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COGNOS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS PROVE GOOD MEDICINE TO BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM
— Global Pharmaceutical Firm Implements BI Solution for Budgeting, Forecasting and Logistics Needs —
Sydney, Australia, May 1st, 2003—Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management, today announced the successful deployment of a web-based reporting system by global pharmaceutical giant, Boehringer Ingelheim. The solution, which incorporates a suite of Cognos tools, enables users around Australia and New Zealand to access and analyse up-to-date budgeting, forecasting and logistical information from the company's three sales divisions anywhere and at any time.
After enjoying excellent growth in Australia to become the company's second largest market in the Asia Pacific region, Boehringer Ingelheim feared the company's lack of business transparency and its possible impact on future growth. Company data was stored in a primitive data warehouse which was lacking in reliability and flexibility. Furthermore, the company had several disparate in-house applications to extract data from the warehouse, which in turn resulted in data discrepancies when it came to analysis.
After a year-long business process evaluation and appreciation that involved several discussions between the finance, marketing and IT departments, Boehringer Ingelheim implemented business intelligence as a core strategic tool. A web-based solution was chosen to service the company's budgeting, forecasting and logistics needs. The company built data cubes for sales and financial analysis, then deployed them over the web using Cognos PowerPlay. Each user has a personal Cognos Upfront web portal where they can access a standard sales report, access a cube or Excel file, carry out budgeting functions, check stock-on-hand or review expenditure - everything they need to conduct a thorough business review.
"One of the main advantages of a web-enabled solution is the transparency of the whole business workflow," commented Matthew Perry, IS Manager at Boehringer Ingelheim. "Providing easier access to important data has empowered more users and dramatically improved internal processes. We chose Cognos because it provided a powerful web solution that fulfilled all our reporting needs and has resulted in huge efficiencies in our business processes."
About Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies ranks among the 20 leading pharmaceutical corporations in the world and has 156 affiliated companies in 44 countries worldwide. Focusing on human pharmaceuticals and animal health, it posted revenues of 7.6 billion EURO in 2002.
Research and development, production and distribution facilities are located around the globe. In 2002, Boehringer Ingelheim's R&D spending was more than EUR 1.3 billion, which is about a fifth of net sales in Prescription Medicines.
For more information on Boehringer Ingelheim, please visit: www.boehringer-ingelheim.com
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