STORAGE

Cognos announced today that an independent research report by Ventana Research has ranked Cognos above its peers as a top vendor of performance management solutions. In the newly updated Ventana Research 2005 Performance Management Scorecard (Ventana Research Scorecard), Cognos scored 89.7% overall for Cognos 8 BI which includes newly released capabilities for query, reporting, analysis, scorecarding and dashboarding, and event management. The Ventana Research Scorecard covers more than 30 vendors and 70 products and is representative of independent analysis conducted over the past four years. Each participating company's products were scored for functional requirements and capabilities to determine the level of compliance against Ventana Research's PerformanceCycle across three categories -- Align, Optimize and Understand. "This research assesses the maturity of software vendors and packages designed specifically for enabling Performance Management," said Mark Smith, president and CEO, Ventana Research. "It provides a baseline of knowledge that organizations can use to improve their understanding of how well different software and solutions may meet their business and IT requirements for performance management." Cognos 8 BI is a groundbreaking product that provides decision makers at all levels of the enterprise with a consistent, accurate view of information to better manage performance. As a single product that easily integrates into existing infrastructures with multiple systems and data sources, Cognos 8 BI is a robust technology foundation for BI standardization and corporate performance management. "Cognos 8 BI includes core technology capabilities to help align and connect people and processes across the organization for more effective decision-making," said Dave Laverty, senior vice-president, Global Marketing, Cognos. "The product provides a robust, proven technology foundation to help organizations worldwide standardize on a common, easy-to-use BI platform to drive key performance management initiatives." Cognos has been consistently ranked a CPM Market Leader in both market share and leadership reports by leading independent analyst firms.