Cognos Positioned in "Leaders" Quadrant of Analyst Report on Corporate Performance Management Suites

Business Wire, Dec 21, 2007

-- Evaluation based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision --

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Cognos[R] (NASDAQ: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced it is positioned in the leaders quadrant in Gartner, Inc.'s recently released Corporate Performance Management Suites 2007 Magic Quadrant.1 Vendors are evaluated annually based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Gartner defines Corporate Performance Management (CPM) as including "processes.... such as strategy formulation, budgeting and forecasting; methodologies that drive some of the processes, such as the balanced scorecard or value-based management; and the metrics used to measure performance against strategic and operational performance goals."

Cognos 8 Planning 8.2, a significant Planning product upgrade that was released last quarter, has improved user interface options (through web client and Excel) and now leverages all Cognos 8 platform services. Cognos Controller, also updated earlier this year, is aimed at those who manage financial consolidation. Additionally, Cognos' recent acquisition of Applix further strengthens its position as a leading provider of performance management solutions, bringing TM1 one of the fastest in memory OLAP engines on the market to its product portfolio, and strengthening general reporting and analytics capabilities.

Cognos helps customers globally such as BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) ensure better internal decision-making through faster delivery and increased visibility of key performance metrics.

As Tennessee's largest provider of healthcare coverage, insurance products, and services, representing more than 2.3 million member clients, BCBST manages a tremendous volume of data. In 1996, BCBST selected Cognos as its standard BI toolset to achieve a view of its business-critical information and to enhance analysis and reporting capabilities. To support a broader Corporate Performance Management strategy at the organization, BCBST subsequently implemented Cognos Planning and metrics. More recently, the company developed a Proof-of-Concept application to demonstrate the business value of integrating text analytics, predictive analytics, enterprise search, and traditional BI software using Cognos Go! Search, Cognos 8 BI, and IBM's OmniFind solutions. As a 2007 recipient of both a Cognos Performance Leadership Award, and IBM's Information on Demand Award for Best Information Integration Project of the Year, BCBST has a distinct customer view of the completeness of the Cognos vision of Performance Management.

"The complex enterprise-wide performance management challenges that we are now addressing require complementary functionality and a tight integration at all levels of the supporting technologies, including data integration tools, database platform technology, and performance management software," said Frank Brooks, senior manager of data resource management and chief data architect, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. "It's also critical that each of these components provide world-class capabilities based on their own merit. We've already benefited from the capabilities and integration of IBM's DB2 Server technology and their Information Server suite of data integration tools. We've also implemented a number of innovative business solutions using Cognos' expanding set of Business Intelligence and Performance Management tools."

"In my opinion, our placement in the leaders' quadrant validates our vision and shows that our global customer base continues to rely on Cognos as their performance management partner," said Rob Ashe, president and CEO, Cognos. "Our strategic vision for Performance Management has always been centered on delivering innovation and expertise for our customers, and providing customers with planning, budgeting and forecasting solutions that successfully drives faster, better informed decision-making at all levels across the entire enterprise."

(1) Gartner, Inc., "Magic Quadrant for CPM Suites, 2007" by Nigel Rayner et al, December 19, 2007

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendor's measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Cognos:

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, provides world-class enterprise planning and BI software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance.