IBM Cognos Lifecycle Extended to Give a Bold IT Roadmap a Boost

Customer Profile

Global automotive manufacturer with over 5000 employees and operations in more than 140 countries.

Industry

Automotive

Location

US

Products

IBM Cognos

Company Size

Large

The Problem

IBM Cognos renewal date interferes with a forward-thinking migration strategy

Our client was making big strides toward digital transformation. Next up on its roadmap was the implementation of a brand new data warehouse, which would move data storage away from its old –but stable– IBM Cognos estate.

They needed to ensure full business continuity while improvements were being made and needed solid Cognos support to maintain uptime.

But their Cognos renewal date was fast approaching. If they upgraded with IBM® they would get locked into a Cognos contract long after they had already moved to their new data solution. If they didn’t upgrade, IBM wouldn’t be there to support them.

Upgrading with IBM would commit an important chunk of their IT budget to a system they intended to replace, rather than freeing it up for projects that would help the company become more agile moving forward.

“The biggest success is the cost savings – they let us deploy those budget dollars to projects that carry forward our business.”

The Solution

Outstanding IBM Cognos support helps company move forward

A Gartner analyst suggested the company look at third-party software support as a viable alternative to renewing with IBM. The company’s IT team quickly felt at ease with our level of understanding of Cognos interoperability and legacy risks.

Our IBM product experts stepped in and supported the company to maintain its current IBM software versions – without paying for costly upgrades they didn’t need. What did they have to say about Origina support? “The Origina team is so much more engaged than IBM. Origina wants to talk to us every quarter and do regular check-ins”

The Result

The automotive manufacturer’s engagement with Origina delivered a range of benefits that ultimately made the company more agile and able to stay ahead of the game. Here’s what Origina helped them do:

Stabilize and secure their current IBM Cognos environment with no costly, unnecessary IBM upgrades
Saved on their annual IBM software support with expert technical debt management
Allocate more budget to the new data warehouse project, which boosted the project’s ROI
Successfully accomplish a decommission project with less complication and fewer expenses
Fund additional initiatives to accelerate the company’s IT modernization roadmap

"“We spent money on business projects that can change the company, rather than support a contract that wouldn’t have the same effect.”"