BURLINGTON, MA, November 19, 2002—Allied Building Products Corp. is a building materials distribution company that has grown rapidly by acquisition, obtaining not only increased market share and customers, but also a number of financial databases along the way. Allied looked to ISA (Innovative Systems Associates) to evaluate and implement the right financial reporting and budgeting solution. ISA and Allied worked together to implement Cognos Finance in under 90 days- a business intelligence (BI) solution from Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in BI, that enables Allied to standardize data company-wide and automate processing to deliver a single, coordinated view of financial performance.

"With increasing scrutiny being placed on monitoring the financial metrics that drive today's businesses, it becomes more important then ever to gain a comprehensive and detailed view of operations," said Brian Reilly, chief financial officer, Allied Building Products Corp. "Cognos Finance enables us to aggregate complex financials, including history, actuals, budgets, and forecasts, from across all of our branches to ensure data consistency and integrity. The ability to immediately spot trends or anomalies in data allows us to be more proactive and seize market opportunities as they arise."

Cognos Finance helps Allied reduce the amount of manual labor previously associated with regular monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting processes. Allied has saved the equivalent of two full work days per month, previously spent collating and mailing out reports. All financial reports are now available in minutes and made available to users across the company via a secure Intranet portal.

"With Cognos Finance, customers are benefiting from an integrated financial application that addresses the unique requirements of finance professionals and delivers insight into what is effectively the heart of the enterprise-the financial data," said Dave Laverty, senior vice president, global marketing, Cognos. "Organizations require rapid access to real-time financial data and insight into their performance. With accelerated access to accurate financial data, organizations can better respond to market conditions and more accurately predict corporate performance."

About Allied Building Products Corp:
Allied's acquisitions in the East, Midwest, Northwest and Southwest firmly established it as a national distributor of building materials.

Today, Allied has operations in more than 100 locations coast to coast with well over one million square feet of warehouse and office space. Its modern corporate headquarters is located in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Annual revenues are approximately $1 billion.

Allied's workforce consists of more than 2,000 committed individuals, from outside and inside sales professionals, warehouse, dispatch personnel and equipment operators to product, marketing, credit and architectural managers. Allied maintains a modern, efficient fleet of more than 850 cars, trucks and tractor trailers. All of these resources are effectively brought to bear in Allied's commitment to service.

About ISA:
ISA is a consulting and training services company that specializes in the areas of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Financial Consolidation/Budgeting. ISA actively supports over 110 customers nationally, in a wide variety of industry segments including manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, utilities, media/cable, hospitality/entertainment, defense, and consumer products.

ISA has offices in Blue Bell, PA (Headquarters), New York, NY, and Washington, DC. ISA has been a Cognos Partner since 1995 and is presently a Pinnacle Partner. For more information, visit the ISA website at http://www.isaconsulting.com.

About Cognos:
Founded in 1969, Cognos employs more than 2,600 people and serves more than 20,000 customers in over 135 countries. Our customers are involved in every industry sector including automotive, banking and insurance, energy and natural resources, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.