Structuring Your Data Into Dimensions

By structuring your data into dimensions, or hierarchies that represent major segments of your business information, you ensure that PowerCubes created from your model support your users' OLAP reporting and analysis needs.

For example, in a sales analysis model, typical dimensions include dates of sale (Time), sales locations (Regions), product and purchasing details (Products), and customer information (Customers).

You can create dimensions in Cognos® Transformer manually or with the Run AutoDesign feature in the New Model wizard. When you use the AutoDesign tool, the time and regular dimensions are structured for you, based on patterns and relationships detected in the source data.

When you create dimensions manually, you must select the appropriate columns from your imported Data Sources list.