Cognos and the United Kingdom's
"e-Government Interoperability Framework"

As the UK Government works towards setting standards for seamless electronic government, they have published a series of standards, which are mandatory for their public sector bodies. One of the currently published and approved standards is the e-GIF (which also encompasses the e-GMS [e - Government Metadata Standard]). The e-GIF standard outlines the UK Government's technical policies and specifications for interoperability within their systems and applications. The goal of these standards are to empower a joined-up and web enabled government.

The overall ambition of the e-GIF implementation is clearly defined within the framework's 'Executive Summary':

"The main thrust of the framework is to adopt the Internet and World Wide Web specifications for all government systems. There is a strategic decision to adopt XML and XSL as the core standards for data integration and management of presentational data. This includes the definition and central provision of XML schemas for use throughout the public sector. The e-GIF also adopts specifications that are well supported in the market place. It is a pragmatic strategy that aims to reduce cost and risk for government systems whilst aligning them to the global Internet revolution."

Cognos fully supports the UK Government's initiative, and is taking the necessary steps to ensure that our product suites and future releases have been reviewed against this standard for compliancy. As the leading vendor of Business Intelligence software, the current Cognos solution is zero footprint throughout and we are well positioned to move towards e-GIF compliancy.

Cognos will address adherence to the e-GIF standard for its software through a review process. This review process will use the e-GIF standard and amendments as guidelines; however, it should be noted that the e-GIF standard and its recent amendments do not provide for a uniform testing regime or strict time lines for compliancy.

Cognos will measure its compliancy against the provided e-GIF documentation, on a per product basis, and report on the compliance status of its software products as part of its review process. This information will be provided, as it becomes available. Based on the assessment arising from the review process, Cognos will address e-GIF compliancy issues in its ongoing product releases using a phased-in approach as Cognos (and its customers) gain a better understanding of how best to implement the requirements of the e-GIF standard.

Cognos supplies software tools that its end-users and third party partners use to develop applications or analyze data. Customers should note that an e-GIF statement for a Cognos product does not mean that any application developed or the data analyzed with those Cognos tools will be or become e-GIF compliant, since either the design of the application or the data held in a database may not itself be e-GIF compliant.