Deloitte enterprise applications performance management leader Ray Pineda said his firm developed a blueprint with Cognos by using its knowledge of financial risk, audit and control objectives and collated input from multiple clients and experts.

"This joint work represents leading practices compiled from related engagements with hundreds of clients," Pineda said. "This blueprint provides a roadmap for customers that include necessary process and application controls to implement a consolidation system."

Cognos global innovation center director Jeff Holker said while the blueprints are formed on enterprise experience, privacy is not a concern as identifiable information is removed.

"The blueprints are torn back to grassroots to protect company information or 'dirty laundry' so they end up hard templates, rather than case studies," Holker said. "Companies enjoy contributing to blueprints, because they can create a focus of attention for problem areas in their industry."

He said both the innovation center, which has 1000 global members, and blueprint concepts are unique, noting access to the facility is free of charge.