According to leading analysts, Business Intelligence (BI) has been a top priority for worldwide organizations within the past five years, and it will continue to be a priority in the near future. With a global user base of millions, Cognos is known as a leading provider of Business Intelligence tools. Cognos' latest release is Cognos 8 BI, a powerful suite of modules that share one common infrastructure for the creation, management and deployment of queries, reports, analyses, scorecards, dashboards and alerts--all designed to support an organization's Business Intelligence objectives. As a consultant with over 10 years of Cognos BI experience, Juan A. Padilla is an expert in helping organizations develop and implement Business Intelligence solutions. As the first in a series of books on Cognos products, with Cognos 8 BI for Consumers, Padilla provides a step-by-step introductory guide for the key component of the Cognos infrastructure: Cognos Connection. This book walks the reader through the fundamentals of Cognos Connection, the powerful web portal that is the foundation for all users of Cognos 8 BI, from end users to administrators. The guide relies heavily on screen images that demonstrate product workflow and available features; even readers who do not have "live" access to Cognos software can learn about it! This guide has been designed for:- companies evaluating Cognos as a potential BI solution and need to know the capabilities before purchasing;- those planning to use Cognos products professionally, e.g. job-seekers or consultants;- organizations using previous versions of Cognos who need to evaluate the latest version before upgrading or migrating; and- novice "hands-on" users of Cognos, for whom this guide will be an "anytime, anywhere" tutorial and reference source. In this book, you will discover:- how Cognos Connection functions;- how to work with reports, including scheduling, setting parameters and changing formats;- how to customize the look and feel of the interface to your preferences;- a simulation of Cognos' security features; and- report samples that show the powerful reporting capabilities of Cognos 8 BI.