Thursday, September 12, 2013
What If Modelling in Clarity
What If Modelling is a great feature of Clarity. The challenge for this is in the setup of the tool. Each cube is different. Each team has a different type of modeling they want to do. At a high level, what if modeling enables power users to copy a (scenario, year) combination into another (scenario, year) combination and apply assumptions to it. "What If" Revenue doubles? "What If" Expenses go down by 50%? "What If" salaries go up by 50%? For companies wanting an optimistic and pessimistic version of their Forecast or Budget, What If analysis is a great fit. With the touch of a button, optimistic an pessimistic versions can be updated from the latest Forecast or Budget, with the same assumptions applied on top of those most recent numbers, providing a true comparison between these scenarios.
Line Item Detail in Clarity
Line Item Detail is a powerful feature, but not often used in Clarity. Line Item Detail allows users to enter detail below the lowest grain of the cube. The most common use is for budget planning. Most cubes have an Account dimension that matches their chart of accounts. Some users may know that they have a few separate items they want to track, that all rollup into this account. For example, let's say we are planning insurance costs for an office, and there is only one Insurance account in the chart of accounts. By using Line Item Detail, a user could enter a line item for each type of insurance on the template. They get the detail they need for tracking, and the cube does not need to be changed. This can provide great flexibility when we just need a bit more detail on a given template.
Where is the documentation for my version of Clarity?
The IBM website can be a bit intimidating due to the size and quantity of products they support. How can we find documentation for our specific version of Clarity? Here are some steps to find the documentation for your version of Clarity. Some versions do not have full documentation. In that case, please try to find the documentation for the next lowest version. Here is a link directly to this section on the IBM site for Clarity 7.2.1FP2. If the link is broken or a newer release is available, you will need to follow the steps below to find the documentation.
Clarity 7.2.1 FP2 Documentation http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024452
Step 1 - IBM.com
From IBM.com, select the 'Support & downloads' menu and then the 'Documentation' link under Technical Support.
Step 2 - Search for 'Clarity'
On the left side of the screen, enter 'Clarity' into the Quick find search box, and press enter.
Step 3 - Add your version of Clarity
By first adding a checkmark beside Clarity, you will be able to select your particular version of Clarity and the operating system. I recommend selecting just the product version and leaving the operating system selection blank. Once you make the selection and move it to the right, you can click the Finish button.
Step 4 - Click on 'Clarity ... Documentation'
Now you should be able to see a link for the documentation for your version. On this page, you will find the server admin, server install, end user and reference guides for all Clarity products at this version.
Clarity 7.2.1 FP2 Documentation http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024452
Step 1 - IBM.com
From IBM.com, select the 'Support & downloads' menu and then the 'Documentation' link under Technical Support.
Step 2 - Search for 'Clarity'
On the left side of the screen, enter 'Clarity' into the Quick find search box, and press enter.
Step 3 - Add your version of Clarity
By first adding a checkmark beside Clarity, you will be able to select your particular version of Clarity and the operating system. I recommend selecting just the product version and leaving the operating system selection blank. Once you make the selection and move it to the right, you can click the Finish button.
Step 4 - Click on 'Clarity ... Documentation'
Now you should be able to see a link for the documentation for your version. On this page, you will find the server admin, server install, end user and reference guides for all Clarity products at this version.
How do I get help from IBM on Clarity or TM1?
A common question we receive is, "How can I get help from IBM on Clarity or TM1?...and what do they cover?". Companies current on their support contracts with IBM are entitled to support from them. The support is limited to making sure the base product works as expected. It does not include any custom development, templates or reports. IBM will be able to make sure you can connect to Clarity from Clarity Studio, but they will not help you build that new Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss report.
If there are challenges though, it's nice get their help. They are smart folks trying to help people. From the IBM home page, under the 'Support and downloads' menu, there is a menu item for 'PMRs and service requests'. This is the codeword for support. Going to this area, you will be able to enter a support ticket and get their help. You can also track status of any open support tickets here too.
Here is a link to the Service requests home page.
Updating Clarity Software For Free
Did you know that you are entitled to all Clarity software updates from IBM, as long as you are current on your maintenance contract? Bug fixes and enhancements are released periodically as incremental updates. Many fixes improve stability and small annoying challenges for which folks commonly implement workarounds. At the time of this writing, the current version of Clarity is 7.2.1FP2. If you are on something older, you may be able to improve performance, stability and features by updating your server software.
Here is a link to the download site for the Clarity 7.2.1FP2 software.
Most of the time internal Information Technology groups can perform the update without assistance by following the instructions provided. For folks wanting some support or assistance, Clear Insight (http://www.clearinsight.ca) is available to help.
Filtering by Measures in TM1
Overview
When building applications on Cognos TM1, there is often a need to filter something by data in another cube for a user. In regular database applications, this would some form of a JOIN clause (INNER, LEFT OUTER, RIGHT OUTER). TM1 does not have those constructs, but not to worry. This can be done just as easily. This could be used when building a subset, or when querying a cube or dimension. In this example, I will start with a basic MDX subset definition and add pieces to it until it will serve as the MDX for building a sorted subset, filtered by data in a separate cube.
For this example, let's assume the following setup
* We have a cube called c.Account.Balance with four dimensions (d.Account, d.Measure, d.Time, d.Year). * This cube holds financial accounting information for a small company
* d.Account containts an income statement chart of accounts
* d.Measure has only one element called Amount
* d.Time has 12 elements. One for each month Jan...Dec.
* d.Year has 3 elements. One for each fiscal year of interest, Y2013, Y2014, Y2015
* We want a list of all accounts with a January, Y2014 balance greater than $1000
Step 1 - Build a simple dimension subset of all members
{ TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) }
Step 2 - Restrict the subset to only leaf members. These are also known as N-level or bottom level members.
{ TM1FILTERBYLEVEL( { TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) } ,0) }
Step 3 - Use the MDX FILTER function to restrict...or join... the dataset. Note how we do NOT need to specify anything for the d.Account member. TM1 is smart enough to know we are building a set of accounts from a cube filter.
{ FILTER(
{ TM1FILTERBYLEVEL( { TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) } ,0) }
,[c.Account.Balance].( [d.Measure].[Amount], [d.Time].[Jan], [d.Year].[Y2014]) > 1000)
Step 4 - Add sorting with the MDX ORDER function.
{ORDER(
{ FILTER(
{ TM1FILTERBYLEVEL( { TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) } ,0) }
,[c.Account.Balance].( [d.Measure].[Amount], [d.Time].[Jan], [d.Year].[Y2014]) > 1000)
When building applications on Cognos TM1, there is often a need to filter something by data in another cube for a user. In regular database applications, this would some form of a JOIN clause (INNER, LEFT OUTER, RIGHT OUTER). TM1 does not have those constructs, but not to worry. This can be done just as easily. This could be used when building a subset, or when querying a cube or dimension. In this example, I will start with a basic MDX subset definition and add pieces to it until it will serve as the MDX for building a sorted subset, filtered by data in a separate cube.
For this example, let's assume the following setup
* We have a cube called c.Account.Balance with four dimensions (d.Account, d.Measure, d.Time, d.Year). * This cube holds financial accounting information for a small company
* d.Account containts an income statement chart of accounts
* d.Measure has only one element called Amount
* d.Time has 12 elements. One for each month Jan...Dec.
* d.Year has 3 elements. One for each fiscal year of interest, Y2013, Y2014, Y2015
* We want a list of all accounts with a January, Y2014 balance greater than $1000
Step 1 - Build a simple dimension subset of all members
{ TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) }
Step 2 - Restrict the subset to only leaf members. These are also known as N-level or bottom level members.
{ TM1FILTERBYLEVEL( { TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) } ,0) }
Step 3 - Use the MDX FILTER function to restrict...or join... the dataset. Note how we do NOT need to specify anything for the d.Account member. TM1 is smart enough to know we are building a set of accounts from a cube filter.
{ FILTER(
{ TM1FILTERBYLEVEL( { TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) } ,0) }
,[c.Account.Balance].( [d.Measure].[Amount], [d.Time].[Jan], [d.Year].[Y2014]) > 1000)
Step 4 - Add sorting with the MDX ORDER function.
{ORDER(
{ FILTER(
{ TM1FILTERBYLEVEL( { TM1SUBSETALL( [d.Account] ) } ,0) }
,[c.Account.Balance].( [d.Measure].[Amount], [d.Time].[Jan], [d.Year].[Y2014]) > 1000)
, [d.Account] ASC ) }
Done!
Now we have build an MDX statement to give us a list of accounts with a January Y2014 balance greater than $1000, sorted by the Account name.
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