Cognos BI control access to Business Insight/Workspace, Business Insight Advanced/Workspace Advanced, and Report Studio

Answer

Terminology in different Cognos versions

10.1 --> Business Insight / Business Insight Advanced

10.2 --> Workspace / Workspace Advanced

To give users access to Business Insight/Workspace, open IBM Cognos Configuration -> Security tab -> Capabilities and click the Actions icon followed by Properties for the Executive Dashboard capability. Click the Permissions tab, and grant Execute and Traverse permission to only the user groups/roles who should have Business Insight/Workspace access.

Users of both Business Insight Advanced/Workspace Advanced and Report Studio will require the Report Studio capability. Click Actions -> Properties for the Report Studio capability, click the Permissions tab, and grant Execute/Traverse to both sets of users.

To then control which of the two advanced authoring tools these users can open, you need to secure the profiles they have access to from IBM Cognos Administration -> Security -> User Interface Profiles.

First, click the Properties icon in the top-right toolbar and then in the permissions of the parent "User Interface Profiles" object ensure that all groups/roles/users which require access to either Report Studio or Business Insight Advanced/Workspace Advanced have the Traverse permission granted at this parent level.

Next, open the Professional interface properties, and from the Permissions tab grant Execute/Traverse permission to the groups and roles that should have Report Studio access.

Finally, open the Express interface properties, and grant Execute/Traverse permission for the groups and roles which need Business Insight Advanced/Workspace Advanced access.