IBM, Cognos Outline IOD Strategy, Road Map - Global Services (
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The IBM acquisition is
also transforming IBM Global Services,
albeit on a much smaller scale. While the Cognos services team will become part
of IBM's Lab Services division, a group focused
on providing deep technology expertise, IBM
Global Services will focus on expanding its services around Cognos in a number
of vertical markets, including retail, finance and the public sector, according
to Mike Schroeck, global BI leader for IBM
Global Services.
That said, IBM will continue in its
mission to be the "Switzerland"
of business services.
"We have a very large services practice that includes Business Objects,
now SAP, Oracle/Hyperion and
Informatica," Schroeck said. "Our goal will continue to be very
objective and we will continue to leverage what clients have. But we certainly
expect [that] demand for our services around Cognos will increase. IBM
continues to aggressively expand Cognos."
But with all the synergies between IBM
and Cognos and the two companies' long history, the question has been asked, Why
did IBM bother to acquire Cognos rather than
just continuing the partnership? The answer lies mostly in the similar, and
very competitive, acquisitions by Oracle and SAP.
"The world has changed. And that's really what caused the relationship
between IBM and Cognos to elevate,"
said former Cognos CEO Rob Ashe, who will
now lead the Information On Demand group (in this move, Ashe has jumped from
managing 4,000 people to 35,000).
"Performance management is going to become pervasive and the missing
piece has always been a trusted data source—a smooth surface customers can get into
and access that data whereever it might be … and to make sure data is coming
from the right place, and is going to be put in the right place and there's
lineage behind it. IBM's IOD platform vision
strategy and Cognos' strategy for performance management and business
optimization just fit hand in glove. It's really what's going to differentiate
us from the other acquisitions in the market," Ashe said.
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