Profiles in Planning, an independent study by Ventana Research, reports that several high-profile customers of business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management world leader Cognos have achieved significantly improved levels of performance visibility and operational control with Cognos Enterprise Planning Series.
The study reveals that with modules from the Cognos Enterprise Planning Series, global healthcare product manufacturer Hollister; cancer diagnostics, genomics and related information services provider AmeriPath; Lucent Technologies; and Ace Hardware are realising greater accountability through higher level participation in the planning and budgeting process across their business; controlling expenses more effectively and intelligently during challenging economic times; deepening visibility into their business; and enhancing planning and forecasting accuracy.
"This research shows the positive impact Cognos Enterprise Planning-based solutions have on the corporate performance practices of these organisations," says Robert Kugel, VP and research director at Ventana Research. "With enterprise planning solutions, we see companies improving efficiency, and more importantly their effectiveness. This is a major step towards sustainable performance management practices and improved profitability."
Cognos Enterprise Planning Series drives the performance management cycle, bringing together planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, reporting and financial analytics.
Enterprise planning combines people, process and technology in a continuous and broadly collaborative cycle to provide real-time insight into future operating performance, enabling managers to spot trends, identify opportunities and affect outcomes, says Cognos SA MD David McWilliam. It allows organisations to align plans and activities across the business for fast, synchronised execution.
It enables an organisation to create a clear-cut strategy for achieving best-in-class status; turn strategy into distinct plans and budgets for employees and external partners; communicate plans and budgets across the organisation; provide real-time feedback to planning process participants; and realign plans as events unfold.
Enterprise planning is about articulating what the organisation wants to achieve using a hierarchy of plans, measures and reports that flow from broad strategic objectives to tactical plans across departments, divisions and locations, McWilliam says.
"Our solutions allow organisations to enhance and extend the strategic value of their investments in ERP and operational systems such as SAP and Oracle," he says. "The Enterprise Planning solution allows data to be easily accessed and provides users with the capability to model complex business environments. It also scales to support thousands of users in a wide variety of planning and forecasting processes."
Ventana Research is a performance management research and advisory services firm that offers insight and education on best practices, methodologies and technologies to its clients.
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