Cognos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 4

Cognos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cognos (Cognos Incorporated) was an Cognos

Ottawa, Ontario based company making
business intelligence (BI) and performance
management software. Founded in 1969, at
its peak Cognos employed almost 3,500
people and served more than 23,000
customers in over 135 countries. Originally
known as Quasar it adopted the Cognos
name in 1982. On January 31, 2008, Cognos
was officially acquired by IBM.[1] It
continued to operate as a wholly owned
subsidiary (Cognos, an IBM company) until
January 1, 2009, when it was absorbed into
IBM's Information Management brand within
the company's Software Group. The Cognos
name continues to be used, being applied to
IBM's line of business intelligence (BI) and
performance management products.
Type Brand (of IBM)
Founded 1969
Headquarters Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Key people Rob Ashe, General Manager, IBM BI &
Performance Management, IBM
Industry Business Intelligence, Operational Business
Intelligence,Performance
Management,Workforce Analytics
Products IBM Cognos Express; IBM Cognos 8 BI;
IBM Cognos 8 Planning; IBM Cognos TM1;
IBM Cognos 8 Controller; IBM Cognos
Now!; IBM Cognos 8 Workforce
Performance; IBM Cognos Go! Family;
IBM Cognos PowerHouse

IBM Cognos 8 BI, initially launched in Revenue
September 2005, combined the features of Employees
several previous products, including
ReportNet, PowerPlay, Metrics Manager, Website
NoticeCast, and DecisionStream.
$979.26 million USD (2007)
3,507 (2007)
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/
(http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/)

IBM Cognos Express, launched in September 2009, is an integrated business intelligence (BI) and
planning solution purpose-built to meet the needs of midsize companies.

Contents
■ 1 Acquisitions made by Cognos
■ 2 Products
■ 3 Federal investigation
■ 4 Awards
■ 5 References
■ 6 External links

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Cognos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 4

Acquisitions made by Cognos

In September 2007, Cognos announced that it would be acquiring Applix.[2] It had previously acquired
4Thought, Relational Matters, LEX2000, Interweave, DecisionStream, NoticeCast, Adaytum, Frango,
Databeacon and Celequest, an Operational Intelligence company.

Products
■ Business Intelligence
■ IBM Cognos 8 BI
■ Report Studio (Professional report authoring tool formatted for the web)
■ Query Studio (Ad hoc report authoring tool with instant data preview)
■ Analysis Studio (Explore multi-dimensional cube data to answer business questions)
■ Metric Studio (Monitor, analyze, and report on KPIs)
■ Metric Designer (Define, load, and maintain metrics to be available in Metric Studio)
■ Event Studio (Action based agents to notify decision makers as events happen)
■ Framework Manager (Semantic metadata layer tool which creates models or
packages)
■ PowerPlay Studio (formerly PowerPlay Web)
■ IBM Cognos Express
■ Cognos Express Reporter (Self-service reporting and ad hoc query)
■ Cognos Express Advisor (Freeform analysis and visualization)
■ Cognos Express Xcelerator (Microsoft Excel-based planning and business analysis)
■ IBM Cognos Now! Monitor
■ Extended BI
■ IBM Cognos Go! Search
■ IBM Cognos Go! Office
■ IBM Cognos Go! Mobile
■ IBM Cognos PowerPlay Transformer
■ IBM Cognos 8 Data Manager (formerly DecisionStream)
■ Financial Performance Management
■ IBM Cognos 8 Planning
■ Cognos Analyst
■ Cognos Contributor
■ IBM Cognos 8 Controller
■ IBM Cognos TM1 (formerly Applix TM1)
■ IBM Cognos TM1 Executive Viewer (formerly Applix TM1 Executive Viewer and
Temtec's Executive Viewer)
■ IBM Cognos Finance (formerly LEX2000)
■ IBM Cognos 8 Business Viewpoint (dimension management tool released November 27,
2008)
■ IBM Cognos Series 7
■ IBM Cognos PowerPlay for Windows
■ IBM Cognos PowerPlay Web
■ IBM Cognos PowerPlay Transformer
■ IBM Cognos Query
■ IBM Cognos 7 Impromptu

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■ IBM Cognos 7 Impromptu Web Reports

■ IBM Cognos 7 DecisionStream
■ IBM Cognos 7 NoticeCast
■ Analytic Applications
■ IBM Cognos 8 Workforce Performance
■ IBM Cognos 8 Customer Performance Sales Analytics
■ IBM Cognos 8 Talent Analytics
■ IBM Cognos 8 Financial Performance Analytics
■ IBM Cognos 8 Banking Risk Performance - Credit Risk
■ IBM Cognos 8 Supply Chain Performance Procurement Analytics
■ Application Development Tools
■ IBM Cognos PowerHouse 4GL
■ IBM Cognos PowerHouse Web
■ IBM Cognos Axiant 4GL

Federal investigation
In August 2007, the Massachusetts state Information Technology Division awarded Cognos a $13
million dollar contract for performance management software. This followed a 2006 $4.5 million dollar
state contract awarded to Cognos by the Massachusetts Department of Education. These contracts came
under scrutiny from the State Ethics Commission and the office of state Inspector General Gregory
Sullivan when several conflicts of interest surrounding Speaker of the Massachusetts House of
Representatives Salvatore DiMasi and his accountant Richard Vitale came to light. In the course of these
investigations, a payoff from former Cognos sales executive Joseph Lally in the amount of $600,000
was found to have been made to Vitale's company WN Advisors. Vitale and WN Advisors were not
registered as state lobbyists and did not disclose the payments, the bulk of which were apparently made
on the same day that the state wired funds for the multimillion dollar contracts to Cognos. The
disposition of the funds has not been disclosed and the State has rescinded the contracts. IBM, which did
not own Cognos when these contracts went into place, has refunded all paid monies and is cooperating
with the state investigations. A second close associate of DiMasi's, lawyer Steven Topazio, was placed
on a two year $5,000 a month retainer for unspecified purposes. This retainer stopped the same month as
the second Cognos contract was awarded.[3]

In addition to the payoffs made to close associates of DiMasi, it is known that Vitale helped arrange a
below-market mortgage for DiMasi, which violated state Ethics laws.

On December 17, 2008, the Boston Globe confirmed that the State investigations were being joined by a
Federal Grand Jury probe investigating the allegations and potential violations of Federal law. On June
2, 2009, DiMasi, Vitale, Lally, and Cognos lobbyist Richard McDonough were indicted "on a battery
of...corruption charges" as a result of that probe.[4]

Awards
IBM Cognos 8 BI has won numerous awards including the eWEEK Excellence Award in Analytics and
Reporting, the LOTUS ADVISOR "Editor's Choice" Award, and TechTarget's SearchCRM.com 2005
Product of the Year.

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In 2007, Cognos was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine,
one of only a handful of software development companies to receive this honour.[5]

Prior to being acquired, Cognos had been named to the InformationWeek 500, chosen as one of START-
IT Magazine's "Hottest Companies of 2006" and won "Best of Information On Demand Showcase" as
part of the IBM Information Management Awards.

References
1. ^ IBM Completes Acquisition of Cognos February 1, 2008 (http://www-
03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23423.wss)
2. ^ Cognos Plans Acquisition Start-IT Magazine September 13, 2007
(http://www.specialtypub.com/startit/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=6077&SECTION=2)
3. ^ Cognos Deals Face Federal Scrutiny
(http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/17/cognos_deals_face_federal_scrutiny/)
December 17, 2008
4. ^ DiMasi, 3 associates charged with rigging of state contracts
(http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/03/dimasi_three_associates_indicted_on_
June 3, 2009
5. ^ "Reasons for Selection, 2007 Canada's Top 100 Employers" (http://www.eluta.ca/einfo?
en=Cognos+Incorporated&ri=a2baf9fd8013a601f7f4949c9b164ac0&rk=9e94dbb1b2641331e5a85c7d340e66
http://www.eluta.ca/einfo?
en=Cognos+Incorporated&ri=a2baf9fd8013a601f7f4949c9b164ac0&rk=9e94dbb1b2641331e5a85c7d340e66

External links
■ Official site (http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognos"
Categories: Software companies of Canada | Companies established in 1969 | Companies based in
Ottawa | Business intelligence | IBM subsidiaries

■ This page was last modified on 6 February 2010 at 00:59.

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