Volvofinans Uses Cognos BI to Drive Sales Operations

-- Efficient use of customer data with Cognos PowerPlay and Cognos ReportNet --

BURLINGTON, Mass. and STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 20 -- The Volvofinans Group, an authorized credit market company jointly owned by Ford and the Swedish Volvo dealers, has invested in solutions for reporting and analysis from Cognos , the world leader in Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management (CPM). With Cognos reporting and analysis capabilities, Volvofinans and its dealers will be able to use their massive amounts of customer data efficiently to give customers what they want, when they want it.

Volvofinans is a group of companies that support the sales of Volvo and Renault products through the provision of credit, loans and leasing. The Volvo card is one of Sweden's most popular credit cards. There are one million in circulation, and they can be used to buy anything from cars and tires to gas and candy at 70 Volvo dealers around the country.

Volvofinans obtains all sales data from Volvo cards. The information is of great interest to the marketing department. It is also beneficial for the Volvo dealers, who can interpret their results by comparing them to the changes in the country at large and identify where new sales efforts are being generated.

Volvofinans, which switched to Cognos as its BI standard, wanted to improve the ability to use and distribute its sales information. The group is investing in the Cognos solution for analysis, to interpret and analyze the information, and in Cognos' Web based reporting solution, Cognos ReportNet, in order for the marketing department and the dealers to take advantage of the insights gleaned from the sales data.

Cognos ReportNet allows Volvofinans and the dealers to design reports exactly the way they want with regards to both graphics and content. Initially the reports will be delivered per e-mail to one user group per dealer. At a later stage, the dealers will be able to get the information they require through a portal. Internally at Volvofinans, the solution will also be used by marketing and finance management as well as by the Group management team. The solution is being implemented and managed by Volvofinans IT together with consulting company Analyskuben.

"The Cognos solutions are very powerful; we have yet to discover any limitations. With ReportNet, the IT-department can rest assured that the users will be able to design and adapt their reports themselves. This gives us a number of opportunities to reach the customers. For instance, if any customers' rate of purchasing declines, we can rapidly approach them with targeted offers," said Johan Nordin, Head of IT at Volvofinans.

"Volvofinans shows how a company can take advantage of a uniquely detailed customer database to make better business decisions, achieve better risk control and more mutually beneficial contact with the customers," said Fredrik Prien, Managing Director of Cognos Sweden.

ABOUT VOLVOFINANS:

Volvofinans is an authorized credit market company that was started in 1959 and is owned equally by Ford Credit International, Inc., in the United States and the Swedish Volvo dealers. Operations are designed to promote the sale of Volvo and Renault products through financing via Volvo dealers in Sweden. The sales financing takes place in the form of loans and leasing contracts with private individuals and companies, via dealers. There are more than 1,000,000 Volvo cards in circulation and it is one of the most distributed cards in Sweden. AB Volvofinans is the parent company of a Group that also contains two wholly owned subsidiaries: Volvofinans Konto AB and Volvofinans IT AB. The Group's assets amount to slightly more than SEK 24 billion. For more information, visit http://www.volvofinans.se/

ABOUT COGNOS:

Cognos, the world leader in enterprise business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software and services that help companies drive, monitor and understand corporate performance.

Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage -- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) -- achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through planning; monitor performance through scorecarding; and understand performance through business intelligence.

Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise business intelligence and performance management solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com/.

Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.