Need help in better understanding of Cognos planning

[madhancog]

Hi Gurus,
   I started reading some cognos planning documents and i understand some flows,
First step is creating a model in analyst with D-list add the data through D-Link and create D-cube
Then take the D-cube to Contributor admin then work with elist to make it availabe in companies hierarchy then publish at application so that the person whos is responsible for entering thier planm will enter their planned data.

I am not understanding some thing i put as aquestion pls help me in undersatnding what is the actual purpose of the tool and how it can used effeiciently.

1.Normally in BI we will have data in Backend we will connect to that show the reports but in planning we initially wont have any data we are modeling and then planners are adding their data in the model and sending that data to the database,i want know how we will enter the actual data from the business in comparing the planned data,can any one tell me whether the actual data will be automatically loaded in to our database or we need to do manually?

Thanks in advance,
K.M

[craig_karr]

Either, you could load the actual data into Planning and then compare actual with plan directly in Planning. You could of course also load the actual data as well as the plan data from Planning to a datawarehouse and then build reports against both actual and plan data in Cognos 8 BI. You could also do both, i.e load actual data into planning, as well as exporting plan data to a datawarehouse where you also have the actual data loaded from the source system (financial system or whatever the source might be).

[madhancog]

Thanks a lot for your kind reply,Can u pls help me in learning it by giving some good studies for my understanding if you have?

Thanks  a lot

[StuartS]

Look at this thread.  Has details on Planning vs TM1, may help

http://www.cognoise.com/community/index.php/topic,5759.0.html

Regards

Stuart