Cognos strengthens its BPM tools and services

At its annual user forum in Florida, Cognos unveiled a number of initiatives grouped under its new Performance Management System. These included enhanced consultancy services for various industries; free best-practice blueprints to help organisations optimise business processes; tighter integration between Cognos BI functionality and Microsoft Office; and a new alliance programme to better support technology partners building BPM functionality on its BI platform.

Mychelle Mollot, vice-president for market strategy and analyst relations at Cognos, said the vendor has responded to a growing demand from BI customers for full BPM solutions, including software tools, support services and consultancy.

She added that the next version of the Cognos BI suite, due in the autumn, will feature enhanced scorecarding, planning, analysis, event management, and query and reporting functionality to provide comprehensive BPM capabilities.

Software tools that optimise business processes can help companies with decision-making and help them comply with regulations such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires organisations to document business processes.

Alys Woodward of analyst company Ovum welcomed the improvements to the Cognos system and said BI vendors need to offer better consultancy services to help firms develop successful BPM strategies.

“BPM is about changing business processes rather than just deploying software tools,” said Woodward.

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