Customer Reviews

IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: The Official Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I cannot say I have read this book completely, but I am currently trying to learn how to use Cognos 8.4 and as I work with the product I find myself turning to this book to clarify something or teach me something. Each time, I come up empty.

This books appears to have only the most high level information, it goes into no detail whatsoever. It spends only a page or two on some very big topics.

There seems to be a lack of Cognos BI books out there, but trust me, this book is not going to help you all that much. If you want a very high-level overview of some of the Cognos features, without going into too much detail on how to really work with the tool, and if your company is paying for the book, then by all means pick this up. Otherwise, steer clear of this book, it's useless for in-depth details on how to use Cognos 8.4 BI.

I found the book to have a ton of useful examples on how to write reports using Cognos and on how to use some of the more complicated features. For example, creating a union in a report and how to use a Master-Detail relationship in a report. There are examples for just about everything.

If you need a book to learn how to use Cognos 8 or plan to use this book for training, DO NOT use this book. If one is already familiar with Cognos and needs to have a reference book, than this book is okay. If you need to learn Cognos from the ground up, do not waste your money on this book. Find something else or take a training class.

While I have not read this book completely. It is a good book for those who want more insight in Report Studio, Framework Manager, Analysis Studio and etc. However, this book is not a good resource for Cognos Administrators. Administrators should stick to the Cognos documentation and resources.

This book gives you a fast overview of all aspects of Cognos and is written in language you can understand. You are going to need the Cognos reference manuals once you start developing but the book will help clear up areas the manuals do a poor job explaining.

IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: The Official Guide is definitely a different kind of technology book. It provides real-world expert advise, tips, and techniques for all different types of Cognos users. For business users and managers, this book provides straightforward information on Cognos BI concepts to empower business decisions. Even if you're experiencing Cognos for the first time, after leafing through the first few chapters, users at any level should feel comfortable navigating the Cognos interface, running analysis, scheduling reports, and even authoring some reports. For more experienced developers, this book goes above and beyond a simple reference guide, How-To document, or Knowledge Base article. Combining best practices with expert techniques in Framework Manager, Event Studio, Report Studio, and Analysis Studio, more technical users will be able to quickly deliver superior data models and unlock enhanced reporting capabilities. After reading this book, regardless of your skill level, you will improve your knowledge and understanding of the Cognos tools and environment.

Some of the reviews warned me about the content of this book being inadequate but I wanted to try it anyway. They were right- this book is terrible. But I was so starved for some type of documentation I remained hopeful. Dont waste your money

Having been a user of Cognos products back to Impromptu version 4, this is the first comprehensive guide/manual that delivers what it promises!
Well worth the price!

Like an idiot, I spent $75 on this book (Barns and Noble). I would have got a better deal on Amazon here going thru one of the used book dealers. Please don't buy this book new like I did - you'll be wasting your money. They call this book the official guide and I'm really surprised they did that. I had problems with several of the examples as they seemed to have left out important information. Specifically the examples on pages 277, 259 and 329. Those pages deal with placing totals on subgroups when using a union query, editing a query on a singleton and inserting hierarchies into reports. Another important example they should have included is using a drill through to details on the same report. On some of these examples, you are better off using the "Try it yourself" sections in the Cognos help file. Some of the book's sections are really good like Framework Manager. To make matters worse, they have no online reference for the corrections like Wrox publications does. Overall, shame on McGraw Hill for putting their name on such a rag of a book!

This book is really good for beginners...it clearly explains all the menu options,toolbar options in every studio
and explains how to create a report from the scratch,how to create a model and publish it etc ...
This book gives lot of emphasis on Frame work and Report studio
People who already had good knowledge in Cognos might get bored with this
Definitely this book will help beginners