According to Cognos, the new plug-in comes with other business intelligence offerings that tie-in with Excel. The program offers visualization, drag-and-drop capabilities, formatting and calculations functionalities, which are retained even after the data is refreshed.
Microsoft also released its new PerformancePoint Server 2007, which allows the use of business intelligence solution through an Excel interface.
Cognos said that the plug-in does not require server-side implementation and can be installed at the PC level, which allows users to work with the flexibility and structure of Excel.
This accessibility and ease of use inspired Cognos to craft the program, in which the business intelligence user interface is Excel, said Paul Glennon, senior product manager at Cognos. He added that, while Cognos’ business intelligence suite typically replaces the use of spreadsheets, they still are quite useful to the average financial analyst or business manager.
Cognos said that it is targeting the higher-level users such as financial analysts and business managers for its program’s advanced analytics capabilities rather than the power-users like an IT staffer or the front-line workers like customer service representatives.
Mr Glennon said that Cognos’ helps lower-level users such as IT staffer or front-line workers to port self-authored content into productivity applications like Word.
Earlier, Circuit City, Manpower and Bloorview Kids Rehab, as representative customer organizations, beta tested the product.
Other business intelligence vendors such as Business Objects, Information Builders and SAS offer Excel interface for the product offerings.
Source: ComputerWire daily updates
