Cognos Accelerates Data Access for R/3

A new data warehousing solution specifically for SAP's (Lester, PA) R/3 system has been unveiled by

Cognos (Burlington, MA). The Accelerator for SAP R/3 is a data warehousing and reporting solution that lets users extract SAP data into open data warehouses, data marts or OLAP cubes. Accelerator features tight integration with SAP, the ability to view and search the SAP repository, and a robust transformation engine. It also offers the ability to integrate SAP and non-SAP data, query optimization and parallel processing, all with a minimal impact on existing SAP production systems. "Strategic decision support applications often need to integrate SAP R/3 data with information external to the SAP R/3 environment," said Michael Schroeck, Managing Partner of Price Waterhouse's (New York) Global Data Warehousing Practice. Accelerator for SAP "addresses the demanding requirements of building end-user business intelligence applications in a SAP R/3 environment." Accelerator's global data architecture provides "production data extraction from SAP, data delivery to both corporate warehouses as well as data marts, and, finally, easy use of highly functional business tools," added Barry Wilderman, VP of META Group's (Stamford, CT) Application Delivery Strategies service. The Suite edition of Accelerator will include Accelerator, 75 licenses including Cognos' PowerPlay, Impromptu and Scenario software, and an administrator copy of PowerPlay and Impromptu. A Web edition will have administrator copies of PowerPlay and Impromptu and 100 licenses of both Impromptu Web Query and PowerPlay Server Web Edition. The suites will be available next month; pricing begins at $165,000.