Cognos extends Web-based financial solution with launch of Cognos Finance 5.1

Business intelligence company, Cognos, has announced the local availability of its new solution for budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and reporting - Cognos Finance 5.1.

Delivering fully integrated financial reporting and analysis, the Web-based financial solution powerfully extends the capabilities of Cognos Finance, giving organisations unprecedented insight to their financial health and performance.

"Cognos Finance 5.1 provides today`s organisations with an integrated environment for accelerating financial processes - from rapid monthly and quarterly closes, facilitating corporate budgeting processes, to integrating up-to-date results with forecasts from the field," says Peter Gerson, MD of Cognos SA. "Cognos Finance customers can create an accurate view of the financial information, and then share that information over a secure Web-based environment."

The new enterprise financial solution further extends the Web-based functionality of Cognos Finance, enabling financial departments to reach even more users. Reflecting the changing nature of organisations, the zero footprint Web solution lets financial professionals create detailed financial performance reports for the entire organisation that are easy to maintain and distribute.

"Today`s global enterprises face a turbulent environment for forecasting income and expenses, and budgeting various operations," continues Gerson. "Financial analytic applications are designed to support these business processes. Cognos Finance 5.1 provides budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting built on a single integrated data store, helping to shorten the total time required to accomplish these critical tasks."

Gerson says that Cognos Finance 5.1 gives all budget stakeholders access to a structured, graphical environment, ensuring effective, `single view` management of the budgeting process. "Managers tasked with supplying budgets from the field have access to all-new, standardised tools for even faster and more accurate budget creation, including integrated employee budgeting that allows budgeting by individual employee.

"In addition," he adds, "powerful exception analysis capabilities are built directly into reports, giving decision-makers the ability to drill-through to granular levels of detail, as well as easy navigation through their entire financial model." New Cognos Finance 5.1 features include:

Integrated Employee Budgeting -Cognos Finance lets users manage staff changes by individual or group, assign raises and bonuses, change effective dates for increases, start dates for new hires, etc.

User-Defined Calculations - Users can add greater detail into a budget including creating their own input accounts, calculations and formulas in notations

Web-based data entry - Users can access budget information and input their contributions from a simple Web browser as well as perform sophisticated functions such as data extrapolation, and spreading a single number into the rows based on existing or standard trends

Workflow management - All budgeting stakeholders can participate through the Web via managed, structured workflow processes to insure budgets are opened, monitored and closed on time.

"Cognos is empowering financial professionals - with an integrated financial environment that addresses their unique requirements. Cognos Finance gives the customer deep insight into what is effectively the heart of the enterprise - the financial data," adds Gerson. "Against today`s economic backdrop, organisations are putting a premium on rapid access to their financial performance. With accelerated access to accurate financial data, organisations can better respond to market conditions and competitive pressures."