Cognos solutions for government

In partnership with government leaders, IBM Cognos Performance Blueprints have been created to help U.S. government agencies improve efficiency and make better resource allocations. Blueprints are pre-defined data, process and policy software models that provide streamlined planning, forecasting, analysis and reporting functionality. They enable organizations to align strategic objectives, operational plans, people and activities quickly and efficiently.

Most important, they help drive faster ROI and reduce total cost of ownership. Blueprints are available to Cognos customers at no additional cost.

Program Objective Memorandum (POM)

The programming phase of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) budgeting process begins with the development of a Program Objective Memorandum, which details planned resource allocation six years into the future. It is an essential and critical part of the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) process for any U.S. defense agency, and increasingly for civilian agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and others that follow the DoD process.

Leave cumbersome, spreadsheet-based planning behind

Preparing a POM typically means following an inflexible, time-consuming, cumbersome process that suffers the usual shortcomings of spreadsheet-based processes:

• Finding and validating data is challenging.
• Data is error prone, and an inordinate amount of time must be spent collecting and validating it rather than analyzing it.
• Costs prescribed by the model may not reflect actual costs the budget owner sees in their own organization.
• Budget owners can not analyze their budgets or do scenario planning.
• There is no integration of budgets with performance management tools.

Integrate the POM process with performance management

Based on industry best practices, the IBM Cognos Program Objective Memorandum (POM) Performance Blueprint is a performance blueprint that helps organizations improve management accountability, visibility and control of the POM process. The Blueprint helps to establish an environment that enables budget owners to:

• Analyze trends , history and projections.
• Produce dynamic reports with hierarchical drilling capability from summary to detail and back.
• Create efficient and rapid changes across all levels.
• Provide a collaborative application with narrative ability.
• Plan for an entire year with the ability to submit modification.
• Perform “what-if” modeling and scenario analyses to compare alternatives.
• Improve budget accuracy and consistency through integrated planning and greater flexibility.

The IBM Cognos POM Performance Blueprint is a “quickstart” data model available for customers to download and implement on their own at no extra cost. It differs from the Cognos/BearingPoint solution, which is a complete consulting and technology solution that brings you from initial requirements through to user acceptance.

View the BluePrints:

• Read the Application Brief to see how the planning model works (919KB)
• Download the Business Value Guide (1.6MB)
• View the Web demo