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IBM Cognos laid out a roadmap for the future and provided a deep dive
into the elements of its next major release (due Q2, 2010) in its
fourth annual Industry Analyst Summit in Ottawa this week.
Due to confidentiality agreements, there is not much I can discuss
publicly about future releases. However, it was refreshing to know that
despite being swallowed up by IBM, the original Cognos executive team
is still intact, and they seem as engaged and excited as ever. The next
release contains many breakthrough features that will make the IBM
Cognos offerings extremely compelling.
IBM executives have made a sizable strategic commitment to business
analytics and optimization as a major growth area for the $100 billion
company. As a consequence, IBM Cognos is playing a pivotal role at IBM,
and some of its executives have been tapped to lead the charge
corporatewide. To align with the strategy, many IBM business units have
been eager to partner with the Cognos team, making it like the
proverbial kid in a candy store, able to pick and choose its best
go-to-market opportunities. For example, IBM Cognos played a key part
in IBM’s recent SmartAnalytics announcement. (See “IBM Rediscovers Itself.”)
With IBM opening many new channels and markets and expanding Cognos’
development and marketing resources, IBM Cognos is experiencing a
financial uplift. Rob Ashe, IBM’s general manager of business
intelligence and performance management, announced by video that IBM
Cognos has grown license revenues by 30% this past year.
IBM Cognos Express
While at the event, IBM Cognos announced its new mid-market product,
IBM Cognos Express. Although it’s lagged behind competitors in
delivering a product in this space, IBM Cognos may end up the winner.
Instead of just repackaging its enterprise product with a different
license model, IBM Cognos has thought long and hard about what
mid-market customers need and subsequently created an entirely new
end-to-end product designed suit those requirements. IBM Cognos Express
borrows IBM and Cognos technologies to deliver a product that is easy
to buy, simple to install, easy to use, and easy to maintain.
IBM Cognos Express offers integrated modules for query, reporting,
analysis, visualization, dashboarding, and planning. Once installed,
the product essentially creates a local data mart (via TM1) behind the
scenes. The product supports a maximum of 100 users running a single
server. And here’s the one downside: if users outgrow the IBM Cognos
Express solution, they can either purchase another Express server or
buy and install IBM Cognos 8 BI and migrate their data, models, and
reports.
Pricing starts at $12,500, with fees for users, administrators, and
data connectors. What’s most interesting is that prospects can download
and try the product for 30 days and even finance the purchase from IBM
Global Financing. On the surface, this product should resonate well
with the mid-market. It’s good to see a company that tries to
understand its customers before shoving products down their throats!
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