Cognos 8 PowerPlay

Cognos PowerPlay, the world's best-selling OLAP software, lets users analyse large volumes of data with sub-second response times.

Cognos PowerPlay improves your performance

• Gives the right answer, right away - fast analysis lets companies quickly get to the "why" behind an event or action, so they can take effective steps to address it.
• Makes complex data clear and decipherable - the ability to analyse critical corporate data from any angle, in any combination makes it easy for all employees to understand.
• Reduces the burden on IT - user self-service and a no-maintenance Web client frees up IT to pursue more strategic priorities.
• Reduces the burden on your network - the massively scalable, customer-proven architecture maximizes network resources.

Product Highlights

• Sophisticated time trending and projection lets users analyse what has changed over previous years, quarters, months, and other critical measures. No other vendor provides as sophisticated a time trending and projection capability as Cognos.
• PowerPlay is faster to implement due to its superior modelling environment, ability to leverage existing platforms / data sources, and easy installation and configuration.
• PowerPlay is the fastest analysis tool to deploy and manage due to its scalability, integration, processing efficiency, and zero-footprint framework.
• PowerPlay is data agnostic so it can read all widely used OLAP data sources.
• Competing solutions cannot scale cubes as large as ours, and may require database design and additional programming to achieve adequate performance.
• The Windows, Web, and Excel clients mean that users can work within a familiar environment maximizing ROI and decreasing training costs.
• Integrated with Cognos reporting, scorecards, planning, and ETL software so your business intelligence capabilities can grow with your needs.
• Features and Benefits

Robust analysis tools

• Analyse what's driving your business with data organized in logical categories such as fiscal periods, sales regions, and product groups.
• Move from summary level to up-to-the-second transaction level detail, or from one PowerCube to another until you find the information you are looking for.
• Intelligent time trending with built-in customisable time series analysis lets users see at a glance the performance of any measure in any combination of categories, across key time periods.

Easier to deploy

• Convert 1 billion consolidated rows and 2 million categories from multiple data sources into compact PowerCubes.
• Zero-footprint Web deployment and bandwidth-saving stateless connections save resources, ease maintenance, and provide a better extranet-ready environment.
• Multi-server, load-balanced architecture and scalability to thousands of users mean it is much easier to deploy, monitor, manage, and upgrade than other analysis tools.
• Seamless integration with third-party cubes and OLAP servers lets companies maximize return on Hyperion, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP BW, and IBM resources they already own.
• PowerPlay processes and summarizes data in the application layer and only returns results at a summary level, conserving bandwidth and optimising network efficiency.
• Superior multidimensional modelling capabilities, with support for all data sources, comprehensive logging and checking point, automated cube builds, and centralised security and administration provide superior manageability for IT.
• Advanced multidimensional modelling, time-dependant processing, alternate drill paths, distinct category counts, and time-based partitioned PowerCubes create a flexible design environment that expedites development and enhances ROI.

Easier to use

• Explore multidimensional information by simply clicking and dragging. Drill down through increasing levels of detail and view by different dimensions such as sales per region or by product.
• View and analyse data relationships graphically and change displays easily. PowerPlay's industry-leading functionality means end-users can easily drill down, slice and dice, rank, sort, forecast, and nest information to gain greater insight into trends, causes, and effects.
• A single server, common XML-based report format means that a report can be opened in whatever client suites a user needs.
• User-friendly interface makes multidimensional analysis simple for all users, regardless of their business or technical level.
• Import and manipulate BI content in MS Office.
• PowerPlay is part of the most comprehensive business intelligence suite in the world, making it easy to add and extend zero footprint scorecarding, planning, and reporting capabilities.