Financial business intelligence
In the fall, Cognos will release its Finance 5.0, which is designed to deliver integrated budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, reporting and analysis. The new version is geared for both financial professionals who require sophisticated manipulation of financial data and non-financial users who need Web-based access to financial analysis and budgeting. Cognos reports that by pulling information from disparate sources, 5.0 is able to align enterprise business strategies, actual results, budgets and operational plans, as well as allow sophisticated analysis of organizations' business performance.
The company reports Cognos Finance can be accessed directly by Cognos PowerPlay and can also be used in conjunction with Cognos Visualizer, providing graphical business visualizations for delivering information to senior management. Further, it adds, consolidated results are processed and stored within a central repository along with history and multiple versions of budgets and forecasts. Rich budgeting features that include command and control and integrated human resource budgeting provide the ability to input information across the organization.
Users can easily review and manipulate financial and management reports such as comparative variance and key ratio reports. Budgets and reports are distributed quickly and easily across the enterprise over the LAN or the Web, on secure Intranets or Extranets, ensuring rapid access to key financial information.