COGNOS INC. Eddie Haizlip Danny Roach Greg Sparks

COGNOS INC.

Eddie HaizlipDanny RoachGreg Sparks

Background

• Founded in 1969.

• Offices in 14 countries.

• Corporate Offices in Ottawa, Canada

• Sales Headquarters in Burlington, Mass.

• 1300 Employees Worldwide

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.

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

Software Categories

Business Intelligence

Impromtu

PowerPlay

Scenario

4Thought

Software Categories

Web-based BI

PwerPlay Enterprise Server

Impromptu Web Reports

Impromptu Web Query

DataMerchant

Software Categories

4GL Tools

PowerHouse 4GL

Axiant

Power2000

Visualizer

• Management and measurement tool

• Extends PowerPlay and Impromptu

• Advanced reporting and analysis

• Graphs multiple data dimensions

• Graphs geographical data

Data Example

• Large amounts of data in succinct visual reports and virtual rooms of information.

• www.cognos.com/visualizer/walk6.html

NovaView

• Cognos’ OLAP client

• Uses SQL Server 7.0 OLAP services

• Bought from Panorama Software Systems

COGNOSuite

• Suite of integrated products for turning data into knowledge

• Includes three key components– PowerPlay– Scenario– Impromptu

PowerPlay

• Industry-leading OLAP solution

• Utilizes Analyze-then-Query approach to data analysis

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

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

Scenario Practical Uses

• Classification according to key factors

• Market segmentation

• Customer profiling

• Areas of focus

• Targeted strategies

Impromptu

• Used for ad-hoc reports

• From scratch or based on canned reports

• No SQL needed (drag and drop)

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

COGNOS in Action

Solutions and Case Studies

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.

Benefits of Business IntelligenceSoftware

• 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.

Cognos Success Stories

• Avon Products, Inc.

• The Timken Company

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Thanks for your time