BURLINGTON, MA, Oct. 12, 2000—Cognos^® (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN), the world's largest and most successful business intelligence company, today announced that PurchasePro (Nasdaq: PPRO), a leading enabler of business-to-business e-commerce for companies of all sizes, has selected its Cognos enterprise business intelligence solution to conduct intensive analysis and reporting for PurchasePro's e-commerce operations.

The analysis and reporting capabilities of Cognos enterprise business intelligence will allow PurchasePro to convert their operational, e-commerce, data warehouse and online information into a single, unified view of their business. PurchasePro expects that resulting information and data will enable its employees to access detailed information on critical aspects of their business via the company's secure Intranet, enhancing PurchasePro's ability to respond quickly to customer and market trends.

"We believe Cognos will give us additional insights into the performance of our marketplaces," said John Devlin, director of database marketing for PurchasePro. "Rapid analysis and decision-making are especially critical in the e-commerce industry. We feel that Cognos will provide additional value to our company by revealing trends in customer behavior and overall customer experience."

"Cognos enterprise business intelligence can transform PurchasePro's raw business data into a competitive advantage for the company. PurchasePro recognizes the value of enterprise business intelligence in operating a highly successful business," said Joanne K. Masingill, senior vice president of marketing at Cognos.

According to the Gartner Group, business-to-business e-commerce growth is being driven by organizations that create Internet-based e-marketplaces focused on verticals and horizontals. These e-marketmakers are projected to facilitate $2.71 trillion in e-commerce sales transactions in 2004, representing 37 percent of the overall business-to-business market and 2.6 percent of forecasted worldwide sales transactions.

About PurchasePro
PurchasePro is a leading enabler of business-to-business e-commerce for businesses of all sizes, powering approximately 200 private labeled marketplaces and encompassing more than 30,000 businesses.

With the fastest e-marketplace products in the industry, such as e-Procurement, v-Distributor, and e-Marketmaker, the company makes private labeled e-marketplaces operational in 45 days or less. PurchasePro's highly scalable, browser-based solutions enable businesses of any size to easily buy and sell products and services across marketplaces through the company's active marketplace-to-marketplace (m2m) connectivity.

With the industry's only complete buyside/sellside solution, PurchasePro adds an effective new sales channel to any company, in addition to streamlining online procurement efforts. Strategic alliances with industry leaders such as America Online, Sprint Corp., Hilton, and Office Depot, Inc. are instrumental to building the company's customer base of large, midsized and small businesses. For more information, visit www.PurchasePro.com.

This press release includes forward-looking statements which are subject to the "Safe Harbor" created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements (which involve the company's plans, beliefs and goals, refer to estimates or use similar terms) involve certain risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties associated with rapidly changing technologies such as the Internet, the risks of technology development and the risks of competition that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements. For more information about these risks and uncertainties, see the SEC filings of PurchasePro, Inc., including the section entitled "Factors That May Affect Results" in its 10-K filing for the period ended December 31, 1999 and its 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2000, which is available from the company on request and on the Internet at the SEC's Website, www.sec.gov.