PowerPlay Web Explorer

PowerPlay Web Explorer gives you a multidimensional approach to business analysis. It brings together the key dimensions of your business and lets you explore any combination of data: up, down, and across the critical dimensions. You can look at the impact that each area of your business has on overall results and compare that with other dimensions as you explore further. For example, you can examine sales in South America during 2005, then filter your analysis for a specific product line and a specific sales channel.

PowerPlay Web uses multidimensional data sources called cubes. A cube structures information so that you can explore the interactions between different dimensions of your business. For example, a Sales cube might structure information into dimensions such as Product Line, Sales Representatives, Channels, and Locations.

Your PowerPlay Web administrator creates and publishes the cubes that you use.

From your Web browser, you can

• explore information, either one dimension at a time or using multiple levels from the same or different dimensions (these are called nested categories)
• compare data using quantitative measures such as revenue and profit margin
• add your own calculations to the results
• show information as actual values, as percentages, or as different currencies
• filter data
• suppress, highlight, and sort values
• choose the type of display, such as crosstab, pie chart, or bar chart, and the amount of data shown
• swap rows and columns, limit the number of rows and columns in the display, reorder the measures for your data
• drill down to lower-level categories
• drill through to details in IBM Cognos Query, Impromptu Web Reports, IBM Cognos ReportNet, or another PowerPlay cube
• send a notification of a defined event occurring in your data
• publish, export, print, or bookmark reports