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IBM Cognos 8 BI is a single, integrated, enterprise-class Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) product constructed around a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The integrated nature of the platform simplifies deployment and increases visibility of key elements of performance management within the application environment and, as a result, within the organisations. It provides ad hoc query, reporting, dashboarding, analytics, scorecarding, event management, and data management facilities. The functional enhancements made available in IBM Cognos 8v4, the latest release of the product, are designed to accelerate and improve decision making and the management of business performance, and expand the business value of BI across and beyond the enterprise. IBM now offers all of its main flagship BI capabilities in a single product based on a single Web Services architecture. However, the company's acquired solutions from Celequest and Applix remain separate with only loose integration with the main platform. Cognos 8 BI deploys well into complex enterprise environments, is supported on all popular IT platforms, and is accessed via a well-engineered, browser-based interface. IBM offers extensive CPM functionality for financial performance management and financial consolidation. In addition, the vendor has been extending its solution into other applications and vertical areas.
A mature and integrated BI and CPM solution built on a SOA. Works with relational data, dimensionally modelled relational data, and all major OLAP engines. Provides a solid foundation for CPM applications. TM1 from Applix can be used as a data source within Cognos 8 BI.
Continued focus on the end-user experience and system-wide manageability. Business Viewpoint enables business users to manage dimensional data to create company- wide views of performance. Products acquired from Celequest and Applix are only partially integrated with Cognos 8 BI. Offered on Windows, UNIX, and Linux platforms, and IBM System z on Linux.
In future we anticipate further integration with the IBM technology stack and applications. In addition IBM is looking to take advantage of search technology to deliver search-led business intelligence. The company is also making investments in developing trusted business-driven mashups. Furthermore, work is in progress on collaboration aspects of BI with the aim of creating decision communities supported by decision-based content.
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