ECONOMICS

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), which provides investigative services to commanders of all Air Force activities, has turned to Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN) the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management solutions, to streamline data collection, automate data retrieval, monitor cases, analyze costs, and provide valuable performance metrics for its agents, commanders and staff worldwide. With BI, AFOSI empowers its agents with the best information to effectively and efficiently manage criminal investigations from case inception to closure. AFOSI identifies, investigates and neutralizes criminal, terrorist, and espionage threats to Air Force and Department of Defense personnel and resources. To improve overall visibility into operations and to better understand trends and relationships in data, AFOSI integrated Cognos Enterprise BI Series 7 with a number of their key information systems, including CACTIS (Crime and Counter-Intelligence Terrorism Information System) and I2MS (Investigative Information Management System). The result was TABIS (The Air Force Business Intelligence System), which provides key firepower against criminal activity. "We use BI to make a lot of big decisions," says Special Agent Tim Ries, director of warfighting integration at the AFOSI. "If a General has questions about the status of a case, he can drill down into the data with Cognos to see where the delays are. Drill all the way down to the case level, down to the specific agent. We can see lab status, man-hours served-we now have amazing visibility." Resolving cases quickly puts much needed funds and resources back in the pocket of the AFOSI. With Cognos BI, the AFOSI can quickly identify the factors that were slowing them down. They can immediately pinpoint delays in the lab, slowdowns by agents, lack of proper resources, or other contributing factors that might be standing in their way. As a result, cases that used to take 180 days to be resolved are now being closed in 90 days or less. This means that vital staff resources can be freed up much faster, so that they can move on to the next pressing case. And, because AFOSI is able to validate and communicate the effectiveness of its agents, it has been able to justify and receive increases in resources and agents at a time when budgets are being continuously squeezed. "AFOSI is dealing with critical issues that affect the safety and security of millions of people. In order to do their jobs effectively, and make sure what needs to get done gets done when it is supposed to, AFOSI needs total transparency into the end-to-end process of investigative case management, said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions, Cognos. "With access to accurate, up-to-date information, along with powerful analytical tools, commanders (or need appropriate title) are able to get the immediate status of ongoing cases, drill down into problem areas and resolve issues immediately. Cognos business intelligence brings together disparate data systems and makes decision-ready information immediately available commanders located in all of the more than 20 geographically-dispersed offices, allowing them to track, manage and report back on the status of cases and the performance of thousands of field agents."