University Of Toronto Improves Planning and Budgeting With Cognos

- Cognos Enterprise BI Series 7 reports on, analyzes student funding, fundraising effectiveness -

BURLINGTON, Mass., and OTTAWA, May 20 -- The University of Toronto has implemented a business intelligence (BI) solution from Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN) the world leader in BI and corporate performance management, to better support academic planning processes and fundraising initiatives. The university can now access critical student and operational data in just minutes instead of weeks and is able to make better, faster decisions about student funding.

Student funding is a key business function for universities. It is through funding programs that students are given educational opportunities they would not be able to afford otherwise, and is a key way that universities draw the most desirable students into their programs. Using Cognos, the University of Toronto aggregates and analyzes data drawn from many disparate systems, enabling employees to understand what level of funding students are receiving as well as its sources (i.e. scholarships, teaching assistant positions, research grants, awards). As each student is guaranteed a certain level of funding based on their program, Cognos helps the university determine if that metric is being met, and helps identify those students who qualify for additional funds.

"Cognos' powerful analytical capabilities have enabled us to gain a much more comprehensive view of where our student funding dollars are being spent and allows us to be more proactive in the planning process," said Cathy Eberts, associate director for the Administrative Management Systems at the University of Toronto. "With Cognos we can aggregate, analyze and deliver the data in a format that can be easily accessed and used to make business decisions that will positively affect the lives of our students and will contribute to their educational experience at the university."

Cognos is also being used in the critical area of advancement, to analyze and report on fundraising campaigns. The university can now determine which divisions are running campaigns and which divisions have met their fundraising goals. Visibility down to the individual donor level allows the university to build custom fundraising campaigns targeted at their most loyal supporters.

"Universities and colleges are continually searching for solutions that will allow them to increase their performance across many facets of the business. Managing the student lifecycle from recruitment through to the alumni relationship, managing the advancement process from fundraising through to administration of endowments, and assuring financial assistance meets the changing needs of its students are all areas where our higher education customers are leveraging Cognos solutions," said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions, Cognos. "Cognos provides higher education customers with a comprehensive BI solution that provides deep insight into operations across many different faculties and divisions and the ability to more effectively budget and plan - factors that are key to supporting the mission of any educational institution."

About University of Toronto:

The University of Toronto, Canada's leading research university with over 60,000 students, was founded in 1827 by British royal charter. The university now comprises 31 divisions, colleges and faculties on three campuses, including 14 professional faculties, numerous research centres and Canada's largest university library system-one of the top research libraries in North America.

About Cognos:

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate 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 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.

Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

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SOURCE Cognos
Web Site: http://www.cognos.com