Ashe said Cognos' sales were "solid" among industrial and health-care companies, and that Cognos was betting on companies in emerging markets in industries such as telecom, banking and government to boost revenues as sales to banks sag.
While Ashe conceded that the sales environment for BI software "was very tough" as CIOs "are spending very carefully," he added that the publicly stated target of doubling its revenue to US$2 billion by the end of 2010 "is still on."
Cognos got into hot water last year when software it sold to the US state of Massachusetts was claimed to have been chosen during a flawed, rushed procurement process. Cognos was also accused of having improper financial ties with a leading Massachusetts politician, which led IBM to refund the money paid by the state for the Cognos software.
Asked if Cognos has changed its sales process as a result of the incident, Ashe said it was "an exception" and an "isolated event." Cognos, he said, has always had "good, tight processes in the compliance area." He declined to comment further.
A pair of customers that spoke to Computerworld say little has changed in their relationship with Cognos since the IBM takeover, and that suits them fine.
"After a year, nothing has happened to remove Cognos' focus on me as a customer, if anything, it's stronger than before," said Paul Vallee, CIO of Papa Gino's Inc. "I am very, very happy."
The 370-store restaurant chain based in Dedham, Mass., has been using Cognos for slightly more than a year to boost orders and accelerate delivery times.
"I was happy to see Cognos become a part of a huge organization like IBM," said Nihad Aytaman, director of business applications for fashion designer, Elie Tahari.
The New York-based clothesmaker and retailer began using Cognos for BI and performance management more than four years ago. The privately held company, which does about US$500 million in sales per year, credits Cognos with helping to cut its shipping costs by 30 percent and boosting sales by 10%.
"New features are going into the product. Supportwise, I haven't seen any disruption. I deal with the old Cognos people that I used to deal with," Aytaman said.