Ottawa-based business intelligence bigwig Cognos Inc. on Monday announced its acquisition of enterprise planning-solutions vendor Adaytum, enabling it to boost analytic capabilities and enhance its application strategy.
Robert Ashe, president and COO of Cognos, said the company had been looking to expand its corporate performance management (CPM) offerings and was looking to planning as a new part of this mix.
CPM is defined by Cognos as having a core foundation of business intelligence – reporting and analysis – and rounding that out by having the ability to put the resulting information into a business context and then getting that out to people who have accountability to the organization.
“A key component of CPM is to be able to address the front end – the setting of measurement goals. What does my company view as good performance? How can I optimize resources?” Ashe said.
That’s when Cognos’ vision collided with Minneapolis, Minn.-based Adaytum’s reality. Adaytum has been in the planning business for more than 10 years.
Guy Haddleton, CEO of Adaytum, called the acquisition a “perfect match.”
Ashe said Cognos will be integrating the Adaytum solution into its product suite. Cognos will offer a specialized package for finances that includes planning, budgeting, reporting and consolidation.
“They bring one solution with a number of components that fits nicely into our overall solution,” Ashe said.
No decisions about rebranding or naming had been made at press time.
Henry Morris, vice-president for applications and information access at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC, said the acquisition will help Cognos advance its CPM strategy.
“The integration of a well established planning and budgeting business with Cognos’ existing solutions could provide significant upside to organizations seeking comprehensive close-loop performance management.”
Andrew Braunberg, senior director at Sterling, Va.-based Current Analysis, said the acquisition better positions Cognos in terms of competing with Hyperion, which is the leader in the financial analytic application market.
Approximately 100 employees from Cognos and Adaytum were laid off or given notice, according to a Cognos spokesperson.
Cognos can be found online at www.cognos.com.
