Cognos Strengthens Links Between BI, Financial Planning

Cognos is improving the links between its business intelligence and financial performance management technologies through a new release of its Cognos Planning product and a tool that enables Microsoft Excel users to tap into Cognos 8 data analysis software.

Cognos is shipping version 8.2 of its Cognos 8 Planning software that, through enhanced integration with the Cognos 8 Business Intelligence platform, will help solution providers develop financial performance management systems that tap into Cognos' data analysis products. The new release of Cognos Planning uses the same data management and platform services, including data importing and authentication, that Cognos 8 Business Intelligence uses for scorecarding, reporting and data analysis. Until now the two products were linked only at the reporting level.

Customers can use the improved links to monitor their financial performance against their financial plans and budgets, said Myron Weber, CTO at CBH Consultants, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider. "We've got a lot of customers who have heard about these new capabilities and are eager to get them," Weber said, adding that the enhancements may spur broader use of Cognos tools among employees within his customer base.

The new release of Cognos Planning also offers improved integration with SAP NetWeaver BI, the giant application vendor's business intelligence and data warehouse system. About 55 percent to 60 percent of Cognos' installed base also uses SAP applications, says Chris Ilaqua, senior manager of product marketing for Cognos Planning.

Cognos also has begun shipping Cognos 8 BI Analysis for Microsoft Excel that allows users to tap into Cognos-managed data and develop reports through the Microsoft spreadsheet application. The product is being sold as an add-on to Cognos 8 BI.

Resellers say customers who spend most of their working day in Excel have been asking for such capabilities. "Finance users in particular and business users in general are very comfortable with Excel. So the fact that we can take the richness of content from Cognos [business intelligence tools] and deliver it in Excel is a big win," said Weber.

"I think this will help us catch some of the more lightweight analysis users," said Rob Kovacevic, executive vice president of quality at John Daniel Associates, a Pittsburgh-based Cognos reseller. "They can go get the data in the Cognos environment and move it to Excel. They need access to that data." While it was possible before to custom-develop Cognos-Excel links, "it's nice to have it delivered as part of the product," Kovacevic said.