We talk a lot about getting business intelligence into the hands of everyone who needs it. Over the past year or two the vendor community has recognized this need and seems to be tracking toward that goal. But once a technology has been selected who is truly responsible for the adoption? Companies that are successful generally have passionate, creative team leaders who "get it". I had the pleasure of meeting Susan Dean at a Cognos User Conference this year and was struck by her out of the box thinking and attitude. Susan is the Business Intelligence Director at Mölnlycke Health Care US, LLC and she and her team have taken the challenge of business intelligence adoption head on.

Perhaps her best tool is the book her team created titled "Cognos 4 Dummies, The complete guide for using Cognos to make reports, presentations and targeting easier". A 90+ page guide for users to discover Cognos Cheat Sheets, The stuff We Always Forget, Whats Available and Where is it and a bunch more. Its an incredible resource and one that according to Susan was developed out of necessity, her team is small. They needed a way to service the users (100+) without sacrificing their ability to evolve and grow.

From an ROI standpoint Susan's efforts have been rewarded, monthly forecasting has taken huge leaps in time savings up to 75% reduction, they have grown the business intelligence reach into the marketing department and other critical areas of the business. Susan has partnered with Cognos to create a culture that services her business users like clients and Cognos has worked with Susan to match service needs to the business in order to continue the fostering and adoption.

Susan would be mad if I finished this post without sharing the spotlight, she will tell you that this can't be done without a solid and dedicated team and and executive group that gets it as well. Susan also gives credit to Cognos for taking the standard vendor relationship outside the box.

Susan has been known to wear t-shirts promoting BI use at her company and she attends every user group so keep an eye out for her at the next Cognos function.

Keep up the good work Susan!!

UPDATE: 07/24/07 As of today I have sent out 100 copies of the Cognos for Dummies PDF. I am glad you all are enjoying the resource. Again, my thanks to Susan Dean and her team for creating it.

UPDATE: 09/02/07 Follow this link to see an update about distribution - Keep those requests coming!!

UPDATE 11/04/07 Susan Dean the Author of Cognos 4 Dummies stopped by the blog this past week and was stunned to see how many of you are enjoying the resource. She hopes to update it in the near future and will add Cognos 8 information as well. Thanks Susan!!!

UPDATE 1/29/08 File alert the PDF is 5 Meg so if you have requested it and not received it it was probably rejected by your mail server. Feel free to re-request it using a Gmail or Hotmail type account. I've lost track of how many have gone out but as you can see I get 2 -4 requests almost every day.

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