Cognos Launches Virtual Finance Forum To Share Best Practices for Performance Management

Business Wire, June 11, 2007

Inaugural Online Conference and Expo for Senior Finance Executives

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced that its Global Cognos Finance Forums 2007 conference series will be available in a unique virtual conference and expo format on June 19 at no charge. To pre-register visit: www.cognos.com/virtualfinance

The Global Cognos Finance Forums 2007 conference series attracted more than 2,400 senior finance executives covering 15 countries and 20 cities, and delivered significant value for the participants. Attendees from finance departments shared best-practices in performance management to help finance and business managers make better decisions.

"Due to the volume and number of success stories that were aired in the Global Cognos Finance Forums 2007 conference series, we wanted to offer the same high-value content more widely to online participants," said Doug Barton, vice president, performance management, Cognos. "The finance community continues to turn to Cognos as a proven leader to help improve performance management and decision making. So we're packaging the best of the proven practices for our first ever Virtual Finance Forum Conference and Expo for the Office of Finance."

Online June 19, Cognos customers Manpower and DIRECTV will share their approaches to vendor selection and value proposition post performance management solution deployment; how each company supports revenue and profit growth; aligns operational tactics with corporate objectives; and drives participation and accountability with Performance Management implementations. Cognos executives will also lead breakout discussions on a variety of topics including:

* How to Link Financial and Operational Planning

* Sustainable Financial Consolidation and Corporate Reporting

* Leveraging Best Practices for World-Class Results in Reporting and Analysis

* Managing Your Workforce for Strategic Business Advantage

Manpower is a world leader in the employment services industry with a full-time staff of more than 27,000, and more than 2.5 million temporary workers. DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, presents the finest television experience available to more than 19 million customers in the United States and Latin America, through exclusive content, industry-leading customer satisfaction and superior technologies.

"Manpower focuses on raising productivity through improved quality, efficiency and cost-reduction across our workforce," said Vivian Adashek, financial systems project specialist, Manpower. "This requires rapid and accurate communication of timely business information across the organization. With Cognos, we've implemented practical approaches to management and operational reporting and enterprise planning, which have allowed us to move reporting and analysis beyond the finance department and across the organization."

The keynote speaker for the Virtual Finance Forum Conference and Expo will be David Axson, President of the Sonax Group, former Head of Corporate Planning at Bank of America, co-founder of The Hackett Group, and author of Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management, now in its second edition.

"Having delivered the keynote presentation in 18 cities around the world over the last six weeks, I can confidently tell you that companies everywhere are struggling with the same thing: slow planning processes and unreliable forecasts; an overburdened staff that cannot find enough time for value-added analysis to support the business; important initiatives that routinely fall short of targets, and only average corporate peer group performance," said Axson. "In this conference series finance executives are learning that by implementing the right processes and systems for performance management, companies can create simpler, faster, more focused performance management processes that help finance and business managers make better decisions, faster."

Strategic partners for the Virtual Finance Forum Conference and Expo include Deloitte, IBM, Blue Line Planning, NewComp, Data Clarity, Lodestar Solutions, eCapital Advisors and Niteo.

Register in advance to access one or all sessions at the Virtual Finance Forum Conference and Expo on June 19. Otherwise the contents will be archived online for 90 days.

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.

Cognos brings together technology, analytical applications, best practices, and a broad network of partners to give customers a complete performance system. The Cognos performance system is an open and adaptive solution that leverages an organization's ERP, packaged applications, and database investments. It gives customers the ability to answer the questions -- How are we doing? Why are we on or off track? What should we do about it? - and enables them to understand and monitor current performance while planning future business strategies.