Proven performance: Bowater, Nestlé choose Cognos BI platform for systems integration and replacement needs
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/21/2007 9:34:00 AM
Bowater Inc. has standardized on Cognos performance management capabilities to quickly and efficiently analyze and report on its production operations, measure the effectiveness of its sales initiatives, and automate its financial consolidation processes.
Prior to selecting Cognos, Bowater had varied reporting solutions throughout the company. Following a competitive review, it turned to the Cognos performance management platform to gain a consistent view of the organization's performance information. Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) and Cognos 8 Controller will be implemented enterprisewide to replace disparate legacy systems within the company.
"We wanted a proven performance solution that was scalable and Web-based with mainstream BI capabilities where key performance information would be easy to find and analyze," said Tom Griffith, CIO, Bowater. "With Cognos, we get a standard enterprise view of operational and financial data in an easy to consume format. It is much more efficient than our legacy systems for pushing key reports and analysis out to our users and having all the data secured and controlled in a centralized manner ensures our decisions are driven from a consistent source."
Bowater's paper mills will use Cognos 8 BI to measure production across its 12 pulp and paper mills via standard operational reports and its sales team will use it to measure effectiveness of sales initiatives. Cognos 8 BI provides decision makers at all levels of the enterprise with a consistent, accurate view of information they trust to better manage performance. As a single platform based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), Cognos 8 BI integrates easily into Bowater's existing environment, leveraging its relational data warehouse infrastructure, multiple systems and disparate data sources. Cognos 8 BI provides Bowater with a robust technology foundation for BI standardization and performance management.
With Cognos 8 Controller as its financial consolidation solution for all of its general ledgers across the U.S. and Canada, Bowater gains a finance-focused solution that automates and structures the financial consolidation process, delivers validated financial information for internal and external reporting and provides a transparent, accurate and timely management view of enterprise-wide corporate performance. Cognos 8 Controller also supports the improvement of the internal control environment and helps Bowater meet compliance requirements to ensure financial data quality.
Nestlé also has chosen Cognos 8 BI to complement its SAP Business Warehouse reporting solution. Nestlé already deployed SAP Business Warehouse as its global standard for data warehousing and analytical reporting. The company will use Cognos 8 BI to complement the SAP Business Warehouse front end to give power users the ability to handle ad hoc reporting and grouping of data. It also provides the ability to merge external data from any source with data from SAP Business Warehouse, push pre-formatted and easily printable reports to end users, and adapt reports in line with different user needs.
The decision to use Cognos was made after a thorough competitive evaluation. Nestlé selected Cognos 8 BI because of its tight integration with SAP Business Warehouse, ability to empower end users through self-service reporting, simplified administration, and robust report distribution capabilities.
"Nestlé operates in a fast-moving sector where time to market and the ability to analyze products and performance by country, team or brand is critical," said Dave Laverty, CMO and senior vice-president of marketing at Cognos. "Giving staff access to the Cognos 8 BI reporting solution will help them better monitor, analyze and track performance so they can make decisions that directly influence the overall success of the business. Cognos 8 BI is flexible enough to meet the diverse information needs of the many communities within the Nestlé group."
