Cognos Planning

For organizations looking to improve both operational and financial planning, Cognos 8 Planning provides unprecedented power and flexibility to turn sophisticated strategy into discrete plans, budgets, and forecasts.

Cognos 8 Planning is a finance-managed solution that provides real-time visibility into resource requirements and future business results. It supports best practices such as driver-based planning and rolling forecasts, and serves as the cornerstone for enterprise-wide performance management.


Overview:
Integrated planning software helps you achieve higher performance across the enterprise.


Define your goals and communicate your strategy for achieving best-in-class status.
Replace rigid, annual budgeting with continuous planning—daily, weekly, or monthly.
Connect operations and finance—Build plans that maximize operational effectiveness and inform both operational and financial plans.
Engage the organization—Users enter data in their own business language instead of unfamiliar financial terms—making it easy to model key business drivers.
Gain greater flexibility—Create your own business rules and structures, then modify your model as the organization evolves.
Leverage your investment in applications from Oracle and SAP by integrating planning with Cognos reporting and analysis.

Product highlights:

Finance-owned solution with easy modeling language that can be developed by financial analysts without IT involvement.
Scales to thousands of participants to support top-down and bottom-up planning and forecasting.
Supports best practices such as driver-based planning and rolling forecasts that speed planning cycles and increase accuracy.
Multidimensional slicing-and-dicing, drill-down, and the exclusive break-back feature help you explore data fully and efficiently.
Planners can attach any file type to a cell, model, or submission of a forecast to communicate the rationale and policies behind plans and forecasts.
A high performance SAP BW connector moves large volumes of data to meet the needs of complex planning solutions.
Part of an integrated but separable performance management system delivering planning, reporting, scorecarding, dashboards, analysis and financial consolidation.
Distributed administration shares the responsibility for planning processes across functions, geographies and business units within a secure, unified planning environment.

Flexible deployment with Web browser or Microsoft Excel interface offers all the advantages of a dedicated enterprise solution with the familiarity and convenience of a spreadsheet.
Flexible security with single sign-on provides appropriate access to each user.

ANALYST - Modelling and data analysis
Model creation in couple of days, NOT in months
Import data definitions from other resources (ERP, DWH, CRM systems, etc.)
NO programming – model can be created and deployed without IT department, NO programming
Change business logic and principles quickly and easily in real time
Elimination of non-value added process activities like number gathering and consolidation, error finding and correction etc.
Connection of spreadsheets with planning system
"Break-back" helps users analyze "what-if" effects across time periods, product lines, or other parameters, with instantaneous feedback

CONTRIBUTOR - Distribution and budget contribution
GO production process - easy transfer planning models from creation phase to contribution phase
… usage widely enforcered standards and system open architecture
Easily define access rights for enach budget item
Interface between access rights and company organization structure

WORKFLOW - Process control
Workflow support of whole planning process
Easily define who contribute and who review particular plan items

Source: http://www.reporters.cz

IBM Cognos 8 Controller - Whitepaper

IBM Cognos 8 Controller provides Finance organizations with unmatched capabilities for managing the close, consolidation, and reporting process. An automated, menu-driven application that is owned and managed by Finance, IBM Cognos 8 Controller can consolidate diverse ledgers representing thousands of operating units and accounts into a common chart-of-accounts structure

IBM Cognos 8 Controller - White paper

Source:
www.oraclehyperion.co.uk

Magic Quadrant for CPM Suites - 2008

Magic Quadrant 2008


The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 19 December 2008 by Gartner, Inc. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

more at:
Magic Quadrant 2008 for CPM Suites

Cognos 8 Controller - Brochure

Cognos Controller 8-Brochure


Consolidate thousands of operating units and accounts into a common chart-of-accounts structure.

Overview

IBM® Cognos® 8 Controller helps your finance organization manage the close, consolidation and reporting process.Automate your entire close process, from data collection to financial consolidation to output. Reduce close cycle times, assure data integrity and gain the transparency that is essential for sustained compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and IFRS.

•Reduce consolidation, close and reporting cycles by days or weeks—with a single version of the facts and automated validation.

•Consolidate multiple ledgers with thousands of operating units and accounts into a common chart-of-accounts structure.

•Create reports rapidly to facilitate compliance with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404.

•Evaluate financial results with confidence and accuracy across multiple countries, currencies and legal entities, each with their own accounting policies intact.

•Support better planning and forecasting with reliable consolidated management data, based on a clear link between statutory and management consolidation.

Product Highlights

•Sophisticated, global consolidation functionality —to handle multiple reporting and consolidation standards such as IAS and US-based GAAP; inter-company elimination and reconciliation; multicurrency translation; complex ownership calculations and financial consolidation rules.

•Fully aligned with Microsoft Excel —users can log in to Controller for data collection or distribution from any location at any time though a familiar Excel interface , accessing financial information as their security levels allow .

•Adaptable to your unique requirements —in addition to management and statutory dimensions, Cognos 8 Controller provides user-defined dimensionality that supports data collection and reporting on all levels including cost center, product, and customer.

•Deployable by finance with IT appeal — Controller can be configured and maintained by financial professionals with minimal IT support. Using the most advanced and scaleable Web and relational data storage, users can input, consolidate and access data quickly and securely.

•Add other capabilities as your needs require —The industry's most comprehensive and award-winning planning, scorecarding, reporting, and analysis solutions from Cognos integrate seamlessly with Controller to help you manage your performance even more effectively.


Cognos Controller 8-Brochure

Cognos 8 Controller-Training and Certification

Source: Cognos

Accelerate your success and return on investment in your IBM® Cognos® 8 Controller solution with Cognos Education for your project team and users. By enabling your project team with the knowledge and skills they need to drive readiness and user adoption, Cognos Education can help take your performance to the next level.

Get the right training based on your role and your Cognos product. Choose when, where and how you learn. Select from a variety of training options to suit your needs and budget; from classroom courses to e-Learning options.
Your business benefits

Find the training that’s right for you

Complete curriculam have been designed to meet the diverse needs of every IBM Cognos 8 Controller user, including Application User, Report Author and Application Administrator. For existing Cognos customers, Cognos also offer “What's New” courses.

IBM Cognos Controller curriculam Search and register for a course Certification

The IBM Cognos Certification Program provides an industry standard technical competence benchmark and validation for professionals working with Cognos technology. Professionals can demonstrate their competence in a competitive marketplace and use IBM Cognos solutions with confidence.

Download more details about IBM Cognos Controller curriculam Search and register for a course Certification

COGNOS trainings

IBM Cognos 8 Controller - An Overview

IBM Cognos 8 Controller provides Finance organizations with unmatched capabilities for managing the close, consolidation, and reporting process. An automated, menu-driven application that is owned and managed by Finance, IBM Cognos 8 Controller can consolidate diverse ledgers representing thousands of operating units and accounts into a common chart-of-accounts structure.

IBM Cognos 8 Controller reduces close cycle times and gives you the transparency that is essential for sustained compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and IFRS. It supports local, regional, or global requirements, and enables you to adapt to business and regulatory changes in real time.

What IBM Cognos 8 Controller Offers to Finance Leaders
IBM Cognos 8 Controller offers critical benefits for the key members of your finance team—and for the CIO, who needs to ensure compatibility with existing IT investments:

For Corporate Controllers:
IBM Cognos 8 Controller enables the corporate controller to automate the entire close process, from data collection to financial consolidation to output. Close cycle times are reduced while data integrity is assured.

For the CFO:
IBM Cognos 8 Controller reduces risk and provides the CFO with an enterprise view of key financial ratios and results. Greater visibility improves strategic decision making across the organization, while the high quality of financial results eases external reporting and compliance.

For the CIO:
IBM Cognos 8 Controller allows the CIO to leverage current IT investments while ensuring that centralized systems meet the demand for secure and reliable data. And it offers the opportunity for performance management standardization from a single vendor, with enterprise planning and business intelligence across a single architecture and platform.

Source: COGNOS

IBM Cognos 8 Controller - DEMO

IBM Cognos 8 Controller is the only solution that includes more than 200 pre-configured, standard reports to satisfy the demands of management and regulators. All the reports required at key stages of the close process are available automatically—no custom report creation is needed.

Cognos Controller DEMO

IBM Cognos Controller

IBM Cognos 8 Controller provides built-in financial intelligence and advanced analysis capabilities to deliver on today’s consolidation requirements. The Web-based platform provides centralized, synchronous financial consolidation. It compresses the time to close, ensures accuracy, and ensures that the business controls directly impacting your corporate reporting process are effective.

You gain true and reliable consolidated financial data, based on a clear link between statutory and management consolidation, which provides a solid foundation for your operational and strategic decisions. IBM Cognos 8 Controller gives you a many-fold advantage in addressing compliance needs:
• Automates the consolidation process.
• Compresses closing times.
• Accelerates reporting times.
• Significantly reduces the risk of financial reporting errors.
• Minimizes compliance costs.

The multi-dimensionality of Controller offers enormous potential. It provides us with excellent support for our extensive management reporting. All necessary eliminations and adjustments can be performed at an operative level as well as at an organizational level to reflect the current structure.

Key Features of Cognos Controller

Application approach
Directly managed by finance, not by IT, for rapid implementation. Eliminates extensive development and programming that adds complexity. Simplifies and automates the definition, structure, and rules of the consolidation process.

Single, accurate, corporate view of key information
Consolidates multiple, diverse ledgers with thousands of operating units and accounts into a single, common, chart-of-accounts structure.

Sophisticated, global consolidation functionality
Provides inter-company elimination and reconciliation, multi-currency translation, complex ownership calculations, and financial consolidation rules to handle multiple reporting and consolidation standards.

Leverages existing assets
Integrates data from existing ERP, transactional, and desktop systems.

Provides reporting and analysis on controls and transparency into information
Mitigates risk and delivers accurate information to support compliance requirements

Built-in finance consolidation intelligence
Includes pre-defined consolidation functionality and reports that incorporate best practices for managing the consolidation of financial information and delivering external management and corporate reporting.

Adaptable to unique requirements
In addition to statutory dimensions, Cognos Controller provides user-defined dimensionality to support collection and reporting at all levels including cost center, product, and customer.

Real-time adjustment to meet new business, environment, or legislation changes
Easily and rapidly accommodates changes such as mergers and acquisitions as well as reorganizations.

CPM Suites Market Has Matured Rapidly

Source: Gartner Magic Quadrant


Significant consolidation occurred in the past years:

Hyperion was acquired by Oracle.
CorVu was acquired by Rocket Software.
Cartesis was acquired by Business Objects.
OutlookSoft was acquired by SAP.
Applix was acquired by Cognos.
Longview was acquired by Exact.
SAP acquired Business Objects.
IBM acquired Cognos.

Increasingly, companies are looking for CPM outside of finance.

BI and PM are evolving toward common platforms, and it is expected that BI and CPM will converge within the next three to five years