Pitney Bowes MapInfo Integrates Software with Cognos 8 Platform

Location intelligence vendor adds another BI suite integration to take geospatial analysis mainstream.

Just as some advocates think it's time to take analytics mainstream, Pitney Bowes MapInfo hopes it can do the same for location intelligence. After years of selling desktop software to geospatial analysis gurus, the vendor has been attempting to push its server-based software out to a wider base of users. The latest step in that effort came yesterday as the vendor introduced a Location Intelligence Component (LIC) for the IBM Cognos 8 BI platform.

Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Cognos previously supported API-level integration between MapInfo and Cognos software, but the LIC is an out-of-the-box product that lets Cognos 8 users more easily exploit the geographic dimensions within their data. "For years we've been able to show maps in the middle of BI but this brings location intelligence right into the BI workflow," says Don Campbell, CTO at Cognos. "It's an integrated link that passes parameters back and forth between tools rather than just launching separate tools on your desktop."

The LIC makes geospatial analysis much more accessible, says Jon Winslow, director of business development at Pitney Bowes MapInfo: "Customers were telling us 'these maps are fantastic, but what do I do for reports and charts and dashboards.' The next thing they would say is 'I've already invested in this business intelligence platform and I have lots of people using it. Is there anything I can do so we don't have to maintain two separate applications?'"

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