PURPOSE, POWER
& POSSIBILITIES

PURPOSE

Cognito enables organizations to search their databases in their entirety to help identify patterns and trends. It can be used as a tool for identifying precise targets for specific types of communications about particular financial products and services. An example would be identifying members with large balances held in savings so that they can be contacted to discuss various investment options. Cognito can be used to look at an organization’s membership as it is broken down by age or credit score. This solution allows users to look at information from the organizational level right down to the individual level: for instance, comparing a member’s book of business with the credit union versus external sources to gauge their overall wallet-share. The bottom line is that Cognito makes it possible to make informed, strategic decisions.

POWER

Using On-Line Analytical Processing as its engine, Cognito is able to combine multiple demographic elements at lightning speed to produce insightful reports that human minds and manual processes would take days to accomplish. Its multi-faceted business insights are available on demand, according to whatever "filters" are applied. If a human resource manager is trying to determine how many staff they need working at a particular branch and when they need to be scheduled, Cognito allows them to quickly see what types of transactions are being processed at the
branch at a particular time and day of the week. Cognito can also be used to measure an organization's Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) on such metrics as member growth and profitability.

Since Cognito is a virtual warehouse, users can experiment with various filters/defining features until they pinpoint what they are looking for. Cognito can also be used to do a delinquency analysis of members that are behind on their payments. A branch or sales manager can use it to evaluate staff sales performance which could then be used for the purpose of an employee performance evaluation or to identify coaching opportunities.

Cognito’s computations are pre-calculated; so they are available immediately in either or both of report and graph forms. For marketing campaign purposes, once a target has been chosen, Cognito will access data it holds to provide you with account numbers, names, and addresses for a successful sales effort. This data can be imported directly into the ACE Campaign Loader and/or used to create a list for a direct mailing campaign.

Cognito’s power is not just in its capacity to give demographic delineation to a great breadth of data, but also in its ability to help organizations see trends over a period of time. A conventional report can give a point in time view of clients, but OLAP easily and quickly allows one to observe cubes over years and over selected months to discern whether what is happening is an aberration or part of a very significant trend. Since Cognito is a long-term tool for strategic planning, this "chronological widescreen" element is one of its essential benefits.

POSSIBILITIES

Executive decision makers can look at what Cognito generates through whatever medium is in place at their institution. The majority of Cognito users use an Excel spreadsheet. But there are a number of other front-ends that could be used as the "pipe" to deliver the power of this business intelligence software.