Size Up Performance Metric ManagementSize Up Performance Metric Management

CTX Mortgage. Co. wants to monitor performance metrics at the business, regional, and branch level, including profit-per-loan, fixed-expense-per-loan, and employee head count. So CTX has turned to Cognos Metrics Manager, the next generation of the vendor's balanced-scorecard application, which pulls information from operational applications and data sources and analyzes it using Cognos' PowerPlay online analytical processing tool or third-party OLAP software.

The software offers more in-depth metric management functionality than Cognos' previous scorecard offering. It can show how metrics affect each other and support many performance-measurement methodologies such as Six Sigma and International Standards Organization 9000. And it's easier to use and load data into, says Harry Hixson, senior VP of IT at CTX, which is beta-testing the new version.

Pricing for Cognos Metrics Manager, available in December, is expected to be $50,000 to $100,000 for 100 users.