BURLINGTON, Mass., November 6, 2000—Cognos^® (Nasdaq:COGN; TSE:CSN), the world's largest and most successful business intelligence company, today announced a sale in excess of $1 million to the United States' Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD's Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) will enhance its Cognos business reporting and analysis solution with new visualization capabilities enabled through Cognos Visualizer. DFAS will benefit from a united and consistent view of its operational and financial performance, and fast, informed decisions resulting from improved data access.

A Cognos customer since 1996, DFAS is responsible for all finance and accounting functions of the DoD. The Cognos business intelligence intranet solution supports the "Business of DFAS" initiative, which applies business performance metrics to the government agency. The Cognos solution unites data from multiple, disparate systems into a single location accessible via a secure Internet portal to thousands of DFAS employees and other DOD agencies.

Cognos Visualizer software will transform complex data into easy-to-understand, actionable information through rich graphics, robust presentation features, and powerful "scorecard" capabilities. Visualization of multiple, pre-defined performance metrics, consolidated on a single computer screen as a "DFAS Scorecard," will accelerate employees' understanding of the data and its impact on the Agency's overall performance.

For example, end users from senior executives to administrators can view metrics such as "unit costs per DFAS site," and "revenue produced per service agency by business line" in a graphic similar to a traffic light. A red light communicates the metric has dropped below the threshold and should be addressed immediately. Yellow represents a warning the metric is in danger of dropping below the threshold, and a green light signals the metric is meeting expectation. End users can analyze factors driving the metric using Cognos' multidimensional, interactive Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) to "drill down" on the scorecard to view detailed information.

Insights gained through such analysis will accelerate how quickly employees understand the performance, relationships and trends related to DFAS' operations. Better informed DFAS and DOD employees can make fast, informed decisions to more effectively measure and manage the financial and operational performance of the Agency.

"The 'Business of DFAS' requires the decision-making process to be supported by a 'big-picture' view of Agency goals and factors affecting the enterprise. The Cognos solution sketches this picture for end users and delivers insights to them to drive Agency performance," said Vance Kauzlarich, DFAS chief information officer. "Cognos also offers exceptional professional services to ensure our success during and after the roll-out of the enhanced Cognos solution."

"Cognos solutions are core to 'e-Government,' enabling federal agencies to utilize the Internet to make information quickly and easily accessible," said Robert Ashe, Cognos senior vice president, worldwide customer services. "Cognos empowers government agencies, vendors, and private citizens to experience the 'Cognos Moment' of realization, when they make a discovery that leads to a fast, informed decision to improve the effectiveness of their services."