Previewer is a product which produces demonstration data for presentation in POWERPLAY, a Cognos business intelligence tool.

With Previewer a user can quickly and easily define what a cube should look like in terms of dimensions, measures and overall percentages at each level in the dimension hierarchy. Previewer uses the resulting model to generate data points which can then be converted to POWERPLAY cubes. Cubes created by Previewer are generated randomly but constrained to the specified percentages. In most cases, Previewer cubes are virtually indistinguishable from cubes based on actual production data.

Whereas someone uses POWERPLAY to enhance their knowledge of a business, someone can use Previewer and his knowledge of the business to create fabricated POWERPLAY cubes that look realistic.

Previewer can be used to demonstrate the operation of Business Intelligence technology on data customized to an individual customer's operation without the need for the lengthy preparations to connect to actual live databases. This provides pre-sales reps of POWERPLAY products the ability to quickly show the technology based solely on prior knowledge of the business.