Brooke Somers, Tanya Pobuda

BURLINGTON, MA, August 15, 2001 - As the largest multi-service benefits outsourcing firm in the U.S., Hewitt Associates answers more than 30 million HR-related calls per year – and knows a little something about information overload. In order to ease the burden on their associates but continue to provide their clients with the highest standard of service, Hewitt chose to deploy an extranet solution from Cognos® (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN) the leading provider of business intelligence solutions.

With a client roster that includes more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500 and more than a third of the Global 500, Hewitt needed a leading-edge solution to help them stay competitive. Cognos’ extranet solution has allowed Hewitt to create a self-serve environment for their clients to log on, access, and analyze their benefits information.

"Previously, clients did not have easy access to their benefits information. They needed to contact their client teams to run the queries, which meant that Hewitt staff was spending a lot of time handling ad-hoc requests," said Mike Jennings, Hewitt Associates. "With Cognos, clients are able to log into a secure portal, access their benefits data, and slice and dice information to suit their individual needs."

Jennings used the example of the 401k plan: with Cognos, clients can drill down through data to discover if the plan is being utilized or under-utilized. "We can see how the twenty-something’s are taking advantage of the plan and if they aren’t, we can then adjust our communications efforts accordingly."

A Cognos customer since 1995, Hewitt already has a central data warehouse that spins off data to data marts for specific purposes, i.e. HR or financial data. "We needed a business intelligence solution that would integrate with our current systems and architecture, as well as provide the functionality and security required for an extranet deployment," added Jennings.

"Hewitt is adding new business value to their customer relationships by empowering clients to seek their own business answers," said Alan Rottenberg, senior vice president, E-Business Applications Business Unit, Cognos. "Cognos is best equipped to deliver the most comprehensive business intelligence solution and Hewitt is exemplary of our best-in-class extranet capabilities."

Cognos is the leading provider of enterprise business intelligence solutions that optimize the performance of the world’s largest and most successful organizations. Founded in 1969, Cognos serves more than 17,000 customers in 120 countries around the world. Cognos business intelligence solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.

Note to Editors: Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on the Cognos Web site at www.cognos.com and at PR Newswire's site at www.prnewswire.com.