B I S T E C H   U P D A T E   Spring 2005

As a professional services company, we owe to our customers to ensure our Consultants meet the highest levels of accreditation.  So, it’s with great pride that we announce our recent awards as a ‘Cognos Accredited Consulting Partner’ and 'Microsoft Certified Partner'.  These accreditations have been achieved through Bistech's commitment and our Consultants commitment to the Cognos and Microsoft Partner Certification Programs -  programs designed by Cognos and Microsoft to ensure the quality delivery of services with their products.  Bistech is the ONLY Cognos partner in Queensland to meet the Cognos Accredited Consulting Partner standard of excellence and one of only a few in Australia! We are also one of only a few Microsoft Partners to obtain the Microsoft Business Intelligence Solutions competency.

“This accreditation recognises our long-term commitment to our customers, our people and our partnership with Cognos.  We are proud to be the first company in Queensland to achieve this accreditation which together with our skilled people, enables us to provide quality Business Intelligence  solutions to our customers”. (Justin Hoareau – Bistech Director)

As a Cognos Accredited Consulting Partner  we can provide expertise in strategy, design, implementation and customisation services related to Cognos Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management Solutions.  The consulting and systems integration companies achieving this accreditation may provide specialised domain, application and industry expertise as well as other specialised services to Cognos customers.  Cognos Accredited Consulting Partners have qualified resources on staff to implement solutions on a local and national scale.

This means that together with our current Cognos Gold Reseller status, Bistech is fully qualified to provide you, our valued customer, with all your Cognos product and solution needs!

"We are extremely pleased to announce our partnership with the world's leading software vendor! This achievement recognises the expertise of our people in the deployment of MS SQL Server. We have successfully assisted a number of customers to build a Data Warehouse/Data Marts on this robust DBMS platform". (Shane Morgan - Bistech Director).

The Microsoft Business Intelligence Solutions Competency that Bistech has attained, is designed to provide additional benefits and support to Microsoft Certified Partners with proven competency in implementing solutions specialising in data warehousing and other business intelligence solutions. Microsoft  Certified Partners enrolled in the Business Intelligence Solutions Competency have proven their competency in deploying solutions that feature data warehousing, business intelligence, online analytical processing, data mining, decision support and in-depth reporting solutions.

Having this Microsoft recognition validates Bistech's ability to deliver Business Intelligence solution built on the backbone of  a SQL Server DBMS environment

COGNOS 8 – NO IMITATIONS. NO LIMITATIONS...
As many of you are aware, Cognos held an all day event on the 18^th October at the Brisbane Convention Centre called ‘Performance 2005 – Advancing Business Performance’.  The event shared insights on how to drive higher performance in your organization and get more value from your Cognos technology.  Also showcased was the next major product release - a whole new level in BI software from Cognos: A single BI solution for all BI requirements, on a single Web Services-based, services oriented architecture. 

This very exciting release called ‘Cognos 8’ will become available to the general public from late November 2005, with automatic shipment to supported customers in late Feb / early Mar 2006 (this will be the first Maintenance Release of Cognos 8).

The response from initial demonstrations and beta customers has been very positive and we believe many of our existing customers will benefit from the enhanced features and single architecture that Cognos 8 provides. A number of Bistech Senior Consultants will be among the first to be trained in the new products features, several weeks prior to its general availability.  

Have you ever wanted the same ‘Reporter’ functionality of PowerPlay Client in PowerPlay Web?  Cognos 8 delivers on this and many more new features which are sure to keep even the fussiest report designer happy!

For more information on Cognos 8 feel free to contact us or visit www.cognos.com.au and follow the links to the online interactive demos.

WELCOME TO OUR LATEST RECRUITS...
No sooner has Cognos announced its innovative next release of Cognos 8 that Bistech can now announces its equivalent – “Bistech 8”.  No, it’s not a product it is the number of senior consulting now on our team – 8!!!  So, it’s with great pleasure that we introduce three of our newest team members;

Ryan Harris (B. Com – Acc/IT)

Ryan joins Bistech from Cognos Australia where he has spent the last 12 months working on numerous high profile Cognos deployments including The Commonwealth Bank, The Australian Communications & Media Authority and Ipswich City Council.  While working for Cognos, Ryan attained the highest level of certification available in the Cognos toolset, becoming a Cognos Solutions Professional. Originally from South Africa, Ryan previously worked as a Senior Consultant for a Cognos partner assisting a number of major corporations such as Merck Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Pharmaceutical and Nestle with the deployment of their Cognos  Business Intelligence (BI) solution.  Appointed as a Senior BI Consultant with Bistech, Ryan is a welcome addition to our team, bringing with him a wealth of experience across all the products including Cognos ReportNet.  Ryan will focus on providing ongoing support to our existing Cognos customers as well as assisting new clients with their BI & CPM initiatives.  

If you would like to talk to Ryan about any aspect of your deployment, please don't hesitate to contact him on;
email: rharris@bistech.com.au
phone: 3230 0377 

Mark Morton (B. Sci. (Hons), MCT, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, MCSA, MCP, CCT, CCA, CCEA, CCI, CCNA, CIW)

As you can see from Mark’s qualifications, he brings a very impressive and extensive range of expertise to the Bistech team in his new role as Senior Technical Consultant.  An experienced trainer, Mark joins Bistech from IT&T Brisbane where he was the Senior Technical Trainer & Consultant, responsible for running the Microsoft Official Curriculum courses.  Mark is a product specialist in the areas of Windows 2000/2003, SQL Server, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, OLAP, Network and Server Security.  A technical presenter at this years Microsoft TechEd 2005, Mark has many years experience consulting in the Microsoft, Citrix & Cisco product sets, providing his expertise to such organizations as Queensland Police, Queensland Rail, KPMG and the Colorado Group. 

If you would like to talk to Mark about any aspect of a Microsoft BI solution, please don't hesitate to contact him on;
email: mmorton@bistech.com.au
phone: 3230 0377

James Cahill (BA.(Comp.Sci), MGP&PAff)

James joins the Bistech team as our new Sales Director. With many years experience in high-end corporate IT sales and consulting in his native US homeland, James has spent the last 10 years in Sydney assisting companies such as IBM, Compuware, Pyramid Technologies and Information Builders to grow their business. James will be responsible for account management, software & consulting sales and will also assist with formulation of our marketing strategies. 

If you would like to talk to James about our products and services, please don't hesitate to contact him on;
email: jcahill@bistech.com.au
phone: 3230 0377

COGNOS FORUM 2005 & MOVEX AUSTRALASIAN USERS GROUP… 
This years Cognos Forum was held over two days in July on the beautiful (somewhat cloudy) Sunshine Coast.  This was the first time this event has been run in our beautiful state with over 200 Cognos users and partners in attendance.  Those who attended were treated to a variety of information sessions, including everything from user presentations and forum discussions to product labs and best practice workshops.  Overall a worthwhile, informative and very well run event from Cognos and it’s user community.

Bistech was fortunate enough to have a corporate presence for the first time this year with a sponsored booth setup in the main breakout area.  For two days we kept ourselves busy answering various Cognos questions and queries from passers-by including many of our existing customers who also popped by to say hello.  

Prior to the event we managed to capture a number of our customer’s success stories on film which we successfully edited and had on playback at our stand.  It was a very worthwhile exercise and the end results greatly complimented our stand displays at the event.  

Many thanks to Lee (Couran Cove), Tony (Port Of Bris), Peter (Cellnet) and Justin (FoneZone) for taking time out of their busy schedules to provide some kind words about Bistech & how we’ve assisted with their Cognos deployments.

Pack your woolies for next years Cognos Forum as it is being held at the Crown Casino in Melbourne between the July 26^th – July 28^th, 2006.   If any of you would like to present your Cognos success stories at this event next year, please let us know.  Those chosen to present will have their registration and attendance paid for by Cognos which is well worth the effort for a 1 hour presentation!

BISTECH – A NEW LOOK & FEEL…

In building a bigger, better Bistech we recently commenced the process of developing a corporate image to match our ever evolving and growing business. As you have probably already recognised our logo has changed and our website ( currently "under construction") will soon reveal the full extent of our new corporate image.

COGNOS 8 ONE PRODUCT...

Missed the recent Cognos 8 demonstration session?  Well don’t fret...most of the new features can be viewed online at the Cognos 8 mini site (click here).

 All Users. All Data. All BI.

 What the industry is saying?

 BI Interactive Demo

Built from the ground up using modern web architectures, Cognos 8 leads off from where the ground breaking Cognos ReportNet® product started.  In fact, Cognos 8 is built from the proven architecture of ReportNet, offering a single authoring solution for all types of enterprise reporting no matter what the source is.

UPGRADE TO COGNOS SERIES 7.4…
Not ready to move to Cognos 8?  In providing greater options and flexibility to it’s customers, Cognos will be releasing an additional Series 7 release early 2006 with Cognos Series 7.4 

CLICK HERE to view the latest features in action

We can assist you to seamlessly migrate your existing Cognos deployment to the latest version and take advantage of the following enhancements;

- Improved Web Interface
- Ability to use Layer's on the Web
- Ranking
- Zero Suppress Rows OR Columns
- Create Custom Subsets

CONTACT US to find out more about this service

GOT HIM RICHIE...
During this years Cognos Forum, attendees were wine, dined and treated to some first class entertainment during the gala dinner with some very special guests as part of the evening.  The Bistech ‘Directors’ had the pleasure of meeting one of these guests in Billy Birmingham (The 12^th Man). 

Being long time fans of the comedian, they made sure Billy didn’t leave empty handed.  He was last seen leaving Qld as an honorary Bistech team member wearing his new Bistech Hat & Polo-shirt!!!

OFFICE CONNECTION IS HERE…
In our last newsletter we mentioned that Cognos were to release a Microsoft Office component to allow easy integration between Cognos web components and Excel.  This is now available for supported customers and is included as part of your existing support agreements - meaning there’s no cost!  Those customers running Cognos ReportNet & PowerPlay Web can now utilize this tool with the only pre-requisite being you need to be running the Cognos Connection web portal. 

CONTACT US for more details.

BISTECH @ MAUG FORUM 2005...

This years MOVEX AUSTRALASIAN USERS GROUP (MAUG) was also held in Queensland at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.  Bistech participated in the forum as a sponsor and Cognos representative for the two day event.  MAUG is an independent ‘user led’ association for customers of Intentia's Movex ERP application. The event drew users from all over Australia and New Zealand, with a number of our existing customers such as Ausco, Cellnet and GWA  in attendance.

BISTECH PTY LTD
Level 20, 300 Queen Street BRISBANE QLD 4000
Ph: (07) 3230 0377
Fx: (07) 3230 0299
Web: www.bistech.com.au
Email: info@bistech.com.au