GOVERNMENT

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM), today announced that the Texas Building and Procurement Commission is using Cognos Enterprise BI Series to fulfill State legislative demands for more uniform agency fleet management, reporting and analysis. The Texas Building and Procurement Commission (TBPC) is responsible for delivering a variety of essential centralized support services to State agencies and universities, including assisting in the centralized management and reporting of 27,000 State vehicles. In recent years, the State of Texas legislature has carried out a mandate to streamline government operations, improve services delivery and establish better cost controls. For the TBPC, this meant transforming the way it tracked, consolidated and reported against critical vehicle management information, such as fleet usage, depreciation, and vehicle maintenance records. In response, the TBPC turned to Cognos BI -- including Cognos ReportNet(TM) and Cognos PowerPlay(R) -- to drive better audit and compliance reporting and analysis out of its centralized fleet management system. Standard audit reports were developed and rolled out to all agencies and universities, ensuring a uniform and consistent approach to field-level operations reporting. By improving the accuracy of cross-agency data collection and reporting, staff is now able to more confidently identify and troubleshoot issues and performance trends before consolidating information and sending State of the Fleet reports back to State authorities. What used to take three to four weeks to complete, now only takes two or three days, with the active collaboration of staff in all agencies and at all levels. "State demand for greater program efficiencies has underlined the need for strong reporting, both centrally and out in the field among the numerous agencies and universities that the TBPC supports. The challenge was finding a reporting solution that coupled powerful Web-enabled data analysis with ease of use to enable even casual users to get the most out of their data," said Keith Yawn, program director, Office of Vehicle Fleet Management at the Texas Building and Procurement Commission. "With Cognos, our individual user groups within the agencies and universities can be more proactive in effectively managing their respective fleets, providing timely maintenance checks, and managing other critical areas. Making everybody more accountable to their fleet information has provided us greater insights into our overall performance." "The State of Texas has long been committed to establishing a competitive government infrastructure that is founded on the principles of improved customer service, enhanced accountability and reduced costs," said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions at Cognos. "By providing consistent, timely and accurate information across its highly distributed organization, TBPC will be able to effectively drive better performance and increase accountability at all levels, ensuring that taxpayers receive the best value and highest-quality services for their money." Cognos is a leading provider of business intelligence and corporate performance management solutions for U.S. State governments, helping them deliver timely, high-quality programs and services to their citizens. Other State customers include State of Utah, State of Mississippi and State of New York. For more information about Cognos solutions for State governments, please visit http://www.cognos.com/solutions/industry/government/state-local.html.