Chapter 19: IBI i-Business Intelligence

Available in FileScope Platinum only

Overview

iBi is a comprehensive Business Intelligence tool intended to be integrated into user applications (Green or GUI).

iBi makes investigations a snap by graphically isolating the "needle in the haystack" when investigating possible security breaches, critical system activities or planning your resource allocations, and interfaces to all applications such as ERP, HR, Financial, and so on.

  • Requires no special preparation - runs on your current data

  • Every field becomes a tab - a "dimension"

  • Click any tab to see all the other information summarized according to the values appearing in that tab

  • Drilldown is just a tab away

  • Select subjects to add to the filter

  • Click on another tab to summarize the related information

  • Restricts the user to the subject they are currently working on, for example, Order, Customer, Account

iBi and FileScope are a natural fit as FileScope arranges and displays data (tables) in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand and easy-to-edit format and iBi's GUI displays the data and allows for easy inspection and analysis of the data.

Installation of IBI i-Business Intelligence GUI on PC

The GUI part of the product should be installed on the PC that is running the IBM i emulation.

  1. From FileScope main menu, select 71. i-Business Intelligence IBI à 61. Install on PC (repeat for each PC)

FileScope PLATINUM Main Menu

IBI i-Business Intelligence Main Menu

  1. Follow the instructions as they appear on the iBi Setup screen

iBi Setup

  1. One of the parameters IBI i-Business Intelligence requires is the system IP. In rare cases, the IP of the host system (that is, the IBM i on which the product is installed), cannot be found due to incorrect settings. In this case, enter the host IP in the following data area to ensure proper setting of the definitions.

  2. Select 62. Set host IP

Change Data Area (CHGDTAARA)

Working with IBI i-Business Intelligence

  1. When working with any file using FileScope, Press F7= i-Business Intelligence IBI or select F13=Service à 85. i-Business Intelligence IBI

 

i-Business Intelligence IBI

Option

Description

Keep as

*DFN = Save the definitions in a physical file which can be accessed in the iBi product (STRIBI à 5. Work with IBI definitions)

*VIEW = Create a view and display it with iBi; definitions are not saved.

*NONE = Display by iBi only, no definitions are saved

Definition

Name = Save as “Name”

*AUTO = Save in automatically defined name

  1. Press Enter and PageDown for more definitions. Define new descriptive titles for fields and SQL Expressions

i-Business Intelligence IBI – field definitions

  1. Insert filter definitions or edit the filter definitions that were inserted using the FileScope subset structured feature (F13=Service à 1. SUBSET Structured style). Select the type of graph and give a title to the view

 

Filter Definitions

  1. Insert a description

Description

  1. Press Enter, GUI version of iBi prompted. If this is the first activation of the iBi GUI, a Connect to System screen appears

 

GUI iBi - connect to system screen

NOTE: When connecting to the system, there is a limited time span to insert the User and Password. If this period expires, an error message appears saying “permission denied”.

 

Permission Denied

  1. The iBi results appear in a GUI format

GUI Format of iBi

Number

Name

Description

1

Toolbars

The toolbar enables you to perform basic navigation tasks.

New = Creates and opens a new filter tab (see Filter Tabs)

Initial = Display data according to the initial filter conditions

Clone = Clone current filter conditions, without saving to disk

Open = Opens a previously-saved filter

Save as = Enables you to save filter data

Close = Close a filter

Close Others = Close all other filters

2

Filter Tabs

Enables you to navigate between open filters

3

Filter Pane

Area where filters are displayed

4

Data Pane

Area where Dimension data is displayed.

Print = Print data

Export = Export data to spreadsheet

Search = Search and add/remove to the filter

Apply Filter = Click to apply selection to the filter.

Refresh = Click Refresh after the fetch size has been modified

Report = Generates an HTM report

Drill to Data = Drill to the underlying data giving you a 'raw' view over the data.

Aggregate = the default display is “count”. By using “Aggregate” the file numeric fields displays data according to sum, average, min, max

5

Dimensions

These criteria enable you to choose how to sort and display the data.

6

Status Bar

The Status Bar, divided into two parts, displays valuable system information:

1. Number of members (units of information-each displayed on a different line) selected, out of total members.

2. Number of entries (entries to the system) selected, out of total number of entries.

7

Pie Chart

The colorful, pie-shaped representation of your security and system data.

Display also in a vertical and horizontal bar chart.

 

Work with defined views

To view a list of previously defined views, select 5. Work with IBI definitions from the IBI i-Business Intelligence main menu.

Work with Business Intelligence Views

Type 1 to select a view to edit or type 5 to run.