Bayer plc, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, one of the world`s largest and most diversified chemical and pharmaceutical companies, is using Cognos Series 7 its complete, integrated offering that includes reporting, analysis, ad hoc query, scorecarding, visualisation, and data mart creation, to provide its extended enterprise with rapid, Web-based access to the critical information driving its corporate performance.
Turning to business intelligence (BI) company, Cognos, after evaluating the major alternative ERP/BI solutions, Bayer UK today uses the full, integrated range of robust reporting, true analysis, ad hoc query, scorecarding, visualisation, and data integration capabilities offered in the Cognos Series 7 solution.
"The result is a Web-based BI solution that offers Bayer UK managers and sales representatives split-second access to customer, marketplace, and operational trends across a broad array of operational and relational data stores including SAP R/3," says Tharina van der Merwe, channel and marketing manager at Cognos SA.
Supplying products that are involved in every major area of industrial, commercial and domestic life, including diagnostic instruments, medicines, agrochemicals, Bayer UK needed a highly scalable BI system that offered both enterprise-proven performance, security and scalability, while at the same time provided an easy-to-use environment accessible through a central, Intranet-based console for its business users.
"Our users don`t want a cumbersome and complicated information system that doesn`t perform well," says John Culverhouse, senior analyst, Bayer UK. "They want to be able to click on something they know will work and get a report back rapidly with the information they need. Cognos Series 7 meets that demand, and provides a solid foundation of corporate performance management."
The organisation also needed a consistent, unified view of corporate data. Bayer UK uses Cognos DecisionStream, to pull information from various databases including SAP R/3, Oracle, Lotus Notes and Access, transforming disparate data into one co-ordinated BI data centre. The unified view of data allows the company to spot trends earlier and develop business strategies faster in the highly competitive pharmaceutical and chemical marketplaces.
Today Cognos Series 7 offers Bayer UK users rapid access to the rich operational data housed in the company`s SAP R/3 environment. In addition, IT managers are able to monitor and manage the entire integrated BI solution from a central dashboard with the new configuration management features, resulting in a solution that is easy to troubleshoot and maintain.
Bayer UK also benefits from the robust reporting with sophisticated customisation capabilities in Cognos Series 7 to ensure that individual users receive tailor-made reports and analysis without the need to create hundreds of individual static reports. Users can dynamically change views on the data in a Web-based environment, allowing them to build custom reports in seconds.
"Users love the flexibility," says Dave Gardner, project manager, Bayer UK. "Given the highly diverse needs of our user base, Cognos was the only solution that would allow this highly flexible, user-driven reporting, without the need for IT intervention."
"Originally users would spend ages trying to find one answer to a critical business question. Now they can go straight to the Cognos Series 7 system and find all the answers in one central portal," adds Culverhouse.
"Cognos Series 7 offers users like Bayer UK a BI solution that offers split-second response times, while at the same time, offering business users an easy, Web-based environment to get the answers they need quickly," says Dave Laverty, senior vice-president, Cognos. "We are enthusiastic to work with pharmaceutical/chemical industry leaders like Bayer UK, helping them to focus on driving innovation, and ensuring they are able to provide a high level of service to their customers."
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Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence (BI), delivers software that helps companies improve business performance by enabling effective decision-making at all levels of the organisation. A forerunner in defining the BI software category, Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage corporate performance management (CPM) achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale.
CPM lets organisations measure execution against business strategy to ensure the two are aligned at all levels across the enterprise. Cognos provides a framework for CPM that links people, information, and decision-making processes throughout the organisation, and enables the complete management cycle with integrated software for planning, budgeting, reporting, analysis, and scorecarding.
Cognos` framework for CPM includes:
* Cognos Series 7, which provides an enterprise-scale BI framework supporting a full suite of BI tools that deliver query and reporting, analysis, scorecarding, visualisation, and event detection capabilities.
* A common CPM data foundation model that encapsulates business best practices, integrates a company`s business performance measures, and leverages enterprise data sources.
* Enterprise analytic applications that deliver out-of-the-box, predefined, integrated reporting and analysis across major business functions.
* Cognos Finance, a strategic enterprise planning and budgeting application that supports the management cycle and enables finance professionals to manage all core financial processes within one environment.
Cognos serves more than 19 000 customers in over 120 countries. Cognos business intelligence solutions and services are also available from more than 3 000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.