intelligence operational intelligence performance management workforce analytics fate acquired founded 1969 founder alan rushforth peter glenister defunct 2009 2009 headquarters ottawa ontario canada key people rob ashe general manager ibm business analytics products ibm cognos 10 bi ; ibm cognos express ; ibm cognos tm1 ; ibm cognos now ; ibm cognos 10 platform revenue 979.26 million usd 2007 number of employees 3 507 2007 website http www.ibm.com cognos cognos incorporated was an ottawa ontario based company making business intelligence bi and performance management pm software . founded in 1969 at its peak cognos employed almost 3 500 people and served more than 23 000 customers in over 135 countries until being acquired by ibm on january 31 2008 . 1 while no longer an independent company the cognos name continues to be applied to ibm s line of business intelligence and performance management products . contents 1 history 2 federal investigation 3 acquisition of cognos by ibm 4 bi market 5 products 6 recognition 7 references 8 external links history edit cognos was founded in 1969 by alan rushforth and peter glenister . 2 michael u. potter joined cognos in 1972 and was its chief executive officer from 1975 until 1995 . 3 it began as a consulting company for the canadian federal government and offered its first software product quiz in 1979 . during the canadian recession in the 1980s cognos shifted its focus from consulting to software sales . originally quasar systems limited it adopted the cognos name in 1982 . cognos is a fragment scissored off the latin word cognosco which means knowledge from personal experience . 4 cognos became a public company in august 1986 trading on the toronto stock exchange as csn and on the nasdaq as cogn . its independent existence ended on january 31 2008 when cognos was acquired by ibm . 5 in 1995 ron zambonini was named ceo and brought new marketing strategies . cognos grew successful with its business intelligence products for local area networks lan but new internet technologies had come into the bi industry faster than the company had anticipated . after cognos issued a notice informing shareholders of a slowdown in growth many sold their shares causing prices to fall quickly . 6 unreliable source when this prompted cognos to build its web technology through the acquisition of other companies rather than internal research and development . in september 2007 cognos announced that it would be acquiring applix . 7 it had previously acquired right information systems 4thought interweave impromptu web query relational matters decisionstream lex2000 noticecast adaytum frango databeacon and celequest an operational intelligence company . in january 2010 as part of a reorganization of ibm software group software from cognos and recently acquired spss were brought together to create the business analytics division . on december 31 2013 unicom systems a division of unicom global acquired the powerhouse product line including powerhouse 4gl server axiant 4gl and powerhouse web 8 so powerhouse products would no longer be part of the ibm product set . federal investigation edit in august 2007 the massachusetts state information technology division awarded cognos a 13 million contract for performance management software . this followed a 2006 4.5 million state contract awarded to cognos by the massachusetts department of education . these contracts came under scrutiny from the state ethics commission and the office of state inspector general gregory sullivan when several conflicts of interest surrounding speaker of the massachusetts house of representatives salvatore dimasi and his accountant richard vitale came to light . in the course of these investigations a payoff from former cognos sales executive joseph lally in the amount of 600 000 was found to have been made to vitale s company wn advisors . vitale and wn advisors were not registered as state lobbyists and did not disclose the payments the bulk of which were apparently made on the same day that the state wired funds for the multimillion dollar contracts to cognos . the disposition of the funds has not been disclosed and the state has rescinded the contracts . ibm who now owns cognos has refunded the improperly awarded 13 million paid to cognos . 9 a second close associate of dimasi s lawyer steven topazio was placed on a two year 5 000 a month retainer for unspecified purposes . this retainer stopped the same month as the second cognos contract was awarded . 10 in addition to the payoffs made to close associates of dimasi it is known that vitale helped arrange a below market mortgage for dimasi which violated state ethics laws . on december 17 2008 the boston globe confirmed that the state investigations were being joined by a federal grand jury probe investigating the allegations and potential violations of federal law . on june 2 2009 dimasi vitale lally and cognos lobbyist richard mcdonough were indicted on a battery of ... corruption charges as a result of that probe . 11 acquisition of cognos by ibm edit in 2007 following sap s acquisition of business objects and oracle s acquisition of hyperion solutions 12 ibm announced its acquisition of cognos in november for 4.9 billion . 13 it continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary cognos an ibm company until january 1 2009 when it was absorbed into ibm infosphere product line under ibm information management software brand within the company s software group . the software is now called cognos business intelligence and financial performance management or cognos bi and fpm . bi market edit ibm s purchase of cognos and other business intelligence software vendors was a step in establishing ibm as a bi megavendor along with oracle microsoft and sap . this consolidation may prove beneficial for customers to have fewer vendors to deal with but this raises concerns about integration of the software as more vendors are bought out by the big four . another challenge is maintaining the same level of customer service . gartner interprets the lower ratings given in customer experience for ibm cognos and sap business objects as a result of post acquisition issues . 14 due to many consolidations in the bi industry there are only a few independent pure play vendors remaining sas and microstrategy being the largest . 15 products edit on october 26 2015 at the ibm insight conference in las vegas ibm leadership announced a redesigned user experience for its flagship cognos business intelligence software . the redesign will be version 11 and an upgrade from cognos business intelligence 10.x . the differentiation in the version 11 release also required renaming to ibm cognos analytics based on the same self service design principles as watson analytics . the redesigned cognos product also features smarter search that works in context . on october 25 2010 at the business analytics forum in las vegas ibm general manager for business analytics and former cognos ceo rob ashe announced ibm cognos 10 . 16 a significant upgrade to ibm cognos 8 bi this new software brings together social collaboration and analytics for business users to gain real time intelligence in a single user friendly interface online or through mobile devices such as ipad iphone and blackberry devices . ibm cognos 8 bi initially launched in september 2005 combined the features of several previous products including reportnet powerplay metrics manager noticecast and decisionstream . there are also express and extended versions of cognos 8 bi . full features report studio professional report authoring tool formatted for the web query studio ad hoc report authoring tool with instant data preview analysis studio explore multi dimensional cube data to answer business questions metric studio monitor analyze and report on kpis metric designer define load and maintain metrics to be available in metric studio event studio action based agents to notify decision makers as events happen framework manager semantic metadata layer tool which creates models or packages powerplay studio formerly powerplay web analytic applications packaged bi applications built on an adaptable platform and extensible into business analytics 17 ibm cognos express launched in september 2009 is an integrated business intelligence and planning solution purpose built to meet the needs of midsize companies . the features of express are cognos express reporter self service reporting and ad hoc query cognos express advisor freeform analysis and visualization cognos express xcelerator tm1 based planning and business analysis with microsoft excel and web interfaces ibm cognos also offered several application development tools which ibm later sold to unicom ibm cognos powerhouse 4gl ibm cognos powerhouse web ibm cognos axiant 4gl recognition edit ibm cognos 8 bi has won numerous awards including the eweek excellence award in analytics and reporting the lotus advisor editor s choice award and techtarget s searchcrm.com 2005 product of the year . in 2007 cognos was named one of canada s top 100 employers as published in maclean s magazine one of only a handful of software development companies to receive this honour . 18 prior to being acquired cognos had been named to the informationweek 500 chosen as one of start it magazine s hottest companies of 2006 and won best of information on demand showcase as part of the ibm information management awards . cognos now as ibm cognos software continues to rank in the leaders quadrant of gartner s magic quadrant for business intelligence . 19 references edit riley duncan nov 12 2007 . acquisitions ibm buys cognos microsoft buys musiwave . roger voyer ; patti ryan 1 january 1994 . the new innovators how canadians are shaping the knowledge based economy . james lorimer & company . p. 151 . isbn 978 1 55028 463 8 . retrieved 15 september 2011 . biography mr michael u potter . royal canadian air force . retrieved 4 january 2014 . gale directory of company histories ibm completes acquisition of cognos february 1 2008 company history cognos inc. . retrieved october 14 2010 . cognos plans acquisition start it magazine september 13 2007 woodie alex 2014 01 21 . unicom adds hp3000 biz with cognos adt buy . four hundred stuff . retrieved 2016 03 24 . estes andrea march 10 2008 . software contract called improper . the boston globe . cognos deals face federal scrutiny december 17 2008 dimasi 3 associates charged with rigging of state contracts june 3 2009 blakely rhys november 12 2007 . ibm acquires cognos for 5bn . the times . london . asay matt november 12 2007 . ibm buys cognos for 4.9 billion as industry consolidation hits overdrive . cnet news . henschen doug february 3 2010 . sap questions gartner bi magic quadrant ranking . weier mary hayes november 12 2007 . what ibm s cognos acquisition means for the bi market and its customers . ibm unveils new information management and analytics software to help organizations gain faster insight for smarter business outcomes . ibm . retrieved 24 april 2014 . cognos analytic applications . reasons for selection 2007 canada s top 100 employers . henschen doug february 3 2010 . sap questions gartner bi magic quadrant ranking . recapping the mq leaders quadrant oracle and microsoft led on ability to execute while ibm cognos and sap businessobjects led on completeness of vision . the three other vendors in the quadrant were sas microstrategy and information builders ... external links edit official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cognos & oldid 736234281 categories software companies of canadacompanies established in 1969companies based in ottawabusiness intelligence companiesibm acquisitionsdefunct software companies of canadahidden categories all articles lacking reliable referencesarticles lacking reliable references from july 2016vague or ambiguous time from july 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged 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