Analyse what's driving your business

IBM COGNOS 8 for planning, budgeting and forecasting

IBM Cognos 8 Planning enables finance organisations with even the most complex business models to build enterprise-wide plans, budgets, and forecasts faster and more efficiently and to answer the question "what should we be doing?".

You can create, compare, and evaluate business scenarios, conditions, drivers, rates, and assumptions. Proceed from what-is to evaluate what-if scenarios critical to forecasting future performance. The result: improved predictability and greater accountability across the enterprise.

Create plans and models to fit your business needs

Spend less time on process, more time on analysis

Enable high participation across the enterprise

Plan to extend ERP performance

Streamlined workflow management

“What is the first system i would put into a company - especially in a recession? COGNOS Enterprise Planning." "A truly powerful management and financial tool that has given our financiers the confidence to lend." Paul Bignell Information System Manager TCG Management Services Ltd

Create plans and models to fit your business needs

• Sophisticated modelling capabilities let you create linked models that accurately reflect cross-functional interdependencies.

• Build models in days, not months. Import data definitions from sources such as applications from Oracle and SAP via certified integration to SAP NetWeaver applications.

• Change underlying business logic and principles quickly and easily. Compare alternatives and assess the impact in real time.

• Driver-based planning and flexible rolling forecasts provide greater visibility into likely operating performance.

• Finance manages the solution without the need for arcane programming languages or scripting. No IT input is required.

• Take advantage of rich Built-In Functions to add power and sophistication to your business models.

 

Spend less time on process, more time on analysis

• Drill-down and multidimensional slicing and dicing help you explore data, evaluate models, and test assumptions in minutes. Quickly compare current performance with historical actual and external benchmarks.

• "Break-back" automatically spreads high-level targets across any profile, such as previous-period actuals or projected seasonality, and across multiple dimensions such as products, customers, territories, or time periods.

• Unified view of plan data connects with key metrics and information so you can make decisions instead of debating definitions and accuracy.

• Eliminate unproductive activities such as tracking down numbers, fixing broken links, and debugging macros.

 

Enable high participation across the enterprise

• User-friendly Web browser or familiar Microsoft Excel interface require minimal training and encourage participation, collaboration, and commitment.

• Single sign-on provides immediate access to linked, role-specific planning templates while pre-defined rules ensure that individuals see only templates they require.

• Distributed architecture is optimised for collaborative performance, even with thousands of concurrent users across divisions and geographies.

• Complex calculations at the client give users instantaneous response and eliminate unnecessary traffic and server consumption during high-use periods.

• User enter information in their own business language - not finance terms - and predefined formulas translate that into financial data such as gross revenue, net income, or earnings per share.

• Users can work offline. Plans and forecasts are automatically updated when they check back in.

• Online administration makes it easy to change data structures, user rights, models parameters, and more -24x7-without taking the system offline.

• Advanced personalisation features blend planning and analysis to improve user productivity and accuracy and empower users to take greater control of their view of the planning process.

 

Plan to extend ERP performance

• Extend applications from Oracle and SAP via certified integration to SAP NetWeaver applications.

• Cross-enterprise planning data stored in a single repository provides perpetually accurate information on demand.

• Synchronised enterprise plans link operational and financial plans to show the impact of operational change on financial performance.

• Dynamic linking of individual plan components in real time facilitates consistency and accuracy.

• Planners can attach files to a cell, model, or submission of a forecast.

• Quick commands allow users to modify plans and analyses, while an audit trail tracks all changes.

 

Streamlined workflow management

• Collaborative features facilitate communication to shorten planning cycles and enable managers to e-mail groups based on hierarchy or workflow status.

• Reviewers can quickly monitor workflow status-not started, in progress, or ready fro review-with intuitive, colour-coded icons.

• Distributed administration shares role-based responsibility for planning across functions, geographies, and business units.

• Corporate policies are enforced with validation rules that review data entry values prior to submission.

• Continuous feedback loop minimises the multiple iterations and negotiations that can slow down - or even shut down - the planning process.

• Automatic aggregation displays the impact of new forecasts and plan contributions in real time to let you pinpoint gaps at a glance. No overnight batch processing.

 

IBM COGNOS 8

IBM COGNOS 8 for reporting and analysis

IBM COGNOS 8 for planning, budgeting and forecasting