Cognos today announced that Lufthansa has selected and standardized on Cognos 8 Business Intelligence as its BI platform. Lufthansa chose Cognos 8 BI for its extensive capabilities, ease of implementation and maintenance, and the high level of user acceptance achieved by previously deployed Cognos applications. Lufthansa plans to implement Cognos enterprise-wide as the standard platform for all business intelligence initiatives to maximize decision making and reduce the airline's BI maintenance costs. Cognos 8 BI delivers a complete range of BI functionality on a single product that allows for consistent data, high-quality analysis, and rapid access to any data source. Cognos 8 BI's zero-footprint architecture makes it easy for Lufthansa to deploy and manage the software throughout the enterprise. In addition, by standardizing on Cognos, Lufthansa can replace various existing point solutions with one single product that allows for complete reporting and analysis. "Our implementation of Cognos 8 Business Intelligence as an enterprise- wide standard will benefit the entire Lufthansa organization," said Dr. Marcus Frenz, Lufthansa vice president IT management for planning and control processes. "We will be able to deploy a full range of BI capabilities while reducing the number of BI solutions we currently manage and maintain." "Lufthansa is a prominent company and a leader in its industry, and we're very pleased to be chosen as its BI standard," said Dave Laverty, senior vice president of marketing at Cognos. "By standardizing on Cognos 8 BI, Lufthansa will obtain a higher degree of enterprise performance transparency, as well as optimized control options -- and at a lower cost. Innovative solutions within the company as a whole will optimize the airline's performance and strengthen its culture of strategic decision making."