Cognos Introduces Next Generation Scorecarding Solution

- Cognos Metrics Manager Links Individual Metrics to Overall Corporate Performance -

    BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 7, 2002 --
Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; Toronto: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence
(BI), today announced Cognos Metrics Manager, a dynamic scorecarding solution
that enables organizations to actively monitor, analyze, and report at every
level of the business. Cognos Metrics Manager is the latest example of the
company's corporate performance management (CPM) vision in action - delivering
software that allows enterprise companies to measure execution against
business strategy.
    This breakthrough performance solution adds a new dimension - "management"
- to business metrics. Global 2000 organizations today have been forced to
report critical budgeting, forecasting plans, and actuals using spreadsheets
and presentations, which is largely a manual and non-integrated process. Using
Cognos Metrics Manager, organizations can now focus on performance by linking
execution and accountability to goals. For these companies, Cognos Metrics
Manager enables self-sufficiency, allowing individuals to access metrics that
are directly linked to the corporate strategy and to prioritize accordingly.
    As part of the Cognos Series 7 BI solution, Cognos Metrics Manager gives
decision-makers a rich environment to exploit the extensive range of Cognos
Series 7 functionality including visualizations, reports, and analysis. This
integration enables a truly collaborative decision-making environment for
business users, allowing them to easily share and distribute information tied
to key performance indicators. The decision-making flow moves cleanly from
"what" is happening to "why" it is happening.
    "Balanced scorecard implementations often fail because the underlying
business intelligence is missing. Tightly integrated BI is critical to the
success of any scorecard initiative because without it people can't ask
critical questions such as 'Why is the scorecard metric on or off track?'
and 'What can I do about it?'," said Frank Buytendijk, research director at
Gartner. "Business Intelligence tools allow users to drill down and find the
detail behind the questions."
    "The need for greater visibility into business performance is critical for
companies today," said Henry Morris, vice president of Applications and
Information Access at IDC.  "With Metrics Manager, Cognos adds highly visual,
cross-functional performance management to its portfolio of business
intelligence tools and analytic applications. This should be welcome news for
Cognos' customers and business partners."
    "Staying on top of the factors that drive our business is critical in this
tumultuous economic environment," said Harry Hixson, CTX Mortgage Company
senior vice president of information technology. "Cognos Metrics Manager is
easy to use and powerful enough to provide the scorecarding solution we need
to manage business performance across our company."
    Cognos Metrics Manager's 'open methodology' approach ensures customers can
implement any of a number of quality/performance initiatives including Six
Sigma, Balanced Scorecard, ISO 9000, EFQM and Total Quality Management (TQM),
and manage these performance methodologies with Cognos solutions. It also
provides out-of-the-box implementation and features simple, intuitive user
interfaces making it easy for employees at all levels of an organization to
learn and use.

    Executives and managers worldwide are already using Cognos BI to better
monitor and manage enterprise performance. Organizations from healthcare,
financial services, the public sector, and manufacturing are using Cognos
dashboarding and scorecarding solutions to link individual execution with
overall business strategy across the enterprise, fulfilling a critical element
of effective CPM.
    "Cognos was the first BI vendor to articulate a vision for the strategic
application of business intelligence. Our clear leadership position in the
scorecarding market today shows that we have a solid and successful track
record. The introduction of Cognos Metrics Manager will only extend that lead.
Delivering solutions that help organizations align business strategy with
execution across the enterprise continues to be our mandate," said Rob Ashe,
president and chief operating officer at Cognos.

    About Cognos:
    Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence (BI), delivers software
that helps companies improve business performance by enabling effective
decision-making at all levels of the organization. A forerunner in defining
the BI software category, Cognos delivers the next level of competitive
advantage-Corporate Performance Management (CPM)-achieved through the
strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale.
    CPM lets organizations measure execution against business strategy to
ensure the two are aligned at all levels across the enterprise. Cognos
provides a framework for CPM that links people, information, and decision-
making processes throughout the organization, and enables the complete
management cycle with integrated software for planning, budgeting, reporting,
analysis, and scorecarding.
    Cognos serves more than 20,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos
enterprise 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.

    Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks in the
United States and other countries. All other names are trademarks of their
respective owners.

    Media Contacts
    Sean Reid
    Cognos, 613-738-1440
    Brenda Menard
    The Horn Group, 781-356-7133

    Investor Relations:
    John Lawlor
    Cognos, 613-738-3503