Cognos Forum 2008 User Conference
Draws Record Attendance From
IT and Financial Professionals Worldwide
– More than 3,700 attendees gather to network,
learn and share best practices –
2008 COGNOS FORUM, Las Vegas, NV May 13, 2008– A record number of attendees worldwide have gathered at Cognos Forum 2008 to hear from leading industry analysts, Cognos customers, and senior IBM and Cognos executives on the latest trends and innovations in business intelligence and performance management.
The event is taking place in Las Vegas from May 12-15, and includes customer case studies, several keynote sessions, technical how-tos, and hands-on labs to help customers achieve maximum business performance with Cognos, an IBM company and leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions.
“This year is a record turnout for Forum, and I couldn’t be more pleased,” said Rob Ashe, general manager, business intelligence and performance management at Cognos. “Forum is the ideal place to become the resident expert on all things Cognos and get the practical knowledge customers need to maximize deployments, handle day-to-day jobs more effectively, and understand the complete IBM Cognos solution portfolio and roadmap.”
Ashe will share his vision for accelerating enterprise-wide performance management and Ambuj Goyal, general manager IBM Information Management, will discuss IBM’s commitment to continued innovation in BI and performance management and the combined value that IBM and Cognos deliver to drive business optimization for customers
Cognos senior executives and staff will also discuss strategies for improving and managing performance management across organizations using business intelligence, dashboards, performance planning, and consolidation solutions. Sessions include:
- Why performance management continues to be among the top priorities of CIOs and CFOs at the world’s leading global organizations
- How companies are realizing the benefits of business intelligence and PM through higher performance
- Measuring and maximizing ROI in your BI/PM initiative
- Integrating the Finance organization for global business
- Innovations in IBM Cognos 8 BI, Planning, Now!, TM1, Cognos search solutions and the impact they are having on organizational performance.
- Insights gained from Cognos customers and partners across industries including energy, health care, transportation, consumer good manufacturing and defense.
In a general session keynote, world renowned visionary and thought leader, Don Tapscott, will share his insights on the dynamic new paradigms shaping technology and business today and in the future. Tapscott is one of the world's leading authorities on business strategy and the founder and chairman of the international think tank New Paradigm. His clients include top executives of many of the world's largest corporations, and government leaders from many countries. He is also the author of 11 widely read books about information technology in business and society.
Leading analysts including John Hagerty from AMR Research, Kurt Schlegel from Gartner, and Cindi Howson from BIScorecard, are also participating at Forum to offer personal insights on current trends in performance management, and debate a broad spectrum of issues including plotting a strategic course for PM; making BI your killer app; and BI for operational performance management.
Continued Leadership in Performance Management
In today’s general session, Peter Griffiths, Cognos vice president of worldwide research and development BI/PM, and Leah MacMillan, Cognos vice president of BI product marketing, will showcase enhanced capabilities of the IBM Cognos performance management system including its IBM Cognos 8 BI, IBM Cognos Planning, IBM Cognos Now! and IBM Cognos TM1 solutions. The team will also preview “sneak peaks” from the labs including a new flash-based dashboarding capability, new ways for business and IT to manage master dimensions, and a new user interface experience for Cognos planning customers.
In tomorrow’s general session, Cognos will lay out its vision for how mash-ups, social networking, wikis and other Web 2.0 technologies will dramatically change the way end-users will work with and experience Cognos BI and Financial Performance Management solutions.
John Daniel Associates, a Cognos partner for more than 12 years, also announced availability of IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: The Official Guide at Cognos Forum. http://www.johndaniel.com/artman2/publish/news/art080506.shtml.
Authored by Dan Volitich and published by McGraw Hill, the book defines and highlights Cognos 8 BI user capabilities and advances in its SOA-based enterprise-class platform. The guide highlights how Cognos 8 BI customers can develop, deploy, and maintain a complete BI solution across their enterprise. It will also enable to user to create, share and analyze data-rich reports that lead to increased productivity and better business decisions. Real-world insight and expert tips are also included.
Expanding the Partner Community
Cognos has announced an enhanced partner program to extend IBM Cognos offerings to deliver greater value for global industry customers and fuel business growth. Building on the domain expertise offered by its expanding community of partners, Cognos has set its sights on emerging opportunities across all major industry areas, including financial services, public sector, retail and life sciences. See: http://www.cognos.com/news/releases/2008/2008-05-13-2.html.
Cognos’ enhanced “Powered by IBM Cognos Software” partner program offers new partner solutions to help customers advance performance management. The program is designed to empower and showcase partners that develop, market, and sell solutions based on the IBM Cognos platform for performance management. There are now more than 100 joint and Powered by IBM Cognos Software offerings, enabling customers across all industries to take advantage of Cognos’ open, standards-based business intelligence and performance management platform while harnessing full value from a partner’s industry expertise and specialized knowledge.
Accenture, Deloitte and Nieto Partners are Platinum sponsors of Cognos Forum 2008. Gold sponsors include Appfluent, BearingPoint, Envisn, First Quarter, SpotOn Systems, and Teleran.
"Cognos has a very strong partner program, and we value our relationship with the company because of its vision, solutions and alignment with our customers needs. As a Platinum sponsor of Forum 2008, we’re committed to working with Cognos to provide customers with integrated solutions to help them plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance,” said Frank Bianchi, senior vice president of client services at Niteo Partners.
Cognos Forum 2008 caters to all levels of Cognos users, delivering more then 130 breakout sessions with the largest pool of sessions in Cognos Forum’s history.
About Cognos Forum 2008
Cognos Forum 2008 is the premier customer conference for performance management. With over 90 sessions, networking breakfasts and lunches, special events, keynote speakers, Cognos Forum provides the opportunity for organizations to learn more about IBM Cognos products, industry trends, or solving today’s biggest performance management issues.
About Cognos, an IBM company
Cognos, an IBM company, is the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions. It provides world-class enterprise planning and BI software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance. Cognos was acquired by IBM in January 2008. For more information visit http://www.ibm.com/software/data/ and http://www.cognos.com.
Note to Editors: Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.
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