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SAN MATEO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—December 5, 2005—Ventana Research, the leading Performance Management research and advisory services firm, announces the mid-year release of the Ventana Research 2005 Performance Management Vendor and Product Scorecard, an assessment of over 30 vendors and 70 products. 

The results show that Geac continues to be the top ranking software vendor in the study designed to accelerate knowledge of vendors and products to help organizations assess or evaluate Performance Management investments.  Cognos and SymphonyRPM also showed strong results in multiple categories.

"The importance of enabling Performance Management continues to rise inside of organizations and the lack of factual research on how technology from vendors complies has made it more complex," said Mark Smith, CEO and SVP of Research.  "The Performance Management Scorecard has become a valuable tool for organizations to reduce the risk, time and costs in making critical decisions on suppliers."

Once again, the scoring, based on approximately 300 questions within 43 functional capabilities sections and 13 functional requirements sections, was broken down into the categories of align, optimize and understand.  These three steps are the foundation of Ventana Research’s Performance Management methodology, PerformanceCycleTM.  The scorecard is independent and objective research that is based on factual analysis of vendors and their products, and is not sponsored.

Here is a summary of the findings for the overall ranking as well as rankings to each of the key steps in PerformanceCycle:

Overall – Leaders in Performance Management in the overall category are Geac, SymphonyRPM and Cognos.  Geac remains the overall winner with Geac MPC Corporate Performance Management Bundle 7.0 which had a 97% compliance to the questions followed by SymphonyRPM 4.2 at 91% and Cognos 8 BI Professional at 90%.

Align – Focusing on ensuring recommended actions and plans are on the direct path for reaching the goals, objectives and initiatives set out by executives and management, the leaders in Performance Management are Geac, Cognos and SymphonyRPM.  Geac scored highest with Geac MPC Corporate Performance Management Bundle 7.0 which had an 97% compliance to the questions followed by Cognos 8 BI Professional at 89% and SymphonyRPM at 87%.

Optimize - Focusing on planning for future actions and decisions to define the goals, objectives and initiatives as set out in the align step, the leaders in Performance Management for this category are Geac, SymphonyRPM and Oracle.  Geac had 96% compliance with Geac MPC Corporate Performance Management Bundle 7.0, followed by SymphonyRPM 4.5 at 91% and Oracle BI 10g at 88%.

Understand - Focusing on reviewing the historical performance of people and processes, this step enables you to understand how results impact the organization, the leaders in Performance Management for this category are Geac, Cognos and Oracle.  Geac led with Geac MPC Corporate Performance Management Bundle 7.0 which had an 99% compliance to the questions followed by Cognos 8 BI Professional at 96% and Oracle with Oracle Business Intelligence 10g at 96% and Actuate Enterprise Reporting Platform 8.0 at 95%.

The executive summary will be distributed to major media channel partners of Ventana Research, including BusinessIntelligence.COM, Source Media - DM Review, CMP United Business Media, Montgomery Research and others.

Get an executive summary of the study results and a list of participating vendors at www.ventanaresearch.com/2005scorecard.  This research is available to Ventana Research Performance Management Community members, which is complimentary with registration at www.ventanaresearch.com.  The full report is available for purchase or through Ventana Research strategic workshop and assessment services. This research will be updated twice a year to accommodate new vendors and products as well as product enhancements.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading Performance Management research and advisory services firm.  We help companies align business requirements with technology solutions to improve performance.  What makes Ventana Research different from other analyst firms is our focus on Performance Management for the CFO, CIO and COO, the deep experience of our analysts, our ongoing research and objective services.  To learn more about our Performance Management workshops, assessments and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

Media Contact: Marisela Reynoso  

(925) 242-2579 marketing@ventanaresearch.com