Similarity Systems Partners with Cognos to Provide Business-Focused Data Quality Solutions to Fuel Better Business Intelligence Analytics; Integrated Cleansing and Monitoring to Present Data Quality Metrics in Cognos 8 Business Intelligence

Business Wire, Jan 16, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas -- Similarity Systems, a leading provider of business-focused data quality solutions, has announced a silver level technology partnership with Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM). Through the Cognos Technology Partner Program, the two companies will provide enterprise customers with a range of solutions for analyzing, managing, monitoring and improving the quality of data within their Cognos business intelligence and analytics platforms.

Under the agreement unveiled today, Similarity Systems and Cognos have partnered to enable Similarity Systems' data quality metrics to be presented in Cognos 8 Business Intelligence. The two companies will also cooperate in joint marketing and sales initiatives, to promote good data quality strategies for Cognos' customers.

Cognos 8 BI is a complete, flexible product that easily integrates into existing infrastructures with multiple systems and data sources. These source systems can have varying levels of data quality. The degree to which a business intelligence system can achieve its promised insights and analysis depends heavily on the quality of the source data. With Similarity Systems ATHANOR data quality solution, Cognos 8 BI users can take control of enterprise-wide data quality, monitoring data quality levels within the data warehouse and tackling the up-stream source data quality issues at multiple points across the organization.

"Cognos 8 BI is designed to provide CIOs and business leaders with a complete view of business issues for high value decision-making on a global scale. By dealing with the quality of source data and monitoring ongoing quality levels in the data warehouse, Similarity Systems data quality solutions provides Cognos' customers with access to the high quality information they need to drive better business decisions," said Garry Moroney, chief executive officer, Similarity Systems.

"Effective decision making depends on having one single, accurate version of the truth about a company's business performance," said Patrick O'Leary, vice president of Strategic Alliances at Cognos. "Through this partnership and the combination of Cognos 8 BI with Similarity Systems' data quality solutions, customers gain greater confidence in their data and in the business decisions they make."

Similarity Systems ATHANOR is a unique data quality solution that enables business information owners to maintain centralized control and management of data quality standards. Similarity Systems solutions offer all the functionality needed to initiate and manage data quality strategies, from profiling and analysis of multiple data sources through to cleansing, de-duplication and consolidation. The solution is supported across multiple platforms and can handle all data types including Unicode character sets.

About Similarity Systems

Similarity Systems (www.similaritysystems.com) is a leading provider of business-focused data quality management solutions. The company offers the most comprehensive data quality solution available on the market. Our flagship products Similarity Systems AXIO(TM) and ATHANOR(TM) provide all the functionality needed to initiate and manage enterprise-wide data quality programs, from profiling and analysis of multiple data sources through to cleansing, de-duplication and consolidation.

Implementing data quality with AXIO and ATHANOR is helping organizations to reduce supply chain breakdowns, comply with regulations such as Basel II, MiFID, SOX and know your client (KYC) and improve business decision making and customer relationship management. Whether migrating legacy data to a new enterprise application or managing an ongoing master data quality program, Similarity Systems offers all the functionality needed to ensure high-quality data is available all the time.

* Similarity Systems, Similarity Systems AXIO and ATHANOR are trademarks or registered trademarks of Similarity Systems Ltd. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.