ACADEMIA

Cognos the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM), today announced that Kennametal Inc. shared its Cognos business performance success story this week in Iselin, N.J. during the Cognos Performance 2004 conference series. The series of conferences showcases innovative businesses that are achieving greater organizational success through advanced business performance management techniques. Kennametal is the market leader in North America in metalcutting tools and is second in Europe and worldwide. The company first selected Cognos in 2003 as its technology partner of choice for its "Kennametal BlackBook" business intelligence project which supports Kennametal's Customer Acquisition Process. Kennametal required an enterprise BI solution that would help maintain high customer service levels while providing the ability to analyze sales trends. Key to the deployment's success has been Cognos' ability to easily interoperate with Kennametal's SAP Business Warehouse and ASP.net pages. This integration lets business owners at all levels easily use the two systems in tandem for efficient and convenient input, access and storage of critical data. Business owners can also leverage currency conversion capabilities which help owners in different countries easily collaborate on projects. Today, Kennametal has 24-hour access to detailed global reporting tools. It has deployed the Cognos Enterprise Business Intelligence Series across 17 countries, in 7 languages to advance its overall business performance. The results of the improved sales process are driving increased sales revenue through fact-based selling; and reduced selling costs through increased sales productivity. Kennametal's Customer Acquisition Process is based on industry best practice for continuously improving the way the company conducts business with its customers. Kennametal BlackBook enables four unique elements of this process: assessing potential of assigned accounts; prioritizing accounts; building customer profiles and creating a targeted sales plan. "Using Cognos' sales analysis with our Customer Acquisition Process, we have been able to quickly make business-driving decisions based on actual facts, as we move from an organization that is centered around sales revenue to one that is customer centric with a focus on profit generation," said Jon Amundson, global marketing information manager, Kennametal Inc. "We have made great strides in eliminating disparate reporting and the vicious e-mail exchange of spreadsheets. Employees at all levels of our organization can now drill-down to access key information as we drive sales growth, reduce costs and drive the business to a more customer and profit-centric model." "Kennametal is a world-class company that truly leverages business intelligence across its global enterprise. Sales analysis enhances their SAP implementation by allowing them to learn in real-time what factors are driving the business, continually monitor performance against plan and consistently drive pipeline," said Paul Hoy, director of manufacturing solutions, Cognos Inc. "Cognos business intelligence solutions have the scalability to easily respond to Kennametal's business requirements for its sales process. Kennametal joins leading manufacturers who utilize Cognos corporate performance management solutions to maximize their sales and operational effectiveness." For more details on Cognos Performance 2004, or to register, please visit: http://www.cognos.com/performance2004 .