Earnings column reveals the big brain in business intelligence

Globally, business intelligence leader Cognos enjoyed total revenue of $284.5 million (1,044,940,050 AED), up 12%. The company recorded similar rates of increase for licence revenue (up 11%), support revenue (15%) and services revenue (up 12%).

Company executives can now reflect on their strong balance sheet and look forward to further growth in the forthcoming quarter. They work in a market that demands solution-led performance management and enterprise standardization, with mergers and acquisitions meaning that companies often battle to integrate a wide variety of software and computers platforms into a coherent whole.

The excellent fiscal results are there because of Cognos' operational strengths. Enterprise deployments in the Fourth Quarter saw the issue of 25 contracts worth over $1 million (3,672,900 AED) and 285 contracts worth $200,000 (734,580 AED).

Some of this success can be attributed to the consistent pursuit of client success, based on a unique "Go to market" model. Some 29% of the licence revenue this quarter has come from new customers; 30% of the same revenue is based on the sale of licences indirectly (e.g. through partner organizations).

Combined services and support register a growth rate of 14%, with the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region performing strongly.

"An operational focus on growth, success and people has brought us to this point. Business Intelligence and BI standardization have to be top priorities at a time when performance management is both mainstream and pervasive," said Derek Morrison, Regional General Manager, Cognos.

"Close collaboration with other enterprises has helped to create a specialist partner ecosystem to help us to propel this style of working forward," he added.