Cognos Inc, Markham, Ontario is to bundle business modelling and forecasting technology from Right Information Systems Ltd of London with the KnowledgeSeeker statistical analysis software it has licensed from Angoss Software Inc. It doesn’t like to call it work integration, but there will be a new product that can be used to create models of future business scenarios, according to Neal Hill, vice-president of marketing. It will be the third product in Cognos’s business intelligence line of tools. The Right Information product, 4Thought, uses Dynamic Link Library-based neural network technology to extrapolate trends from data by creating models from customisable parameters. It can analyse the effect of price changes on sales, gauge the effectiveness of marketing and advertising and determine future costs. KnowledgeSeeker is an automated statistical analysis tool that identifies patterns and trends in sets of data. Cognos will target Fortune 2000 corporations and has not yet determined a name for its version of the products. It explored embedding 4Thought with its PowerPlay proprietary language and Impromptu reporting tools, but decided wrapping the 4Thought technology with KnowledgeSeeker makes a more attractive and more marketable option. It will be available as an optional add-on for both however, as well as the Axiant development environment, by mid-1996. It will be priced at between $500 and $1,000.
