Latest News

We are IBM Business Partner of the Year - twice

At the IBM Business Partner Summit in Sydney on 22 March 2012, Certus was announced Business Partner of the Year 2011 for both Information Management and Tivoli. This is the third year in a row that we've won the Tivoli award (2009 - 2011) and the second time for Information Management - won in 2010 as Focus Strategies & Solutions. Director Tom Reich accepted the awards.

Our Data Quality Framework is available

We have developed and launched our Data Quality Framework (DQF) to manage  data quality issues. This solution together with its dashboard front end was showcased at the IBM BA Forum and is available now. 

Our DQF enables organisations to tackle one of the key challenges hindering accurate and timely corporate decision-making – poor management of business-critical data. 

Cognos Insight - New Product arrives

Cognos Insight & Personal Analytics

Melbourne Office Relocation Ph: (03) 9677 9003

With the new season comes a new office ... and our Melbourne folk are now settling into our new amalgamated office which brings Certus and Focus staff together.

We are located within AFL kicking distance of our previous offices in the IBM building so we're still easy to find, with coffee and food just downstairs.  

Gartner BI & IM Summit 2012

From Business Intelligence to Analytic Excellence
Focus (a Certus company) is delighted to support the Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit 2012. The BIIM Summit is the must-attend event for BIIM professionals held in Sydney on 21 & 22 February.

As a sponsor of this event, we are pleased to be able to offer you a special $440 discount on the standard delegate rate.

The agenda for Gartner Business Intelligence & Information Management Summit 2012 is over 40 sessions packed into 4 tracks and 2 virtual tracks and outlines how BI is used to manage performance and support decision making for your organisation.

IBM Business Analytics Forum 2012

This year's Forum will be held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Tues 13 - Thur 15 March 2012, and will be attended by approximately 700 delegates, including CEOs, CFOs and CIOs. In the tradition of Cognos Forum and IBM events there will be a wealth of real world experiences and product information for a wide range of attendees.

As a sponsor, Focus, a Certus company, will be at Forum exhibiting latest advances in the ever evolving Business Analytics toolset and as co-presenters with a number of our customers.  

We encourage you to come along - and are pleased to be able to offer a discounted conference rate, please contact us for further information. Visit the Forum home page here , or cut and paste this link: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/au/data/2012-conference/index.html

Latest news from IOD Vegas

Did you want to go to IOD in Vegas?....but couldn't make it?

Well the next best thing is follow some of the Focus team who are there.

Vincent McBurney, our Information Management Practice Lead and blogger and IBM Information Champion is keeping us up to date via .......
//twitter.com/vmcburney.

Visit this link to get the latest info and see what's getting our attention at IOD.  Not the same as being there, but it always helps to know whats going on.

PULSE 2011 - Focus showcase Cognos / Maximo integration

Now in its sixth year, Pulse has become a world-class technical conference focused on business outcomes for clients in every industry. This year's Pulse event, held in Melbourne on 27-28 July 2011, featured over 750 delegates and 30 speakers as well as a fantastic exhibition area showcasing the Focus and Certus capabilities.

Focus merges with Certus

We are pleased to announce that Focus Strategies and Solutions has been acquired by Certus Solutions (www.certussolutions.com.au).

Certus is the largest specialist pure play IBM services company in Australia and New Zealand, with expertise across all IBM software brands except the ones Focus specialise in.

Importantly for all customers and employees, it is business as usual at Focus.

The acquisition will not affect the Focus’ organisational structure, existing customer service contracts, or service commitments, and all clients will continue to be supported by the same Focus team.

In addition, as Focus and Certus integrate their people and operations, customers will be able to access a much broader range of IBM software, services, and infrastructure.

For further details, see the attached press release with further background information and Q&As.

TM1 9.5.2 Released

Despite the small increment in the version number (from 9.5.1 to 9.5.2), this release has significant improvements including changes to the database locking mechanism, multi-user access and parallel processing.  These changes will especially bring benefits to customers with a high number of input users.

If you would like to understand how your organisation could benefit from these new features, Focus will be pleased to assist.

Focus wins IBM Business Partner of the Year award

Focus has begun 2011 on a winning note, by receiving the IBM Business Analytics Partner of the Year award for Australia and New Zealand, for the fourth consecutive year.

The award recognises partner performance in the ANZ Business Analytics market - covering TM1, Cognos, and SPSS based software solutions.

In receiving the award, Tom Reich, Focus' Managing Director, praised the exceptional contributions of the sales and delivery team at Focus.  He noted that Focus’ reputation for consistently successful solution delivery to our clients continues to be Focus’ greatest asset, and the primary driver of Focus’ growth as IBM’s Premier Partner for Business Analytics and Information Management.

Metadata - Taking Back Control

Classifying and managing metadata is a requirement of mature data governance. It is central to identifying private and confidential information, estimating the impact of change, using and improving information and identifying information ownership.

In October and November of 2010, Vincent McBurney, Information Management Practice Lead for Focus, presented at the IBM Information on Demand Global Conference in Las Vegas, and then again at the Australian Business Analytics and Optimisation Forum on the Gold Cost.

Vincent presented on improving the data governance around classification and metadata using the InfoSphere Business Glossary and InfoSphere Discovery products to regain control of metadata.  He also related this to the work of the IBM Data Governance Council which promotes the Governance Maturity Model to illustrate different levels of capability.

Successful Forum 2010

Over 600 attendees, including 11 from Focus, learnt all about Cognos 10, and a lot more, at this year’s IBM Business Analytics Forum on the Gold Coast between 3-5 November 2010.

Focus co-presented some project success stories with some of our customers and presented some ground breaking mapping capabilities with live data presented in Google Earth. We were also honoured to support the Higher Education Special Interest group where the room was overflowing with people standing around the outside of the room. A session on Information Governance and Business Glossary using the IBM InfoSphere platform, by our IM practice Lead Vincent McBurney, was also well attended.

Cognos 10 is unleashed

Focus representatives were in the audience in Las Vegas on 25th October 2010, at the IBM Business Analytics Forum, when Rob Ashe, General Manager of IBM Business Analytics, launched IBM Cognos 10.

Cognos 10 is the first in a series of new innovations from IBM that will redefine the way users interact with information collaboratively.

Some lucky Focus consultants are already working with Cognos 10 on a customer project.

If you are interested to learn more about Cognos 10, just contact us and we will be very pleased to share further details.

Focus moves to a new Head Office location

Due to our continued success and growth, Focus has relocated its head office in Sydney.

We are now right across the road from the IBM offices at St Leonards, just 100m from our previous location.

   Focus Strategies & Solutions
   Level 3, 500 Pacific Highway
   St Leonards, NSW 2065

Our phone and fax numbers remain the same. 

IBM Business Analytics Forum 2010

Once again Focus will be attending and exhibiting at this year’s IBM Business Analytics Forum (previously known as Cognos Forum) at the Gold Coast between 3-5 November 2010.

Focus will be co-presenting some informative project success stories with some of our customers.  We also will be presenting a session on the IBM InfoSphere platform and some of the Cognos integration points.

Come and visit us at the Focus booth!