1. COGNOS INC.
Eddie Haizlip
Danny Roach
Greg Sparks

2. Background Founded in 1969. Offices in 14 countries.
Corporate Offices in Ottawa, Canada
Sales Headquarters in Burlington, Mass.
1300 Employees Worldwide

3. History
Designed custom information systems in the 70’s and early 80’s.
PowerHouse 4GL rolled out in the early 80’s.
Took leadership position in application tools in proprietary mid-range computers.
In client/server environment, Cognos rolled out PowerPlay, their first BI solution.

4. Today One million seats in a thousand companies.
BI solutions support over 100 OLAP data sources.
Can intergrate many enterprise applications
Examples: Oracle Financials
PeopleSoft
SAP

5. Business Intelligence
Software Categories
Business Intelligence
Impromtu
PowerPlay
Scenario
4Thought

6. PwerPlay Enterprise Server
Software Categories
Web-based BI
PwerPlay Enterprise Server
Impromptu Web Reports
Impromptu Web Query
DataMerchant

7. Software Categories
4GL Tools
PowerHouse 4GL
Axiant
Power2000

8. Visualizer Management and measurement tool
Extends PowerPlay and Impromptu
Advanced reporting and analysis
Graphs multiple data dimensions
Graphs geographical data

9. Data Example
Large amounts of data in succinct visual reports and virtual rooms of information.

10. NovaView Cognos’ OLAP client Uses SQL Server 7.0 OLAP services
Bought from Panorama Software Systems

11. COGNOSuite
Suite of integrated products for turning data into knowledge
Includes three key components
PowerPlay
Scenario
Impromptu

12. PowerPlay Industry-leading OLAP solution
Utilizes Analyze-then-Query approach to data analysis

13. PowerPlay Features Drill down capabilities
Ability to slice and dice for flexible presentation
Analyze trends over time
Visualize data graphically
Drill through to details or other cubes

14. Scenario Data-mining component of the suite
Identifies relationship among factors
Allows drill down to supporting factors for a selected factor
Inverse is also true - Scenario will identify those factors which don’t impact a given factor
Combined - this means better decisions

15. Scenario Practical Uses
Classification according to key factors
Market segmentation
Customer profiling
Areas of focus
Targeted strategies

16. Impromptu Used for ad-hoc reports
From scratch or based on canned reports
No SQL needed (drag and drop)

17. Advantages of Impromptu
Frees up IS resources
Empowers the user
Results in the right data in the right hands
Raises overall effectiveness of the user through more informed decision-making

18. Solutions and Case Studies
COGNOS in Action
Solutions and Case Studies

19. Challenges Faced
IT environments include many different systems, that are not integrated
IT departments are impeded by labor-intensive reporting
Managers do not have timely access to business information.

20. Benefits of Business Intelligence Software
Users can easily explore and analyze all the business information they need
IT staff is no longer tied up with time-intensive report processing
Improved decision-making processes has led to increased revenues.

21. Cognos Success Stories
Avon Products, Inc.
The Timken Company

22. Avon Products Inc. Founded in 1886
The world’s largest direct seller of beauty products
$5.1 billion annual revenues
2.7 million independent sales reps.
Markets over 400 brands
135 countries

23. Business Process Redesign
Redesign began in 1996
Avon chose Cognos line of Business Intelligence (BI) products:
PowerPlay - quickly and easily explore multi-dimensional information and create OLAP reports
Impromptu - ad hoc querying of data and access to transaction-level information

24. Avon’s Succes Story
Reduced cost by streamlining their analysis and reporting processes
For example, printing and distribution costs
Credits Cognos BI solutions to the $250 million increase in revenue, due to the improved decision making processes.

25. Future Plans Installation of PowerPlay Enterprise Server
Incorporates the Web
Lowers overall cost of business intelligence system because the cubes are built once and are accessible from all users of the system.
Gives all users of the BI a common front end
Able to extend the benefits of the system to their global operations.

26. The Timken Company Established in 1898 Headquartered in Canton, Ohio
Produces tapered roller bearings
Offers a selection of more than 200 types and 30,000 sizes
These bearings are used by every major manufacturing industry worldwide

27. System Needs Began implementation in 1996
Needed a new job costing system (JCS)
Costing is difficult because Timken’s products are made to order.
Under the old system, product cost rates were updated once a year based on averages gathered from production history.

28. New Job Costing System Chose Cognos Impromptu and PowerPlay
Impromptu for generating reports
PowerPlay to track sales and costs by district, type of product, size of product, and where the product originated from.

29. Benefits of New System
The finance, sales, and marketing departments are able to accurately track and set product costs.
Results in fairer pricing for all their customers
Using the drill-down features they are able to analyze cost detail to an activity level for any customer order.

30. Data Cubes
Using PowerPlay’s OLAP tool, Timken integrates the data from the JCS into a data cube
Compare and track the product cost versus the profitability
Cost has in excess of 100,000 rows
Profitability involves more than 1 million rows

31. Future Goals
Expand the system to implement the Web for faster decision making capabilities
In the process of implementing the Web-versions of Impromptu and PowerPlay

32. Thanks for your time