Finance Articles

Leading Customers Use Cognos Performance Management to Drive Increased Visibility and Control in the Office of Finance: - Cognos Controller and Pla

OTTAWA & BURLINGTON, Mass. (Business Wire EON) October 31, 2007 -- Cognos performance management solutions provide a single line of sight across all time horizons. Planning and consolidation combine the forward management view of the business (planning, budgeting and forecasting) with the current and historical view of the business (consolidations, reporting, and financial analytics.) This integrated operational and financial view lets customers proactively address business challenges for greater operational effectiveness.

Cognos Controller automates and structures the financial consolidation process, provides centralized control and collection of data, supports the improvement of the internal controls environment and ensures delivery of certified, financial performance information for internal and external reporting. Customers get a transparent, accurate and timely enterprise view of financial performance. Cognos Planning is a finance-managed solution that provides real-time visibility into resource requirements and future business results. It supports best practices such as driver-based planning and rolling forecasts, and serves as the cornerstone for enterprise-wide performance management.

Consolidated Graphics (CGX) is a leading commercial printing company with a far reaching footprint across North America. CGX selected Cognos 8 Controller to deliver a single, secure, and robust corporate reporting platform to be driven by the company's finance department.

"As a fast growing business with operations across North America, we wanted to enhance financial performance management by streamlining our data reporting processes with a robust solution that would be readily used across the organization," said Tracy Crawford, senior accountant at CGX. "Using Cognos 8 Controller, our organization will shorten and improve our close, consolidation and reporting processes and give our many locations more timely access to accurate, quality financial data."

Vermilion Energy Trust is a premiere Canadian-based international energy trust headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Having experienced significant growth in the past four years, Vermilion selected Cognos 8 Controller to automate and streamline the company's consolidation process enabling a more efficient close.

"We have a complex consolidation process that previously relied on numerous spreadsheets requiring considerable effort to provide consolidated financial results on a timely basis," said Jeremy Kalanuk, supervisor of financial reporting at Vermilion Energy Trust. "We chose Cognos 8 Controller to give us a centralized, Web-based, scalable corporate reporting solution that can be managed by the finance team. With Cognos 8 Controller, we don't need to tie up IT resources, and our consolidation process is much more efficient."

While consolidation is a formidable effort for most companies, financial and operational planning can also consume valuable corporate cycles and resources. With a global network of more than 700 offices in 63 countries, Crawford & Company is the world's largest independent provider of claims management solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities. To assist in corporate planning, the senior management team needed a detailed monthly budget and forecast report, with a particular focus on compensation.

"We were looking for a planning solution that could be easily deployed and updated, require minimal keystrokes, yet support significant built in calculations," said Stacy Swanson, director of operations support at Crawford & Company. "With Cognos Planning, our organization has a solid accurate budget view which delivers increased visibility and control to drive better business decisions, without using significant employee resources."

"The task of closing the books, consolidating results and financial reporting, coupled with meeting compliance requirements, is too complex and time consuming to do manually. And obtaining a forward-looking view of the business that adapts to changes in market conditions, customer behavior, and resource availability can only be achieved with a robust performance management solution," said Doug Barton, vice president, performance management at Cognos. "With Cognos Financial Performance Management solutions, our customers are able to set performance targets, align resource plans and forecast business results to meet or beat expectations. Companies are easily able to combine financial consolidation and planning with business intelligence capabilities to define, understand and lead the company's decision-making for better financial performance management."

About Cognos:

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, provides world-class enterprise planning and BI software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance.

Cognos brings together technology, analytical applications, best practices, and a broad network of partners to give customers a complete performance system. The Cognos performance system is an open and adaptive solution that leverages an organization's ERP, packaged applications, and database investments. It gives customers the ability to answer the questions -- How are we doing? Why are we on or off track? What should we do about it? - and enables them to understand and monitor current performance while planning future business strategies.

Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in more than 135 countries, and its top 100 enterprise customers consistently outperform market indexes. Cognos performance management solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com

Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Note to Editors: Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on Cognos' Web site at http://www.cognos.com

Other Article Sites

findabook.com  moneycd.info  a-mortgage.info   about-lemon-laws.info  aboutstudentloans.info
all-about-publishing.info  auctions-articles.info  bestcollege-university.com  bestispconnection.com
biblefolder.com  blogger-website.com  books-used.info  brokers-guide.info  buywindows.info  cable-dsl.info
career-miner.com  carpel-tunnel.info  cashinaflash.info  cashloanreviews.info  casinobell.com  chat-house.info
clearmycredit.info  collegeloantips.info  crones.info  depression-articles.info   dirnic.net  dishguides.info
divers-below.com  expodog.info   financewizz.com  fire-insurance.info  getgood.info  handleit.net   it-idea.info
health-supplies.info  hosting-right.com  insidealert.com  insurance-facts.info  jobs-employment.info
justgood.info  lookgold.net   lowcost-travel.info  money-source.info  myhostzone.info  numisblog.com
peoplesearchfinder.info  pr-articles.info  realeas.com   refinancing-guides.info  spyware-remove.info
telelot.info  the-law.info   toppaid.info  travel-deals.info  travelcorrect.com  wedding-guide-site.com
your-blog.info  your-credit.info

Loan Application Mortgage Rate Calculator for your Mortgage Loan
Are you thinking of purchasing land, a piece of property, or your dream house? Then maybe you have considered applying for a mortgage loan. If you have already decided that you are getting a mortgage loan, then let a loan application mortgage rate calculator help you.

Bad Credit Car Finance - How To Get Approved
If you have poor credit, you may think that you have no chance of getting approved for a car loan. However, car loans are easier to get approved for because they use your car as collateral to secure your loan. This makes your loan less of a risk to a lender. Additionally, there are measures you can take to improve your chances of getting approved for a car loan. This article discusses how you can get approved for a bad credit car finance:

Three Bad Reasons For Needing A Mortgage Lender
Everyone tells you you're going places, and of course, you believe them. You're 26. You're a supervisor at a multi-national marketing company. You get a six-digit pay monthly. What's more, it looks like you're headed for greater and bigger things in the company hierarchy. Do all these mean you should get a house?

BBK Welcomes New Corporate Finance and Operations Management Hires
A growing corporate finance and operations management advisory firm by the name of BBK has just hired a new managing director and ten other hires. BBK specializes in providing a number of corporate-related services such as litigation support, financial services, credit risk management and corporate restructuring.

QuickGlimpse Released -- Tool Empowers Salesforce.com Users with Live Accounting Data
QuickGlimpse, a set of imbedded functions available for Salesforce.com, which empowers sales reps to make quick well informed selling decisions, was released by Figtree Consulting, Inc. With a single mouse click, the product provides appropriate data on pending orders and actual sales history for the currently accessed customer in Salesforce.com. This new feature, implemented in Salesforce.com and other CRM packages, allows users to work with the latest accounting information when managing activities, developing quotes, and entering orders for their customers.

Home Mortgage Refinancing – What's in Your Contract?
Are you one of the millions of Americans who will be refinancing their home mortgage loan this year? When you sign your contract and the other papers for your refinance, will you know what your signing?Your Contract: This one is simple, but I would guess very few people do it. READ THE ENTIRE CONTRACT.

Accounting For Home Based Businesses
Home based businesses are still businesses, and as such a financial accounting is needed for several reasons. Taxes are one of the most important reasons for a home business to keep accounting records to show money made and money paid. There are several ways to do this, and your knowledge of accounting practices is not a roadblock. Some small business owners think that since they work from home, income and expenses do not need to be tracked, but this is totally untrue.

Research House Makes Significant Investment to Improve Respondent Experience and Client Report Delivery with Trusted Industry Platform
Confirmit, the world's leading provider of software for Market Research (MR) and Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM), today announced that Research House has licensed the Confirmit MR platform for their online market research services. A market research agency specializing in fieldwork, data processing and data delivery, Research House has licensed the Confirmit On-Demand software platform guaranteeing clients an up-time minimum of 99.7%.

Teeter Totter Principle -- A Risk Averse Retirement/Investment Solution
How does more fixed-rate cash, less risk, lower fees and a defined buy and sell process sound? It sounds fantastic to both retired and working investors. The Teeter Totter Principle is a simple investment management system that secures plenty of cash while generating income to pace inflation. Investors of all ages need to be educated in how to use this management system that safeguards one's money and long-term financial welfare. It is not a financial product; it is a savings management solution with a revolutionary decision-making process. To learn the TTP basics, view our multimedia presentations at www.teetertotterprinciple.net.

First Time Buyer Mortgage –Key to your First Home
Living in a rented apartment since long. Ever thought of the disadvantages of staying as a tenant.

Good Credit Is Not A Good Reason To Borrow More Money After Youve Achieved Financial Freedom
The most important thing for you to remember is that the only way you'll ever be able to achieve financial freedom is if you are able to avoid getting back into debt once you've paid off everything that you owe. It seems like a lot of the different websites that give advice regarding bad credit are not looking at this the right way.

Negotiating with Home Mortgage Companies
Coming up with a decision to purchase a home might lead to wanting to get a loan if in case you do not have the capacity to purchase it in cash. In order to do this, you will need to approach home mortgage companies in order to get the home that you would like to have.

Florida Real Estate Investment ? How The Disney Effect Can Make You Money
Most people who are new to real estate investment wonder how to maximise their real estate investment returns and some of them end just buying property around their area. While this may work in terms of practical management of the property, but if you want to get average returns, then do what everyone else does. Your returns in some areas would be very low due to low rental yield and demand in the area that you are investing in.

Safe Investment Practices
What are you exactly looking for: Huge profits or marginal profits? You have money to invest ; Investing wisely can make you rich. The important things any investor needs to know are Risk, Duration, Returns and Liquidity.