Business Finance Magazine, Cognos Sponsor 2004 Vision Awards to Recognize Excellence in Business Performance Management

DARIEN, Conn., April 12, 2004 -- Companies that excel in business performance management can enter to win the 2004 Vision Awards to recognize their leadership, Business Finance Magazine and Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; Toronto: CSN) announced today.

"Cognos is pleased to sponsor the 2004 Vision Awards, recognizing companies that have established organizational cultures that support and reinforce best practices in business performance management," said Rich Lanahan, Vice President Enterprise Planning, Cognos. "In the face of changing markets, increased regulatory pressures, and a desire to optimize operations, the most successful companies are taking an integrated, broad-based approach to managing performance. This award will honor those companies that have succeeded in adopting business performance management best practices that further the achievement of their corporate goals and objectives."

Now in their eighth year, the Vision Awards are the only awards developed specifically to recognize business performance management.

"It's no surprise that business performance management is the number one strategic initiative for companies today," said David Blansfield, publisher of Business Finance Magazine. "In today's economic and regulatory environment, companies that demonstrate success in such fundamental disciplines as budgeting, planning and reporting achieve significant benefits on the top and bottom lines. Business Finance Magazine is honored to partner with Cognos to recognize those who've done it best."

Senior finance executives rate business performance management as their most important strategic initiative, according to a survey conducted by Readex Research for Business Finance Magazine. As a result of this trend, nominations for the Vision Awards have increased annually over several years.

The awards recognize organizations that have successfully developed and implemented integrated business performance management processes to include strategic planning, business planning and budgeting, performance measurement, and business and financial reporting. In addition to having met the above criteria, award winners have established organizational cultures that support and reinforce best practices in business performance management.

Organizations are evaluated and recognized by size, as determined by annual sales revenue/turnover, in four categories. The categories are:

-- Less than $500 million

-- Between $500 million and $1 billion

-- Between $1 billion and $5 billion

-- Greater than $5 billion

Past Vision Award winners include Best Buy Company Inc., Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Herman Miller Inc., The Dow Chemical Co., Northrop Grumman, Lucent Technologies, Fujifilm, Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC, Structural Dynamics Research Corp., Roy F. Weston Inc., The Boca Raton Resort & Club, Bar-S Foods, Disney's Contemporary Resort, National Transportation Exchange, InTuition Inc., Momentum Group, Bal Seal Engineering Co., American Petroleum Institute, Zebra Technologies Corp., Spray Equipment & Service Center Inc., St. John's Hospital, and United Asset Coverage Inc.

Executives interested in nominating their organization or customers for the 2004 Vision Awards may submit an application online at http://www.bfmag.com/visionawards.

The 2004 Vision Award winners will be profiled in an extensive article in Business Finance Magazine and featured in a national public relations campaign.

In addition, the winners of the 2004 Vision Awards will be recognized at a gala awards dinner held in their honor at the Business Performance Management Summit, October 19 and 20 at the New York Marriott Financial Center. All Vision Award winners' travel and conference expenses associated with this event will be assumed by the sponsors.

About Business Finance Magazine

Business Finance is a trade magazine about and for senior business and finance executives - CEOs, CFOs, COOs, treasurers, finance directors, etc. Its purpose is to help them do their jobs and make better purchasing decisions.

Editorially, Business Finance emphasizes content that anticipates important trends and quantifies their potential impact to its subscribers. Major areas of coverage include performance management, corporate finance, treasury and cash management, and technology management.

Business Finance is read by senior business and finance executives at mid-tier and large companies.

For more information or to subscribe to Business Finance, visit http://www.bfmag.com/subscribe.

About Cognos

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software that helps companies drive, monitor, and understand corporate performance. Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage - Corporate Performance Management (CPM) - achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through planning, monitor performance through scorecarding, and understand performance through business intelligence.

Cognos serves more than 22,000 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 of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Business Finance Magazine

Web Site: http://www.cognos.com

http://www.bfmag.com/visionawards

http://www.bfmag.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Contacts:
      David Blansfield
      Business Finance Magazine
      (203) 559-2849
      dblansfield@businessfinancemag.com

      Antonietta Iafrate
      Cognos
      (781) 313-2454
      antonietta.iafrate@cognos.com