OTTAWA, ON, February 5, 2001—Cognos® (NASDAQ:COGN; TSE:CSN) the world's largest and most successful business intelligence company, today delivered the industry's most comprehensive breadth of enterprise analytical applications for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware®. Cognos e-Applications for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware provide an enterprise-wide, out-of-the-box business performance measurement (BPM) solution for the thousands of J.D. Edwards' WorldSoftware customers worldwide.
The new e-Applications include analyses of General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Procurement. These applications, combined with previously announced Sales Analysis and Inventory Analysis, form a powerful and fully-integrated suite of BPM analytical applications for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware. Cognos e-Applications are designed to help managers and executives optimize business performance across the enterprise while decreasing costs and time to result. Within each e-Application, Cognos provides extensive understanding and analysis of the business processes and answers to hundreds of critical business questions. The full breadth of these analytical applications comprises 30 areas of business analysis—answering more than 650 business questions using over 500 business metrics and key performance indicators.
The market for analytical applications is red-hot. According to International Data Corporation, worldwide revenue in this market space is expected to accelerate at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent, from $2 billion in 1999 to more than $6 billion in 2004.
"Cognos was one of the first business intelligence suppliers to recognize the emerging opportunity in the analytical applications market. With its deep understanding of business best practices and the use of data dimensions, Cognos has built into its applications the ability for business intelligence to become intimate with business processes across an organization's key functional areas," said Bob Moran, research vice president and managing director, Decision Support Research, Aberdeen Group. "With this announcement, Cognos has once again solidified its position as a true leader in the packaged analytical applications marketspace."
Laporte Water Technologies, a subsidiary of Laporte plc®, the international specialty chemicals company, already uses the Cognos Sales Analysis e-Application for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware to analyze mission-critical business factors such as customer and product profitability. Using the Cognos solution, Laporte has cut its report production times from two weeks to less than two hours. The company plans to deploy additional e-Applications into areas such as inventory and finance in the coming months.
"The Sales Analysis e-Application has helped us quickly and easily identify opportunities to increase profitability by restructuring product offerings and adjusting sales force compensation. It was a cash neutral investment in year zero," said Keith Lewis, vice president of business development with Laporte Water Technologies. "We expect the new e-Applications will significantly strengthen the management system in other critical areas across our business."
The following are some examples of the analysis customers can perform with each of the new e-Applications:
General Ledger Analysis—includes financial performance reporting and analysis; budget analysis; operational reporting and analysis; and key financial ratio analysis
Accounts Receivable Analysis—includes customer credit scorecarding; accounts receivable functional performance analysis; accounts receivable quality analysis; corporate self-appraisal; and organizational effectiveness analysis
Accounts Payable Analysis—includes vendor performance scorecarding; accounts payable functional performance analysis; corporate self-appraisal; and organizational effectiveness analysis
Procurement Analysis—includes commodity related expenditure profiles; vendor-related expenditure profiles; commodity demand analysis; vendor scorecarding and comparison; and procurement process effectiveness analysis.
These e-Applications build on the strength of Cognos' market-leading business intelligence software by providing fast, actionable answers to hundreds of critical business questions. For example, using Cognos Accounts Payable Analysis, customers can quickly and easily get answers to questions like: "How many invoices were submitted per vendor, per period?" "What is the average cost of a delayed payment and how has that changed over time?" "How much time is taken between receiving the invoice and sending the purchase order?"
"The sights of global businesses are now set squarely on the need to achieve greater operational effectiveness, sooner, in an increasingly challenging business environment. For this reason, companies like Laporte, are looking to analytical applications to help them meet their business objectives," said Alan Rottenberg, Cognos senior vice president, e-Business Intelligence Applications Unit. "Cognos e-Applications for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware provide companies with the industry's most complete suite of BPM analytical applications."
Availability Cognos Sales Analysis, Inventory Analysis, General Ledger Analysis and Accounts Receivable Analysis for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware are now generally available. Cognos Accounts Payable Analysis for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware will be available within 90 days and Cognos Procurement Analysis for J.D. Edwards WorldSoftware will be available in 120 days.
This press release contains forward-looking statements about new product developments, features and availability. These forward-looking statements are made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. There can be no guarantee that future results will turn out as expected. Those risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company's SEC filings from time to time, including the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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