Cognos today announced it is embedding the Composite Information Server from Composite Software, the leading independent provider of Enterprise Information Integration (EII), into Cognos ReportNet™ through an exclusive BI OEM agreement. Cognos has further solidified the partnership by making a $4.5 million minority equity investment in Composite Software.

The Composite relationship is one of many initiatives underway to deliver on Cognos’ open data strategy for its customers. Cognos, recognized for its leadership and ability to provide the broadest and deepest solution for BI standardization, is committed to helping customers leverage their increasingly complex data environments in order to maximize their return on investments. This agreement provides Cognos with a solution to support very high performance joins on an expanded set of disparate data sources.

With this agreement, Cognos allows new styles of reporting and analysis by combining historic data from warehouses with real-time operational information from a wide range of data sources including XML, JDBC, WSDL and LDAP—enabling a “single version of the truth”—without moving or replicating data. Organizations can dynamically access and leverage all information, internal or external, no matter where the information resides in order to be more competitive.

“Our research into the use of business intelligence applications for enterprise operations shows that integrating data from multiple data sources is a key requirement. Augmenting the data warehouse with dynamic data from other sources that include Java applications, the Internet, and other similar sources drive this requirement,” said Eric Rogge, Vice President and Research Director at Ventana Research. “Solutions such as the integration of Cognos ReportNet with the Composite Information Server are a natural extension of BI technology and are a necessary step forward to meet emerging enterprise information needs.”

Through its modern Web Services architecture, Cognos offers an open data strategy to leverage existing investments companies have made in capturing data assets and data integration strategies, including EII and Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) software. Through the embedded Composite Information Server capabilities and through active partnerships with Ascential, Informatica, IBM Information Integrator, Attunity and other data integration technologies, Cognos strengthens ReportNet’s appeal to meet the broad user and diverse reporting requirements of the enterprise.

“The open data strategy demonstrates why Cognos is the leader in BI—Cognos offers the data flexibility and breadth that customers are seeking,” said Jim Green, Chairman and CEO at Composite Software. “We’re pleased to be the only EII technology to be embedded into Cognos ReportNet.”

“Of all the EII platforms we tested, Composite offered the best combination of outstanding performance and simplicity of operation, and we are pleased that Cognos is the exclusive BI platform for the Composite Information Server,” said Neal Hill, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Cognos. “We will continue to take the lead in responding to the market need for true enterprise reporting and BI standardization.”

The Composite Information Server for Cognos ReportNet is available immediately at no additional charge.