Cognos Connection 
Cognos Administration
Query Studio
Report Studio
Analysis Studio
Event Studio
Metric Studio
Cognos 8 is configured using Cognos Configuration. You also use Cognos Configuration to start and stop Cognos 8 services.
In addition to Cognos Configuration, Cognos 8 has Web-based and Windows-based user interfaces.
Web-based interfaces | Windows-based interfaces |
Cognos Connection | Framework Manager |
Cognos Administration | Metric Designer |
Query Studio | Transformer |
Report Studio | Map Manager |
Analysis Studio | Cognos 8 Go! Office |
Event Studio | |
Metric Studio |
The zero footprint, Web-based interfaces include
Cognos Connection
Cognos Administration
Query Studio
Report Studio
Analysis Studio
Event Studio
Metric Studio
The interfaces that are available to users depend on user permissions and on the Cognos 8 packages that your organization purchased.
Cognos Connection is a Web portal provided with Cognos 8, providing a single access point to the corporate data available for its products. It provides a single point of entry for querying, analyzing, and organizing data, and for creating reports, scorecards, and events. Users can run all their Web-based Cognos 8 applications through Cognos Connection. Other business intelligence applications, and URLs to other applications, can be integrated with Cognos Connection.
Like the other Web browser interfaces in Cognos 8, Cognos Connection uses the default configurations of your browser. It does not require the use of Java, ActiveX, or plug-ins, and does not install them.
In addition to selections for viewing data and creating objects, Cognos Connection includes
portal pages
The new page button 
opens a wizard where users can create a
customizable page that uses portlets to show different types of
content at the same time.
Public Folders
Public Folders store shared Cognos 8
content, such as packages , reports, agents, shortcuts, and jobs.
My Folders
My Folders store personal Cognos 8 content, such as reports, shortcuts, and jobs.
User preferences
The my area button 
includes links to My Watch Items, alert
lists and watch rules that help you monitor business events; My
Preferences, settings for format, language, time zone, contact information,
and portal content; and My Activities and Schedules, status windows where
you can set priorities for and monitor your Cognos 8 activities.
Link to tools and applications
The Launch button provides links to the Cognos 8 studios, Drill-through Definitions, which are used to navigate through related data when querying or analyzing data, and Cognos Administration.
For information about using Cognos Connection, see the Cognos Connection User Guide or the online Quick Tour.
The open Cognos 8 architecture means that you can choose to integrate Cognos 8 into your organization’s existing Web portal. You can use Portal Services, provided with Cognos 8, to integrate Cognos 8 with a number of portals, including
SAP Enterprise
IBM WebSphere
Plumtree
For more information, see the Administration and Security Guide.
Cognos Administration is a central management interface that contains the administrative tasks for Cognos 8. It provides easy access to the overall management of the Cognos environment and is accessible through Cognos Connection.
Cognos Administration is organized into three sections:
Status
Use the links in this section to monitor activities, server status, and system metrics, and change some system settings.
Security
Use the links in this section to define users, groups, and roles for security purposes, configure capabilities for the interfaces and studios, and set properties for the user interface profiles (professional and express) that are used in Report Studio.
Configuration
Use the links in this section to set up data
source connections, deploy Cognos 8 content from one content store to another,
create distribution and contact lists, add printers, set styles,
manage portlets and portal layout, start or stop dispatchers and
services, and change system settings.
For information about using Cognos Administration, see the Administration and Security Guide.
Query Studio lets users with little or no training quickly design, create and save reports to meet reporting needs not covered by the standard, professional reports created in Report Studio.
For information about using Query Studio, see the Query Studio User Guide or the online Quick Tour.
Report Studio lets report authors create, edit, and distribute a wide range of professional reports. They can also define corporate-standard report templates for use in Query Studio, and edit and modify reports created in Query Studio or Analysis Studio.
For information about using Report Studio, see the Report Studio User Guide or the online Quick Tour.
In Analysis Studio, users can explore, analyze, and compare dimensional data. Analysis Studio provides access to dimensional, OLAP (online analytical processing), and dimensionally modeled relational data sources. Analyses created in Analysis Studio can be opened in Report Studio and used to build professional reports.
For information about using Analysis Studio, see the Analysis Studio User Guide or the online Quick Tour.
In Event Studio, you set up agents to monitor your data and perform tasks when business events or exceptional conditions occur in your data that must be dealt with. When an event occurs, people are alerted to take action. Agents can publish details to the portal, deliver alerts by email, run and distribute reports based on events, and monitor the status of events. For example, a support call from a key customer or the cancellation of a large order may trigger an event, sending an email to the appropriate people.
For information about using Event Studio, see the Event Studio User Guide or the online Quick Tour.
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.
For information about using Metric Studio, see the Metric Studio User Guide for Authors.
The Windows-based Cognos 8 interfaces are the modeling components: Framework Manager, Metric Designer, Transformer, and Map Manager.
Framework Manager is the Cognos 8 modeling tool for creating and managing business-related metadata for use in Cognos 8 analysis and reporting. Metadata is published for use by reporting tools as a package, providing a single, integrated business view of any number of heterogeneous data sources.
OLAP cubes are designed to contain sufficient metadata for business intelligence reporting and analysis. Because cube metadata may change as a cube is developed, Framework Manager models the minimum amount of information needed to connect to a cube. Cube dimensions, hierarchies, and levels are loaded at run time.
For information about using Framework Manager, see the Framework Manager User Guide.
Metric Designer is the Cognos 8 modeling tool used to create extracts for use in Cognos 8 scorecarding applications. Extracts are used to map and transfer information from existing metadata sources such as Framework Manager and Impromptu Query Definition (.iqd) files.
For information about using Metric Designer, see the Metric Designer User Guide.
Cognos 8 Go! Office allows users to access Cognos reporting data directly within Microsoft Office applications.
Cognos 8 Go! Office makes use of the Microsoft .NET Framework to allow clients to interact with server-based components. Cognos 8 Go! Office provide two types of clients:
The smart client provides a zero-administration client with a zero-deployment impact. Product updates are automatically captures though the smart client.
The COM add-in client requires a client installation. Product updates are delivered by uninstalling and reinstalling the COM add-in client.
For more information about using Cognos 8 Go! Office, see the Cognos 8 Go! Office User Guide. For more information about configuring and deploying Cognos 8 Go! Office clients, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.
Cognos 8 Transformer is the Cognos 8 modeling tool used to create PowerCubes for use in Cognos 8. Secured Cognos 8 PowerCubes are not compatible with Cognos Series 7.
For information about installing and configuring versions of Transformer that are earlier than 8.3, see the documentation provided with your edition of Transformer.
Administrators and modelers use a Windows utility named Map Manager to import maps and update labels for maps in Report Studio. For map features such as country and city names, administrators and modelers can define alternative names to provide multilingual versions of text that appears on the map.
For information about using Map Manager, see the Map Manager Installation and User Guide.
