Ad-hoc reporting is the opposite of managed reporting. Instead of running a pre-designed report, the user analyses the data him- or herself, aided by the organisation delivered by the Framework Manager metadata package.

Ad-hoc reporting allows the user to explore data, perhaps drilling up or down to find information ‘sweet spots’, for example highlighting

· which division produced the best sales in a quarter
or
· which products produced the highest revenue

In a well-designed package, the data is available in a filtered and organised way, using business-friendly terms. The metadata might be modelled as a ‘star schema’, which allows efficient delivery of data which might have originated from several database tables, and might otherwise make the analysis run very slowly.

Cognos 8 Query Studio can be used for quick and simple drag-and-drop reporting in a web environment. It requires little training, and in fact using Query Studio a business user can get useful information from their data almost immediately. Yet it is capable of producing calculations, summarised reports and charts at the press of a button. No complex code or SQL is required

Cognos 8 Analysis Studio automatically summarises dimensionally modelled data in a three-dimensional format similar to a spreadsheet (although it can also produce a variety of charts). Users have a fully-flexible drill-up and drill-down capability. Data from the Framework package can be dragged in or out of the analysis as required