IBM Cognos 8 Performance Management

IBM Cognos 8 Planning is a finance-managed solution that provides real-time visibility into resource requirements and forecasted business results. It supports best practices such as driver-based planning and rolling forecasts and serves as the cornerstone for enterprise-wide performance management.

With IBM Cognos 8 Planning, you can:

• Leverage and extend the business value of SAP data and applications.
• Build driver-based financial plans using data from the SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse, SAP Business Suite or SAP® R/3®.
• Free your Finance team from relying on specialized IT resources to make changes to business models, hierarchies and rules.

A complete solution for Finance

• Contributors input data in common business terms (market share, units sold, trips planned) while the software calculates the effects based on underlying assumptions that are modeled by Finance.
• Frequent contributions by front-line employees provide Finance with the most current intelligence about expected results.
• Plans created by the executive team retain their integrity as they are communicated down the hierarchy, regardless of the number of contributors or their geographic location.
• Calculations, assumptions, and underlying algorithms remain consistent from top to bottom, enabling everyone to work toward a common goal and increase accountability.
• Easy deployment encourages a broad base of contributors.
• Complete integration and interoperability with IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence.

Support for all data and IT infrastructures

IBM Cognos 8 Planning easily accommodates data in different formats from different core systems. Automatic synchronization of data and metadata (for example, charts of accounts, product hierarchies, cost center hierarchies or employee lists) with other systems.

Self-service authoring for everyday users

• Owned by Finance: Users can build their own plans or change structures and underlying assumptions without relying on IT.
• Decentralized modeling capabilities enable departments and functions to link plans together and roll them up into a global view of the entire plan.
• Web-based interface lets users contribute to plans with only a browser and point-and-click actions.
• Menus and file names are displayed in many local languages or using any currency.
• Currency rates may be global, local, or tied to specific accounts or elements within a planning model.
• MS Excel add-in provides a familiar spreadsheet interface for everyday users.

Create an immediate impact on business performance

• Increase the accuracy and relevance of plans, budgets and forecasts using heterogeneous data sources.
• Complete performance management capabilities let everyone make fact-based decisions that improve cross-functional performance.
• Intuitive user interface lets users focus more on solving business challenges and less time accessing data.

Keep pace with changing business conditions

• Business user self-service accelerates decision-making and reduces the burden on IT.
• Ad hoc calculations, updates, and other report changes let business users respond quickly as business conditions change.

Complete performance management capabilities

• Integrate plans, budgets and forecasts with reports, metrics and dashboards for a complete, coherent decision-making platform.
• Accelerate planning and budgeting cycles and align tactics with strategy for more consistent decision-making.

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