New Cognos Newsletter Explores Disastrous Decision-Making

Oct. 24 issue of Cognos Performance Perspectives explores decision theory, the Fast Close in Finance, and interviews renowned author Martha Rogers, PhD.

Ottawa, ON (PRWEB) October 25, 2007 -- Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management (http://www.cognos.com/performance-management) solutions today announced the availability of its latest Cognos Performance Perspectives Newsletter.

The stories examine the role of performance management solutions in three specific areas of corporate decision-making: IT, Finance, and Business/Industry and reference current findings explored in the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, BusinessWeek, The McKinsey

Quarterly, and others.

Highlights of the issue include:

•    For IT: How bad decisions get made: A look into the key stages of decision-making, the ways people make poor decisions, the role of data and the ways in which a performance management culture can improve decision-making for better business performance.

•    For Finance: Fast Close and the reporting supply chain: The need for a joined-up approach. In this first article in a five-part series, Gary Simon reviews the Fast Close process and argues for a more holistic approach in tackling group reporting issues. Simon is Group Publisher of FSN and a former partner in Deloitte.

•    For Business/Industry: An interview with Martha Rogers, PhD, in which the renowned author and customer-focused consultant explains how companies can maximize what she calls their "return on customer," and the importance of performance management (http://www.cognos.com/performance-management) solutions in doing so:

"Analytics technologies are driving a new competitive era," Dr. Rogers tells Cognos Performance Perspectives. "Smart companies will use these technologies to get to know customers who trust them, to look out for their interests, and to give them the greatest possible individual value. The information and insight they possess will let them do things for their customers that their competition is powerless to do." Dr. Rogers' interview is also available as a podcast from Radio Cognos.

Also featured is "Moneyball and beyond," which explores the possibility of applying key performance metrics to hockey and football.

Good decisions are the building blocks of great business performance. The performance management (http://www.cognos.com/performance-management) system from Cognos integrates software, services, best-practices, and partners. The result -- a common understanding and accountable actions based on answers to your performance management questions:

How are we doing? Measuring and monitoring performance with scorecards and dashboards tracks your key metrics.

Why: Reporting and analysis let you see data, gain context, understand trends, and spot anomalies.

What should we be doing: Planning, budgets, and forecasts let you set and share a reliable view of the future.

Getting answers and acting on them means integrating reporting and analysis, planning, and measuring and monitoring -- across your organization. This integrated approach is the Cognos performance management (http://www.cognos.com/performance-management) system.

By integrating information, technology, and people, your decision-makers can become performance managers. Performance managers look at metrics, plans, and reports in their functional area to make the best possible decisions.

They also use this same approach to connect with others. For example, if Marketing decisions improve demand, then Sales and Operations needs to know to ensure the supply is ready. In this way, your good decisions cause other good decisions. The end result is better alignment, accountability, and performance.

Cognos Performance Perspectives is the Cognos e-newsletter with a subscriber list of 23,000. It is published every six weeks in English, French, German, Dutch, and Italian. Learn more at www.cognos.com/newsletter.

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