COGNOS INC.

Eddie Haizlip
Danny Roach
Greg 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
70s and early 80s.
PowerHouse 4GL rolled out in the early 80s.
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 dont 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 laborintensive reporting
Managers do not have timely access to
business information.

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 timeintensive 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 worlds 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 multidimensional information and create OLAP
reports
Impromptu - ad hoc querying of data and access
to transaction-level information

Avons 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 Timkens 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 PowerPlays 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 Webversions of Impromptu and PowerPlay

Thanks for your time