IBM Cognos 8 Planning
Features and Benefits

IBM Cognos 8 Planning enables Finance organizations with even the most complex business models to build enterprise-wide plans, budgets, and forecasts faster and more efficiently.

You can create, compare, and evaluate business scenarios, conditions, drivers, rates, and assumptions. Proceed from what-is to evaluate the what-if scenarios critical to forecasting future performance. The result is improved predictability and greater accountability across the enterprise.

• Customize plans and models to fit your business needs.
• Spend less time on process, more time on analysis.
• Enable high participation across the enterprise.
• Plan to extend ERP performance.
• Streamline workflow management.

• Sophisticated modeling capabilities let you create linked models that accurately reflect cross-functional interdependencies
• Build models in days, not months. Import data definitions from sources such as applications from Oracle and SAP via certified integration to SAP NetWeaver applications.
• Change underlying business logic and principles quickly and easily. Compare alternatives and assess the impact in real time.
• Driver-based planning and flexible rolling forecasts provide greater visibility into likely operating performance.
• Finance manages the solution without the need for arcane programming languages or scripting. No IT input is required.

• Drill-down and multidimensional slicing-and-dicing help users explore data, evaluate models, and test assumptions in minutes. Quickly compare current performance with historical actuals and external benchmarks.
• "Break-back" automatically spreads high-level targets across any profile, such as previous-period actuals or projected seasonality, and across multiple dimensions such as products, customers, territories, or time periods.
• Unified view of plan data connects with key metrics and information so you can make decisions instead of debating definitions and accuracy.
• Eliminate unproductive activities such as tracking down numbers, fixing broken links, and debugging macros.

• User-friendly Web browser or familiar Microsoft Excel interface require minimal training and encourage participation, collaboration, and commitment.
• Single sign-on provides immediate access to linked, role-specific planning templates while pre-defined rules ensure that individuals see only the templates they require.
• Distributed architecture is optimized for end-user performance, even for thousands of concurrent users across divisions and geographies.
• Complex calculations are performed at the client, giving users instantaneous response and sparing the server unnecessary traffic during periods of high use.
• Users enter information in their own business language—not finance terms—and predefined formulas translate it into financial data such as gross revenue, net income, or earnings per share.
• Work offline and plans and forecasts are automatically updated when you check back in.
• Online administration makes it easy to change data structures, user rights, model parameters, and more—24x7—without taking the system offline.

• Extend applications from Oracle and SAP via certified integration to SAP NetWeaver applications.
• Cross-enterprise planning data stored in a single repository provides perpetually accurate information on demand.
• Synchronized enterprise plans link operational and financial plans to show the impact of operational change on financial performance.
• Dynamic linking of individual plan components in real time facilitates consistency and accuracy.
• Planners can attach files to a cell, model, or submission of a forecast.
• Quick commands allow users to modify plans and analyses, while an audit trail tracks all changes.
• Powerful business intelligence and scorecarding tools offered in IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence produce detailed, multi-dimensional reports and analyses.

• Collaborative features facilitate communication to shorten planning cycles and allow managers to e-mail groups based on hierarchy or workflow status.
• Reviewers can quickly monitor workflow status—not started, in progress, or ready for review—with intuitive, color-coded icons.
• Distributed administration shares role-based responsibility for planning across functions, geographies, and business units.
• Corporate policies are enforced with validation rules that review data entry values prior to submission.
• Continuous feedback loop minimizes the multiple iterations and negotiations that can slow down—or even shut down—the planning process.
• Automatic aggregation displays the impact of new forecasts and plan contributions in real time to let you pinpoint gaps at a glance. No overnight batch processing.

• Have IBM Cognos contact you.
• IBM Cognos Planning White Papers & Briefs
• IBM Cognos Planning System Requirements
• IBM Cognos Planning Analyst / Press Views
• IBM Cognos Planning Customer Successes