Eastman Chemical Company Selects Cognos as Reporting Standard For Its Enterprise SAP NetWeaver Platform
– Fortune 500 chemicals, fibers and plastics manufacturer deploys Cognos to help
streamline reporting and minimize end-user disruptions during IT application architecture upgrade –
BURLINGTON, MA JANUARY 31, 2006-
Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business
intelligence and corporate
performance management (CPM), today announced that Eastman Chemical Company
has selected Cognos to drive enterprise reporting as the company migrates to
the SAP NetWeaver® platform.
A Fortune 500 company, Eastman provides key differentiated coatings, adhesives
and specialty plastics products; is the world’s largest producer of PET
polymers for packaging; and is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers. In
early 2005, the company initiated an extensive review of its IT application
architecture. As an initial step, the company decided to upgrade its corporate
data warehouse from its legacy custom-built solution, to the data warehouse
component found within SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence. To minimize end-user
disruptions, Eastman elected to pursue a phased migration. The challenge was
finding a reporting standard that could tap into both data warehouses and present
the information to users in a single view.
After a series of product evaluations, Eastman selected Cognos for its open
data access, seamless integration with the SAP NetWeaver platform, superior
time to deployment and ease of use. Through a proof of concept, company officials
were particularly impressed by Cognos’ ability to pull data from multiple
sources, simplifying reporting across departments without having to re-train
users or re-architect standard reporting processes.
“There are three things that we must always deliver to our clients when
implementing a new system – it must meet the user’s needs, it must
do so in a useable interface, and it absolutely has to perform. Cognos gives
us the flexibility we need to migrate the company to SAP while also providing
users with the proven, consistent and accurate reporting they need to continue
to do their jobs effectively,” said Larry Perdue, IT manager of business
marketing and sales solutions at Eastman.
This migration will eventually enable Eastman to mobilize Cognos for greater
data analysis and to streamline performance management reporting. “Cognos
performed extremely well in a recent proof of concept and offers us the opportunity
to explore how we can incrementally move our business intelligence to the next
level, where our end users can evolve from generating reports, to generating
business value through focused analysis and insights,” added Perdue.
Cognos actively engages in SAP® solution integration certifications to
support customers’ strategic investments in SAP solutions. Cognos was
one of the first vendors to achieve “Powered by SAP NetWeaver” certification,
and has received SAP certifications reflecting deep integration with three
key components of SAP NetWeaver – SAP NetWeaver Portal (pre-packaged
iViews); SAP NetWeaver BI (an OLAP BAPI interface into SAP BW); and, SAP NetWeaver
Application Server – all of which are part of Eastman’s ongoing
plans for the SAP NetWeaver platform. To learn more about Cognos’ integration
with SAP, visit http://www.cognos.com/solutions4SAP.
“Eastman is a world-class company that clearly recognizes how effective
business intelligence can fortify ERP investments to drive better and stronger
corporate performance,” said Paul Hoy, director of manufacturing industry
solutions at Cognos. “Cognos is committed to working in lock-step with
Eastman as they continue to leverage the full business value of SAP NetWeaver
and evolve their business intelligence practice to take advantage of the powerful
reporting, analytics, and data visualization that is inherent within each Cognos
deployment.”
A core component of the Cognos Performance Management System, Cognos’ reporting
capability helps business users receive a comprehensive and consistent view
of corporate performance information. Organizations can deliver simple or sophisticated
reports through a single, intuitive, browser-based interface, making reports
accessible to users at all levels of the enterprise. In addition to reporting,
the Cognos Performance Management System offers the best-in-class technology
capabilities of scorecarding and dashboards, planning, analysis, query and
event management, fully aligned with best practices and a partner ecosystem.
More information can be found at http://www.cognos.com/products/corporate_performance_management/index.html.
For information on Cognos’ latest performance management platform release,
Cognos 8 BI, please see http://www.cognos.com/products/cognos8businessintelligence/index.html.
Cognos is a recognized leader in delivering business intelligence and corporate
performance management solutions for the manufacturing industry, including
energy, natural resources and chemical production companies. In addition to
Eastman Chemical, other leading manufacturing customers include Dow
Chemical, Eka Chemicals,
Kennemetal,
Mold-Masters and
Advantis
Technologies. For more
information about Cognos solutions for the manufacturing industry, please
visit http://www.cognos.com/solutions/industry/manufacturing/index.html
About Eastman Chemical Company:
With headquarters in Kingsport, Tennessee, Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE:
EMN) manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers and plastics worldwide. It
provides key differentiated coatings, adhesives and specialty plastics products;
is the world’s largest producer of PET polymers for packaging; and
is a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers. Founded in 1920, the company
has approximately 12,000 employees and had 2004 sales of $6.6 billion. For
more information about Eastman and its products, visit http://www.eastman.com.
About Cognos:
Cognos, the world leader in business
intelligence and corporate
performance management, delivers software and services that help companies
drive, monitor and understand corporate performance.
Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage - Corporate Performance
Management (CPM) - achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise
scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through
planning; monitor performance through scorecarding; and understand performance
through business intelligence.
Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise
business intelligence and performance management solutions and services are
also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more
information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.
Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Note to Editors:
Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on Cognos' Web site at http://www.cognos.com, and at PR Newswire's site at http://www.prnewswire.com.
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