Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Deploys Cognos Enterprise BI Series 7 Dashboard to Decision-Makers-- Leading health care company launches 'Blue Dash' to track key metrics; planned deployment to 2,500 associates -- BURLINGTON, Mass., July 24, 2003 -- Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN) the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management, today announced that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) has launched a Cognos EBI Visualizer Series 7 dashboard that tracks critical metrics driving corporate performance. The multi-metric visual display of performance metrics is used by hundreds of corporate decision makers. BCBSMA tracks administrative costs, sales, expenses and customer satisfaction with the Cognos dashboard. Drawing information from a number of data sources across the company including IBM DB2, the Cognos dashboard allows managers and decision-makers to track daily results against plan. "We evaluated other solutions but Cognos gave us the 'in-the-box' dashboarding capabilities we needed to rapidly create this Web-based reporting tool. The tool has been getting rave reviews from our business leaders and the success keeps building. Cognos lets us look at our key performance metrics in a way that delivers immediate insight," said Carl Ascenzo, BCBSMA's Chief Information Officer. BCBSMA uses the Cognos Visualizer dashboard to track actual performance against benchmarks. Business leaders are able to quickly view the dashboard, focus on the specific factors driving trends in performance, and measure the impact on BCBSMA's business. The dashboard was deployed in approximately one month from project inception to solution launch, utilizing BCBSMA's existing data warehouse. "The Cognos dashboard provides up-to-date management information, in an- easy-to-understand format that improves our ability to identify underperforming areas. Having identified these areas, it is easy to drill down and find the information needed to deal with the situation," said Allen Maltz, CFO. "Organizations like BCBSMA are able to launch broad-based, corporate-wide dashboards in accelerated timeframes using Cognos EBI Series 7. That is the result of the tight integration of the Cognos solution and the enterprise- proven best practices Cognos has over the many years of working with organizations launching Web-based dashboarding environments," said Dave Laverty, senior vice president, global marketing. Cognos EBI Series 7 allows decision-makers to view the interrelationships of complex statistical data from a variety of sources such as Cognos multidimensional cubes, 3rd party cubes, managed reports or flat files in a single visualization. As well, Cognos offers pre-packaged, broad-based support for quality methodologies like Six Sigma, the rigorous performance measurement system designed to drive continuous process improvements toward a goal of zero defects in products and services. ABOUT BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (http://www.bluecrossma.com) was founded 65 years ago by a group of community-minded business leaders. Today, headquartered in Boston, BCBSMA provides coverage to 2.4 million members. Consistently recognized for standards of service that are among the highest in the nation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is the choice for health care consumers seeking reliable and high-quality health care coverage. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. ABOUT COGNOS: Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management, delivers software that helps companies drive, monitor and understand corporate performance. Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage -- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) -- achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through planning; monitor performance through scorecarding; and understand performance through business intelligence. Cognos serves more than 22,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise business intelligence and performance management solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.
Media Contacts:
Tanya Pobuda, Brooke Somers
Cognos, 613-738-1440
Don Jennings
Lois Paul & Partners, LLC
781-782-5756
Investor Relations:
John Lawlor
Cognos, 613-738-3503
SOURCE Cognos
Web Site: http://www.cognos.com
Contact:
|