer over a metric or a diagram.

Procedure
1. Open IBM Cognos Connection:
a. Start your Web browser.
b. In the address bar, type the URL supplied by your administrator, and then press Enter. The URL looks something like this: http://servername/cognos

2. In the IBM Cognos Welcome page, click Manage my metrics.

3. Click Samples, Models, GO Metrics.

4. View the strategy map:
a. In the left pane, click the Scorecards tab, and click GO Consolidated.
b. In the right pane, click the Diagrams tab. In the GO Strategy map, notice how you can quickly evaluate the performance of each of the goals of the organization.

The large indicators show the status for a specific strategy. The smaller indicators that appear below a strategy show the trend. The values for metrics that are not performing well appear in red. Status and trend indicators that appear in red indicate possible problem areas. For example, in the Production and Distribution function of the strategy map, in the Control product quality metric, Return quantity % is red, which shows a poor performance metric.


5. Explore the scorecard:
a. In the left pane, click the Scorecards tab.
b. Expand GO Consolidated.
You see that the Sample Outdoors Company has scorecards for each of the four functions of the company: Finance, Sales and Marketing, Production and Distribution, and Human Resource.
c. Expand Production and Distribution, and click Asia Pacific.
d. Click the Metrics tab.
All the metrics associated with the Asia Pacific region are shown. Notice that the Asia Pacific Return by reason % Wrong product ordered metric is red. You might want to explore this metric further to see what is causing the problem.
e. Click Asia Pacific Return quantity %, and click the Diagrams tab.
f. Expand the metrics in the diagram by clicking the arrow next to the Asia Pacific Return by reason % Failed Orders metric. You can see what data is in the Return quantity % metric. You can also see which return reason has a critical issue.


g. Pause your pointer over Asia Pacific Return quantity % to see more information about that metric.

h. In the left pane, under Production and Distribution, click Asia Pacific, and then click the Metrics tab to view the metric related to return quantity. Notice that the status of Asia Pacific Return by reason % Wrong product ordered metric is poor.


6. Click the Asia Pacific-Return by reason %-Wrong product ordered metric. In Metric Studio, the tabs represent the questions you might ask yourself, as you try to solve a problem or understand a piece of information.

7. On the right pane, on the History tab, click List. The information on the History tab answers the question "When?". You see the actual and target values for the metric data for previous periods. You also
see quarterly and yearly summaries.



8. Click the Diagrams tab.
The information in the Diagrams tab helps you understand the question "How?" by comparing your metric with other metrics. Impact diagrams show the relationships between the Return by reason % metric and other metrics.

9. Create an action for one of your business analysts to have her investigate the performance of product returns:
a. Click the Actions tab.
b. Click New Action
Tip: You must select a metric to see the New Action icon.
c. In the Name box, type Kazumi Uragome, the person who will own the action.
d. To let Kazumi know what to do, in the Description box, type Please investigate.
e. Beside the Planned Finish box, click the calendar icon, select a date one week from today. Tip: You may need to scroll down to see the Planned Finish box.
f. Click OK.

10. Add the Asia Pacific Return reason % Wrong product ordered metric to your watch list so that you can easily monitor it in the future:
a. In the left pane, in the Production and Distribution scorecard, click Asia Pacific, and click the Metrics tab.
b. Click the Asia Pacific Return reason % Wrong product ordered metric.
c. On the upper toolbar, click Add to Watch List , and click OK.
d. In the left pane, click My Folders and click Watch List. The Asia Pacific Return by reason % Wrong product ordered metric appears in your watch list.