Cognos, IBM and Microsoft Deliver Business Intelligence Offering for Mid-Size Enterprises
Cognos, IBM and Microsoft have announced a combined product offering to provide customers with a cost-effective solution for delivering Business Intelligence (BI) for small- to medium-size enterprises. This collaboration among the three industry leaders delivers a complete end-to-end BI solution for data warehouses. The combined offering represents a single solution, under the umbrella of the IBM ServerProven Program, to create and manage data warehouses, and provide high-impact business analysis of corporate data.
The collaboration enables solution providers to sell a complete solution consisting of:
This combination of hardware and software gives customers access to critical corporate data and the means to better measure their business, synchronize decision-making and maximize profitability. OLAP data sources play a key role in any successful warehouse initiative because they are optimized to support high ROI interaction with warehouse data such as multi-dimensional analysis, business performance reporting and business modeling.
"The combination of business intelligence software, a data warehouse and a high performance server provides the enterprise coverage needed to derive maximum value from corporate information," said Patrick O'Leary, Cognos vice president of strategic alliances. "Working in conjunction with IBM and Microsoft, we are offering a solution that small- to medium-sized businesses, in particular, can use to explore summary-level data -- identifying trends, performing sophisticated analysis and developing business models and forecasts."
"This new solution offers resellers and their customers the proven performance of the IBM Netfinity Server with the analytical capability of Cognos NovaView 2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 7.0," said Kevin Hooper, worldwide solutions executive, business intelligence, Netfinity at IBM. "Our resellers are able to meet their customers' needs for a well-integrated, enterprise business intelligence solution that fits into their existing IT environments."
"The business intelligence market is growing rapidly as organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of analyzing their corporate data to make better business decisions," said Doug Leland, group product manager, Microsoft Corp. "This agreement combines the complementary strengths of these three superb products, providing scalability, reliability and cost of ownership advantages for channel partners and customers of all sizes."
The components are available for purchase from authorized resellers and distributors. For more information on the joint offering, please visit http://www.bi4smb.com.
IBM Netfinity
IBM Netfinity products provide customers using industry-standard technologies with a reliable foundation for their networked businesses by delivering outstanding power, scalability, control and service. The IBM Netfinity family of products enables small, medium and large companies to manage their networked business systems -- from file and print capabilities to the most advanced applications -- virtually anytime, anywhere. Software from industry-leading vendors such as Lotus, Novell, Microsoft, SCO, SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards and Baan are tested on IBM Netfinity systems so that customers are empowered to achieve a higher degree of productivity. In addition, through the worldwide IBM TechConnect program, customers can train and certify their specialists in various facets of IBM Netfinity technology.
Microsoft
Created by a world-class development team, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 is the leading Windows NT Server-based database, bringing business advantage and improved decision-making to all levels of the organization through the power of data warehousing, industry solutions and interoperability with Microsoft Office.
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 enables independent software vendors and customers to build and deploy scalable database solutions for business intelligence, business operations, and commerce and mobile solutions. Microsoft SQL Server is a member of the Microsoft BackOffice family, a set of servers that make it easy to build, manage and deploy powerful business solutions.
Cognos
Cognos is the leading vendor of enterprise business intelligence solutions. Business Intelligence software makes corporate data easily accessible to everyone in an organization, so they can better coordinate decision-making across the entire enterprise, and improve the performance of the business. Cognos products are available directly from Cognos and through an extensive network of channel partners. The Company also develops, markets and supports software tools for application development.
Founded in 1969, Cognos is a publicly traded company with offices around the world and U.S. headquarters in Burlington, Mass. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.