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Cognos PowerPlay® Overview PowerPlay® is the world's leading multidimensional analysis software for managers. The world's best-selling OLAP software lets users explore volumes of data with sub-second response.
What are PowerPlay's main features?
Cognos PowerPlay draws information from relational databases to model and build PowerCubes ("Cubes"). Cubes are data sets that can contain tens of millions of consolidated rows of data and hundreds of thousands of categories (members). Business rules and calculations (for example, percentage growth and market share change) can be built right into them, and time series analysis is delivered automatically. Cubes and reports can be deployed to Web clients, or to Windows and Excel clients, all using the same application server. Cognos PowerPlay provides both a multidimensional data store and a feature rich end-user experience. Its multi-server, load-balanced architecture is easy to install and manage, and it scales to thousands of users.
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Decision makers can explore and understand corporate data faster and more
easily.
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TOP TEN FEATURES AND BENEFITS OF POWERPLAY |
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1. |
Effortless data exploration |
Use PowerPlay to analyse what's driving your business. PowerPlay lets you explore multidimensional information by simply pointing, clicking and dragging. Drill down through increasing levels of detail, then slice and dice to view different dimensions, such as sales by region by product. View and analyse data relationships graphically and change between different displays. |
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Powerful Report Writing |
Turn analyses into accurate, high-impact business reports at the touch of a button. Create effective KPI and Balanced Scorecard reports that are dynamic. Use these reports to manage, monitor and improve the business. |
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Data presented in a business context |
PowerPlay presents information the way managers view their business. Data can be organized under logical headings such as fiscal periods, sales regions, and product groups – whatever makes the most sense in your business context. This makes exploration and analysis easier to learn, and increases user acceptance. |
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Analyse-then-Query |
Seamlessly drill through to Cognos Impromptu to uncover the transaction-level data behind trends. Users can view additional attribute information as well as details contained in the PowerCube. |
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Clients for every User’s Needs |
PowerPlay meets the needs of your diverse user community with a full range of OLAP clients, offering a complete enterprise OLAP solution that meets the specific requirements of your organization. Users work with Web, Windows, or Excel clients-WAN, LAN-connected or remote-to effortlessly access multidimensional data and use PowerPlay’s superior analysis and reporting capabilities. |
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Administration Features and Benefits |
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Single OLAP Application Server |
PowerPlay Enterprise Server is a single OLAP application server for Web, Windows, and Excel clients. It simplifies administration, centralizes security and control, and effectively minimizes cost of ownership. PowerPlay enables you to deploy OLAP across the entire enterprise-quickly and cost-effectively. |
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Universal OLAP |
PowerPlay offers universal OLAP by giving direct access to Cognos OLAP structures, as well as cubes in Arbor Essbase, IBM OLAP for DB2, and Microsoft OLAP Services. And Cognos PowerCubes can be stored anywhere – locally, on the LAN, or in a relational database. |
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Enterprise-wide scalability |
From a single user to thousands, PowerPlay's scalability can handle it all. Cognos' PowerCubes are highly compressed and can contain data mart sized volumes of data. And users can drill from cube to cube to access the full range of enterprise data. |
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Security and control |
Administrators can easily define and govern the data that each user is permitted to access or analyse based on User Class security. User Class security also allows one PowerCube to serve the diverse requirements of many users. Administrators can create a single cube and distribute it to remote and mobile users, while retaining the desired level of security. |
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Leverage client and server investment |
PowerPlay can build and store cubes on Windows 95/98 and NT, as well as UNIX servers. Administrators can model the cube on the client, and then create the PowerCube on either the client or the server. PowerCubes can be stored within a relational database such as Oracle, IBM DB2, Informix, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL Server. |
PowerPlay in Action...
These business intelligence tools present data in a context critical to understanding what's happening in any area of responsibility and lets users know exactly what's driving their business.
Users can immediately explore, rank, trend, drill-down, or slice-and-dice their corporate data. All the most popular reporting facilities for managers are instantly available in PowerPlay's off-line simplicity, versatility and power make it possible to examine everything that drives sales, margins, customer service, costs, quality, and more.
For instance, by simply clicking on a graph legend item such as product 'X', a preset measure such as profit, and a time field such as year, and dragging each onto a chart or cross-tab axis, you instantly see a view of profit by product 'X' by each month in that year! A PowerPlay bureau service is also available from Technologies4Targeting.
PowerPlay, an off-line, easy-to-use, reporting/presentation tool requires only minimum end-user training. It is ideal for the busy marketer, sales administrator, product manager, financial controller, business analyst, production supervisor, etc., each having their own specially prepared 'data cube' on which to drill-down, query and report.
Should a company not have the internal resources or prefer not to re-deploy or
train IT staff to build PowerPlay systems, then
Technologies4Targeting would be pleased to assist.
After detailed discussion with each end user, we would define the content and drill-down requirements for the 'data cubes' and help build the templates. As part of a regular update procedure, compressed extracts from the analytical database could be prepared and forwarded to you on CD, floppy disk or electronically, usually on a weekly or monthly basis.
Instantly key management will have the latest business facts at their disposal, and in a format they understand and can act upon! And for data-mining with PowerPlay we also offer 4Thought. This is based on a neural network engine and is ideal for both predictive modelling and forecasting.
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Superior Analysis and Reporting for Every User PowerPlay summarizes and presents corporate data the way users understand their business-units shipped on time per city by air, sales per branch by region, and so on. Effortless Data Exploration
Powerful OLAP Reporting
A Client for Every User
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Unmatched Deployability PowerPlay Enterprise Server is a single, scalable OLAP application server for Web, Windows, and Excel users. It supports a mixed hardware environment, and runs on both UNIX and NT. Central Data Management
Enterprise Scalability
Central Security and Control
PowerPlay Personal Server This single-user OLAP application engine for Windows and Excel users provides full access to PowerCubes, in-database PowerCubes, and third-party cubes for users who are working offline, travelling, or working remotely. Users store and process OLAP cubes right on their PCs. |
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In addition to its own PowerCubes, PowerPlay Enterprise Server lets you easily access third-party cubes, including Hyperion Essbase, IBM DB2 OLAP, as well as Microsoft OLAP Services and other OBDO-compliant cube servers. |
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PowerCubes scale to store data mart-sized data sets (over 50 million consolidated rows of data and up to 500,000 categories) but are highly compressed—so they are easy to build, update, and distribute. Easy Cube Building
Business Rules in Cubes
Harness All of the Data
Leverage Your Current Technology Investment
Powerful Capabilities
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Technical Specifications Hardware Requirements
Windows Platforms
UNIX Platforms
In-Database PowerCube Support
Third Party OLAP Server Support
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