The BMA advantage
Midsize companies have the same needs as their larger counterparts for targeted, timely and accurate information. This helps them make the strategic choices necessary to compete more effectively. Yet, the costs and complexity of implementing full-scale performance management systems and business intelligence (BI) applications may be prohibitive.
This makes IBM Cognos Express a unique and powerful solution to accomplish your goals within a limited budget. It offers a low cost, ‘out of the box’ approach to addressing all the business analytics requirements of midmarket companies. IBM Cognos Express includes all the essential reporting, analysis, dashboard, scorecard, planning, budgeting and forecasting capabilities required, without the upfront costs.
In addition, the solution is pre-configured, making it easy to install and simple and intuitive to use at all levels of the organisation. With IBM Cognos Express you have the ability to meet your current business needs, while its flexibility and scalability will adapt with you as you change, growing with your business over time.
As a medium-sized company, you may lack the domain expertise or resources to implement this breakthrough solution. This is where BMA can assist. Our team can expertly guide you on getting started with IBM Cognos Express quickly, easily and cost-effectively utilising your existing data and with less IT overhead. We can also help you plan ahead, taking maximum advantage of the best available technology on your path to growth.
IBM Cognos Express is an integrated performance management and BI solution. It requires limited intervention, both in terms of development and training, so that you can immediately make use of its powerful business analytic capabilities to drive greater efficiencies in your business.
IBM Cognos Express comprises four modules, giving you the freedom to only install the functionality your business requires right now. Each module can be installed separately and each complements the other.
IBM Cognos Express delivers immediate return on investment with ready-to-go functionality and no hidden fees for additional software.
Get more detail by downloading our IBM Cognos Express product overview.
Contact BMA today if you believe Cognos Express could enhance the way you do business.
Product overview and features
IBM Cognos Express provides a single, common platform that incorporates a range of core capabilities, including:
Flexible data access
Self-service access enables business users to create, modify and publish their own analyses, reports and dashboards. The solution’s computational abilities are fast, no matter what volume or complexity of data is involved.
Common control and security
Centrally managed models, role-based access and data security ensure consistent, trustworthy information throughout a company.
Single management console
A web-based console, IBM Cognos Express Manager, manages all administrative aspects, including adding new users and tracking events. It also allows you to add new modules and capabilities with the ease of a single click.
IBM Cognos Express is packaged with four product modules, which can be used separately or together, to accommodate a range of different business needs. IBM Cognos Express Manager manages all of these.
- IBM Cognos Express Reporter - reporting and querying.
- IBM Cognos Express Advisor - analysis and visualisation.
- IBM Cognos Express Xcelerator - MS-Excel based business analysis and optimisation.
- IBM Cognos Express Planner - planning, budgeting and forecasting.
IBM Cognos Express Reporter
This module puts the power in your business users’ hands. They can read, write or alter reports themselves with no need for IT support. Your entire company can also collaborate on, query and share information on just about any aspect of your business - from financial to production, operational, management or ad hoc matters, depending on their needs.
This flexibility helps you work efficiently and cost-effectively – but becomes even more valuable when paired with a high degree of accuracy. Working off a common view means that report data is consistent, accurate and comprehensive to enhance decision-making.
IBM Cognos Express Advisor
This is the data analysis and visualisation module of Cognos Express. It enables end-users to perform all kinds of fast, flexible and multi-dimensional data analyses and publish these directly on a common web for widespread company access.
The software competently manages a huge amount of raw data with speed and accuracy. Cognos Express Advisor stores your company's information in-memory directly on the application server allowing you to easily and quickly slice and dice cubes, stack multiple dimensions when inputting data, and perform powerful ‘what-if’ scenario and comparative data analyses.
This information can then be presented in a variety of compelling and high-impact formats and styles - including charts, graphs, maps, and indicators. Data is easily shared across dashboards and interactive reports by all end-users and can be reviewed instantly by any authorised person in any location.
Using simple drill-down and drill-up capabilities, you can highlight variances and spot emerging trends, while the product’s sophisticated write-back capabilities enable users to take immediate action for the most effective business outcomes.
This functionality empowers your company to rapidly analyse critical company information, clearly communicate business insights and proactively address changing business conditions in a highly responsive and agile way.
IBM Cognos Express Xcelerator
Finance and business users are naturally comfortable working in MS-Excel. Cognos Express Xcelerator takes this into account by allowing end-users to input and manage data directly in MS-Excel versus working in a web interface.
This tool transforms MS-Excel with extended and enhanced reporting and business analysis functionality. It overcomes the risks and limitations of spreadsheet-only processes with the following:
- Slice and dice large sets of data across multiple dimensions and perform real-time ‘what-if’ scenario modelling.
- Improve accountability and accuracy with role-based security, structured workflows and clear audit trails.
- Eliminate data silos and inconsistencies with centrally managed data, business hierarchies, rules and calculations.
IBM Cognos Express Planner
The fourth and most recent addition to the Cognos Express stable is the Express Planner module. This purpose-built business analytics programme provides a rich contribution interface and workflow to automate and improve the planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes of mid-market companies.
It delivers a structured planning process that is easy to deploy, use and view by large numbers of both finance and non-finance participants. It replaces slow, cumbersome manual planning processes with automated daily, weekly, or monthly planning tools using the latest, accurate business data.
Robust capabilities streamline information gathering, aggregation and analysis for continuous planning, budgeting and forecasting. Departments can share key information, contribute, and view the relevant sections while the application maintains roles, hierarchies, approvals and security. This enables managers to monitor the real-time processing status of every participant in the planning process to evaluate the maturity of the planning cycle and improve your company’s agility.
Cognos Express Planner extends your company’s ability to do personal analysis of data in order to gain a greater understanding of the data you have for insights and scenario modelling. It also gives employees the ability to perform more analysis with the data available with driver-based planning support and features such as drilling-down, sorting, linking and filtering.
Business benefits
IBM Cognos Express is a perfect fit for midsize companies. It is very simple to install and operate and is scaleable to your unique needs. Pieced together, all its product modules offer a comprehensive range of capabilities including planning, reporting, visualisation, analysis, budgeting and forecasting. However, it gives you the freedom to choose which functionality is most critical for your business now, and add modules as your needs change and grow.
This gives you all the tools you need to make more informed decision, align operations to strategic planning and readily create, access and present accurate and reliable data for a variety of business goals.