University of Ulster chooses Cognos for first class performance


– UK university implements business intelligence and planning solutions
to improve decision making university-wide –


London, UK – September 19, 2007 – Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, has announced that the University of Ulster is implementing Cognos 8 Business Intelligence and Cognos Planning, for reporting, analysis and forward planning.
The Cognos 8 BI dashboards will help to provide staff with an overview of how the university is performing across most key areas, including dropout rates, the percentage of students getting a good degree result, student retention by course and university expenditure.
The scorecarding capabilities will help to monitor the actual performance against set targets for these areas. By using the Cognos 8 BI ‘self-service model’ for analysis, staff will be able to interrogate the data to gain a better understanding of the reasons behind the numbers.
“We have always been committed to ensuring that our students have the best education experience possible, while attracting a high numbers of applications,” said Patrick McLaughlin, database development manager at the University of Ulster. “But it is impossible for a university of our size to do this if it doesn’t have an accurate overview of what does and doesn’t work, and understand the best path to take for the future.”

Cognos Planning, the forward-looking element of the performance management solution, will allow the university to run ‘what-if?’ analysis so management can test out multiple scenarios. This tool in the context of a viable data warehousing solution should improve future decision-making in areas such as faculty and campus development, capacity for housing students and resource planning.

“We wanted to standardise all activity on one single platform to ensure consistent reporting,” continued McLaughlin. “After reviewing a number of performance management solutions, it was apparent that Cognos provided the best technology fit to help us achieve our goals.”
The Cognos platform will sit on top of new data warehouse architecture which includes Sungard’s Operation Data Store (ODS), which is in the process of being implemented.
“Universities are facing more pressures today than ever before,” said Graham Walter, VP Cognos, UK, Middle East and Africa. “There are more quality higher education institutions for prospective students to choose from, leading to increased competition for student applications. At the same time, there are new financial pressures as the Government cuts higher education funding.”
“Universities that don’t fully understand what their current and prospective students want, and how best to apply the resources they have, risk falling behind their competitors.”

“Cognos performance management technology provides universities with a clear understanding of historic and current performance, while giving them an insight into future challenges. This will support them in maintaining their position, or even move up, the higher education league tables,” Walter concluded.

About University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a modern, progressive and vibrant institution that offers a contemporary program for students, innovation in teaching and an established record in providing educational opportunities irrespective of social or religious background.
The University currently has an annual turnover of over £160million, employing over 3,500 staff and an enrolment of approximately 24,000 students. It is one of the largest universities on the island of Ireland and in recent years has consistently been one of the ten most popular in the UK in attracting applications. Campuses are located in Belfast, Coleraine, Magee in Derry, and Jordanstown. A fifth virtual campus, Campus One provides online learning opportunities.

Although the University of Ulster in its current form was established in 1984, its predecessor institutions the Belfast College of Art and the original building at Magee date back to the mid 1850s. Since its inception then the caliber graduates and the practical focus of a University of Ulster qualification have been acclaimed by employers throughout Northern Ireland and further afield. Programs are designed to prepare students for the workplace and the majority includes a period of industrial or professional placement.

Traditional industries were among the largest employers in Northern Ireland particularly in Belfast. Now as Northern Ireland moves from its dependence on traditional heavy industry to a knowledge based economy the University is at the forefront in encouraging prosperity through knowledge and technology transfer. Key elements of its work include cutting edge work in biomedical sciences, nanotechnology, information technology, the creative industries and business studies.

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/uk/

For further information about Cognos, please contact:
Katy Lyons or Farimah Saadat at LEWIS, the PR agency

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