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Performance Management Reporting from Cognos Finance

Performance Management Reporting from Cognos Finance. “ConstructionSkills”. A case study presented by Alan Sutton, LSA Solutions. Why Me?. Client representative unable to be here. David Hicks (back in the UK). Who are we?. Formerly LEX Software Associates (founded in 1996).

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Performance Management Reporting from Cognos Finance

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  1. Performance ManagementReporting from Cognos Finance “ConstructionSkills” A case study presented by Alan Sutton, LSA Solutions

  2. Why Me? Client representative unable to be here David Hicks (back in the UK)

  3. Who are we? Formerly LEX Software Associates (founded in 1996) • Cognos (SI) Systems Integrator Partner since year 2000 • embraced Cognos “Office of Finance” culture at launch • an elite professional “application services” consultancy

  4. Who are they? • previously Construction Industry Training Board - CITB from 30 March 2007 known as “ConstructionSkills” • national training organisation for construction in the UK • became a Sector Skills Council (SSC) Partner in 2004

  5. Who are they? • operate throughout England, Scotland and Wales legal status – registered charity (no. 264289) • ITB status under Industrial Training Act 1982 • funded by levy, grants and commercial activities

  6. What do they do? • deliver improved safety and better trained workforce promote positive image of construction industry • spot and respond to trends more effectively than individual companies • lobby Government for necessary regional and national funding

  7. ConstructionSkills An organisation of seven directorates • Skills Strategy • Managing Agency • Advisory Services • Business Services • National Construction College • Communications and Marketing • Corporate Services

  8. Mission Statement A fully skilled and professional UK construction industry working safely and delivering value Vision To be the enterprise that people want to work with and for, in order to create a fully qualified and professional UK construction industry

  9. Objectives • financing all activities without need of ‘levy’ support • promoting careers in the construction industry • managing apprentices and training specialists • providing qualifications and certification services • financially self-sufficient • significant additional income from other sources • return 100% of levy to industry in form of grants • more commercial approach • staff training schemes now in place

  10. Targets • higher levels of performance • reduced costs • cut bureaucracy • benchmarking against the best • increase non-levy income • improve customer satisfaction • Simpler - be smarter • Faster - respond to needs • Closer - understand needs

  11. Cognos Finance – The Last Ten Years 1997: LEX2000 Financial Reporting System - 10 User application installed (Feb)‘single version’ monthly management accounts 1998: Upgraded to 60 User Networked LEX2000 system on Citrix Winframe integration of financial and management accounting 1999: Cognos buys LEX2000.SAP ledger systems replaced Agresso (mid-year) LEX2000 becomes only source of ongoing record of historical activity 2000: Single Finance department System rebuilt with 13 text periods Cognos Finance replaces LEX2000 2001: Forecasting using Cognos Finance “Inside Excel” spreadsheets deployed 2002: Cognos Finance ’65 User’ application 5-year Plans, goals and rolling targets

  12. Cognos Finance – The Last Ten Years 2003: Management focus on business activitiesCF allocations to derive ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ 2004: Monthly forecasting introduced Cognos Finance Excel add-in functionality used 2005: “Beyond Budgeting” philosophy implemented based upon reliability and success of CF forecasting, now 100 Users 2006: Performance Management Pack Cognos8 BI evaluation with CF starts 2007: “ConstructionSkills” launched Monthly reporting using Cognos8 BI with data direct from Cognos Finance and Metrics Studio (multiple sources)

  13. Financial Reporting the Change Process Traditional: Single view of organisation Views driven by Cognos Finance allocations (complex and subjective allocation matrix used) Current: Trust Model Multiple Views SOFA View Activity Analysis

  14. Financial Reporting the Change Process Traditional: drawn-out ‘close’ routines Cognos Finance enables ‘fast close’ - monthly management pack issued Day 2 - annual accounts ready for audit within 12 working days Current: Cognos Finance integrated with SAP

  15. Financial Reporting the Change Process Traditional: Mirror to Past Performance Cognos Finance enables predictive YOYAC (rolling year on year actual comparisons) Future: Encouraging Finance Team to act as telescope to identify future direction and performance

  16. Financial Reporting the Change Process

  17. Financial Reporting the Change Process

  18. Financial Reporting the Change Process ConstructionSkills

  19. Financial Reporting the Change Process ConstructionSkills

  20. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project • Pre-requisites • Cognos8 Business Intelligence (current version 8.2) • Directory Server (Sun Java; have a mix of AD and Novell) • Access Manager (common logon authentication) • Cognos Finance upgrade (current version 7.4 MR1) • A suitable Server [Windows2003 SP2 seems standard in UK] • (Note: ConstructionSkills suffered a 3 month delay due to lack of hardware)

  21. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Cognos Finance Configuration Server setup Network API connection Access Manager Create User Classes and setup Users Cognos8 Framework Manager create Cognos8 project metadata wizard – to build model and connect to CF data source publish Cognos8 package – to make available in Cognos8

  22. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 1: Change CF Security to Access Manager Step 2: Create Users & Classes in Access Manager

  23. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 3: Setup User Classes within CF Security Step 4: Configure Cognos Finance Server

  24. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 5: Test the Network API connection in Excel Ensure services are running

  25. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project • Step 6: Cognos8 Framework Manager • Create a project • Add a data source (Cognos Finance) • Connect to model • Publish the Package • Demo

  26. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 6: Cognos8 Framework Manager

  27. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 6: Cognos8 Framework Manager

  28. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 6: Cognos8 Framework Manager

  29. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 6: Cognos8 Framework Manager

  30. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 6: Cognos8 Framework Manager

  31. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 7: Cognos8 Connection Step 8: Analysis Studio Data Selection Report Studio Formatting Cognos Viewer Presentation Metric Studio Scorecards Cognos Viewer Presentation Demo

  32. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 7: Cognos8 Connection

  33. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Step 7: Cognos8 Connection

  34. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Analysis Studio Data Selection Report Studio Formatting Cognos Viewer Presentation Metric Studio Scorecards Cognos Viewer Presentation Demo

  35. Step 8: Example • Basic Report and chart in Cognos8

  36. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Problems encountered Lack of knowledge within Cognos UK Lack of information on Partner web-site No access to Cognos field support No CF integration training available to UK Partners How resolved Endless meetings with Cognos in the UK Cognos UK sent copy of CF database to Princeton Best Practice guidance (draft) by email 10 May

  37. Cognos Finance integration with Cognos8 project Best Practice Understanding Jan 2007 -Query Studio may not work well with certain Cognos Finance data source-Children with multiple parents (Alternative hierarchies) in Cognos Finance may cause slow data loading in Cognos8 Report Studio and Analysis Studio • Best Practice Advice May 2007 -Create “Reporting” submissions in Cognos Finance (single hierarchy) • -Cognos8 Framework Manager connection to “Reporting” submission. • Result Sept 2007 -Client satisfied • -Cognos8 Performance Management Reporting from Cognos Finance

  38. Cognos8 Metrics Studio (to use data from other systems) • SAP (financials) • Mytas (student registration scheme) • Cognos Finance (rolling forecasts) • Cognos8 Planning • Cognos8 Go! Now (operational BI) ConstructionSkills – next steps?

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