Omnicom Selects Cognos Performance Management Solution

Published 29th January 2008

London, UK – January 28, 2008 – Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, has announced that Omnicom Group Inc. has selected Cognos for enterprise planning and reporting capabilities...

Following a competitive review and a successful pilot, Omnicom selected Cognos’ enterprise planning and reporting capabilities to help automate financial planning processes and simplify reporting with Web-based solutions. During this pilot, Cognos Services partnered with the agencies to build enterprise planning models in the areas of salary, headcount and P&L expenses.

Key factors in the decision included the software’s ease of use, robust functionality and ability to scale, as well as the global reach and associated supporting infrastructure delivered by Cognos Services.

Omnicom is a strategic holding company that manages a portfolio of global market leaders. The diversity of Omnicom’s growing business operations required a global solution that could extend the company’s existing financial best practices and business systems, automate financial planning and enable streamlined, self-service reporting for its agencies worldwide. Omnicom companies operate in the disciplines of advertising, marketing services, specialty communications, interactive/digital media and media buying services.

Through the pilot implementation, a selection of Omnicom agencies previewed the ability to use Cognos Planning, coupled with Cognos’ reporting capabilities, to quickly pull data from financial systems. It will provide business managers with increased time to focus on strategic analysis of business activities.

“We have an outstanding team of finance professionals across our agencies that excel at financial planning and analysis,” said Daniel Bearison, Director, Financial Planning, Omnicom Group Inc. “By adding Cognos software and services they have world-class solutions available to them to enhance their financial planning processes and support their business.”

“Omnicom is a world leader that has already achieved a remarkable level of business success,” said Dave Laverty, senior vice-president and CMO, global marketing, Cognos. “We are extremely pleased to be working with them as their performance management partner to extend their existing best-practices with new Cognos planning and reporting capabilities. We look forward to working with Omnicom to help further these best-practices and applications across the enterprise.”