Cognosis launching the latest version
of itsperformance management system, which
is likely to be the last version before Cognos is taken over by IBM
in a previously announced acquisition.
Cognos 8.3 includes enhanced business intelligence capabilities
and tighter integration with the firm's planning and consolidation
products.
Helena Schwenk, an analyst at Ovum, said, "Cognos 8.3 is a major
launch for the company, and most likely to be its last as an
independent business intelligence supplier before the acquisition
by IBM completes this quarter.
She said, "While Cognos 8.3 is a substantial and comprehensive
release it does not include all the company's product portfolio. In
particular, PowerPlay 7, the company's well established and legacy
OLAP tool has yet to fully transition to Cognos 8, although the
cube building product - Transformer - has now moved."
Schwenk said, "Cognos will obviously hope that the bulk of
PowerPlay and
Applix integration work is finished before the IBM acquisition
completes. Until such time it is unclear how the company's BI and
performance management portfolio will ultimately integrate with
IBM's."