Will integrate with Cognos Planning to give leading biotech firm a true Performance Management solution
Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, announced that Acambis, a leading biotechnology company, has selected Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) to help better measure performance against targeted spending plans.
Acambis is a leading biotechnology company that develops novel vaccines which target unmet medical needs or offer improvements over existing products. To optimize its investment in research and development, Acambis wanted to ensure it was spending properly across the organization. The firm looked at a variety of solutions and chose Cognos 8 BI as its corporate solution to integrate projects and initiatives and more effectively measure performance against resource allocation plans. Cognos 8 BI will allow for timely access to accurate data and facilitate better collaboration and control between function and project leaders. Acambis executives will now receive reports specifically tailored to their needs and objectives, enabling them to gain immediate sense of their performance status and identify trouble areas in advance.
"Historically it took a long time to produce reports and analyze the information. Data were difficult to extract and were not always accurately reflected, which meant the credibility of the report was put in question," said Mohammad Hammami, Director of Financial Management, Acambis. "With Cognos 8 BI we will have quicker reporting with accurate data, which means management will have greater confidence in the information and, more importantly, in the decisions they make around resource allocation in particular."
As a long time Cognos Planning customer, Acambis will integrate its financial planning process with Cognos 8 BI to deliver a complete performance management environment. Cognos Planning helps Acambis forecast and manage its internal resources - including cash, people and revenues. Cognos BI will help Acambis measure key performance metrics against these targeted plans, identify trends, and spot anomalies.
Business intelligence and enterprise planning are key capabilities of the Cognos Performance Management System, which combines technology, best practices, analytical applications and solutions, and a broad network of partners into a single performance management solution for customers. Cognos 8 BI is the only BI product that provides the complete range of BI capabilities - reporting, analysis, scorecarding, dashboards, business event management, and data integration - on a single, proven architecture. Cognos 8 Planning leverages Cognos 8 BI to enable reporting and analysis on real-time plans.
"The pharmaceutical industry is seeing rising R&D costs, which means companies such as Acambis are looking for ways to identify cost savings and improve business processes," said Derek Morrison, Regional General Manager, Cognos Middle East. "Acambis, with its expertise in vaccine development, paired with Cognos' leading performance management solutions, will enable better decision-making to address its specific needs and keep the competitive edge required to succeed."
Cognos is a recognized leader in delivering performance management solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, 25 of the top 30 pharmaceutical firms rely on Cognos performance management software. In addition to Acambis, other customers include Novartis, Bayer UK, and Quintiles Transnational.
-Ends-
About Acambis:
Acambis is a leading vaccine company developing novel vaccines that address significant unmet medical needs or substantially improve standards of care. ChimeriVax-JE, Acambis' most advanced product in its non-biodefence pipeline, has completed pivotal Phase 3 trials and is currently undergoing paediatric trials in India. It is partnered with sanofi pasteur and Bharat Biotech. Acambis' proprietary ChimeriVax technology, developed in association with St Louis University, has also been used to develop ChimeriVax-West Nile, which is undergoing Phase 2 clinical testing, making it the most advanced investigational vaccine against the West Nile virus. Acambis also has the only vaccine in development against Clostridium difficile bacteria, a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Acambis' influenza programe aims to develop a universal vaccine against influenza, for which a universal 'A' strain vaccine, ACAM-FLU-A, is currently being tested in a Phase 1 trial, and also includes various further vaccine candidates in the research and pre-clinical stages.
Recognized internationally as the leading producer of smallpox vaccines, Acambis has manufactured its investigational smallpox vaccine, ACAM2000, for emergency-use stockpiles held by the US Government and 14 others governments around the world.
Acambis is based in Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ACM). More information is available at www.acambis.com
About Cognos:
Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, provides world-class enterprise planning and BI software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance.
Cognos brings together technology, analytical applications, best practices, and a broad network of partners to give customers a complete performance system. The Cognos performance system is an open and adaptive solution that leverages an organization's ERP, packaged applications, and database investments. It gives customers the ability to answer the questions -- How are we doing? Why are we on or off track? What should we do about it? - and enables them to understand and monitor current performance while planning future business strategies.
Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in more than 135 countries, and its top 100 enterprise customers consistently outperform market indexes. Cognos performance management solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com/ae/index.html.
© Press Release 2007
