Cognos Delivers Industry-Leading Budgeting, Consolidation, Planning, Forecasting Solution -- Finance 6.0

— Advanced planning and drill-through reporting speeds financial management cycle for customers —

BURLINGTON, MA, June 24, 2002—Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSE: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI), today announced Cognos Finance 6.0, the industry's most comprehensive budgeting, consolidation, planning, and forecasting solution. Delivering increased capability to integrate other systems with reporting, extended integration with Excel, and enhanced global budgeting capabilities; Cognos Finance 6.0 gives organizations in-depth insight into financial performance and allows for significant timesavings in financial processes.

Available immediately, Cognos Finance 6.0 provides organizations with an integrated environment with Web-based access to financial analysis and budgeting — from rapid monthly and quarterly closes, to facilitating corporate budgeting processes, to integrating up-to-date results with forecasts from the field.

Cognos Finance 6.0 extends global financial analysis by providing users with the ability to operate independently using Microsoft Excel. Reporting and budgeting are extended to support Microsoft Excel, providing the option for users to take their information offline. Budgets may be completed in Excel and the information returned to Cognos Finance, all while maintaining the integrity of the Cognos Finance budget rules.

Cognos Finance 6.0 also includes the new Cognos Planning module, featuring built-in collaboration, which accelerates and simplifies the planning process. Corporate plans are created, shared, and returned for approval — enabling users to participate in the corporate planning process. Working within the context of the corporate plan, users can ask 'what if' questions based on a wide range of user-defined business scenarios — enabling them to assess the impact of their scenario before deciding on a course of action.

Cognos Finance 6.0 includes the ability to leverage existing information. The flexible approach enables Cognos Finance to fit into customer specific requirements. Whether the data resides in a data warehouse, a transaction system or a supporting application, Cognos Finance provides the ability to deliver the required information. The information can simply be delivered within the context of the existing Cognos Finance reporting and analysis, or Cognos Finance can link up with existing applications, allowing the user to seamlessly move to supporting systems.

Murray, Inc. has been a fixture of the U.S. consumer goods sector for over a century, as a maker of supply fenders, hoods, gas tanks, and running boards as well as the collectible Steelcraft Wheel Goods toy line. Murray has rapidly upgraded to Cognos Finance 6.0 and the user community is already reaping the benefits of this enhanced solution in streamlining complex budgeting and forecasting processes, including further reducing monthly close times.

"The advanced drill-through capabilities of Cognos Finance 6.0 allow users to drill to transaction detail for additional information or drill through to other applications outside of Cognos, ensuring our financial systems are tightly integrated with all other systems," said Rose Melillo, financial systems manager, Murray Inc. "With Cognos Finance we can create accurate, timely financial reports and put financial performance information quickly into the hands of our decision-makers, enabling them to better manage and forecast corporate performance."

"With Cognos Finance we have seen a dramatic reduction in the time spent performing the monthly close. This process was reduced from a five-day close to a three-day close. The consolidated reporting requirements previously took 2 weeks with Cognos Finance we are completing the reporting in just one day" said Courtney Bixenman, financial analyst, Murray Inc. "More time is now spent on analysis of the data and using this information to drive cost savings across the company."

"Helping financial executives meet the demands of today's investment community is critical. Cognos Finance offers best-in-class financial reporting in a single, unified solution, empowering customers to predict results with confidence while streamlining planning cycles. Now, with the compelling benefits found in release 6.0, Cognos is well positioned to overtake competitors as the leader in the financial planning space," said Sharon Ward, vice president, enterprise applications, Hurwitz Group.

New Cognos Finance 6.0 features include:

• Advanced drill-through capabilities, enabling users to seamlessly leverage existing systems — Cognos Finance enables users to drill to transaction detail and automates access to other systems, including intranet, Cognos business intelligence, and external applications.

• Increased Microsoft Excel integration for Web and Windows, giving users the flexibility to choose the medium or location from which they work — Users can briefcase input forms, including calculations, formatting, and locked data, to Microsoft Excel for completion off-line.

• Advanced planning capabilities, optimizing performance to ensure profitability — The new Cognos Planning module addresses business modeling, collaborative workflow and flexible data interaction.

• Pad reporting and administration, improving global budgeting efficiencies — Pad reporting is unique to Cognos Finance and gives the budget provider a private work area to add account details and/or employee details without impacting chart of accounts.

"The consolidation, planning, budgeting, and forecasting capabilities in Cognos Finance 6.0 make this software solution a critical component in the corporate performance management cycle and is the industry's leading and most comprehensive financial solution," said Michael Morrison, vice president, Cognos Financial Applications, Cognos. "Cognos Finance involves the entire organization in the budgeting and forecasting process, resulting in consistent data shared across the organization, streamlined financial processes, and the ability for an organization to accurately predict the future of the business."