BURLINGTON, MA, August 8, 2001—Since it began nearly a century ago, AAA and its Canadian affiliate, CAA, have grown into North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization. To stay on top in an increasingly competitive industry, AAA Travel, one of the association's four business lines, has deployed a business intelligence solution from Cognos and its partner Sky Solutions to consolidate, analyze, and report on critical business data collected from more than 1,200 retail travel locations throughout the United States and Canada. Cognos^® (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN), is the leading provider of business intelligence solutions.

The North American leader in leisure travel, AAA Travel and CAA work with airlines, hotels, car rental firms, tour companies, and cruise lines to send their 44 million members to destinations worldwide. With 1,205 locations operated by 81 clubs across the United States and Canada, AAA Travel collects enormous volumes of transaction data. Using Cognos Impromptu^® and Cognos PowerPlay^®, the Travel Data Management group at the AAA National Office is now able to better analyze data to determine market trends, run comparative analysis by location, date, or season, and track sales. They are then able to quickly build reports and distribute them over the AAA Intranet to the association leadership and staff. This system was designed and implemented by Sky Solutions.

"AAA Travel's ability to analyze information to better serve its members is a profound competitive advantage. Because of these new tools, AAA Travel can quickly consolidate and effectively use its collected data, which is a dramatic improvement in the way the association monitors its travel business," said Glen Mac Donell, Manager, Data Management and Analysis, AAA National Office. "Cognos and Sky Solutions have provided an end-to-end solution that encompasses all our data needs. Cognos' analysis and reporting tools allow us to drill down into the granular level of transactions and deliver a single, consolidated view of the business to decision makers. AAA has an industry reputation of delivering the best value with a personal touch and Cognos helps us deliver on that promise."

For example, AAA Travel can now see how many bookings the association had with a specific cruise line to a certain part of the world. Then, AAA Travel can use that information to leverage its business with a particular vendor in order to pass on savings or benefits to its members.

AAA Travel is using Cognos DecisionStream^® to extract data from existing disparate data sources. "Our previous data consolidation process didn't offer the kind of analysis capabilities that we required," Mac Donell said. "Since implementing this solution, the savings in staff time is almost the equivalent of adding an additional staff person," he said. With less time spent consolidating, Mac Donell's staff has more time to focus on business analysis and forecasting.

"Cognos' best-of-breed reporting and analysis solution allows traditional companies to utilize the Internet to continue to thrive in a highly competitive environment," said Alan Rottenberg, senior vice president, e-Business Applications Unit, Cognos. "By delivering unparalleled access and insight into operational data to a company's entire extended enterprise, Cognos arms all business leaders with the ability to make fast, informed decisions."

About AAA:
As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA and its Canadian affiliate, CAA, provides its 44 million members with travel, insurance, financial, and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, AAA, a membership organization, has been a leader and an advocate for the safety and security of all travelers.

AAA Travel, one of the four business lines of AAA, is the 6th largest travel organization in the U.S. and the largest specializing in leisure travel. AAA Travel and CAA have more than 1,200 offices throughout North America and sell approximately $3.7 billion in gross travel sales annually. For more information, visit www.aaa.com or www.caa.ca.

About Sky Solutions:
Sky Solutions is a leader in e-business integration and solutions serving medium to large sized businesses. Drawing upon our wealth of knowledge and experience, we integrate best-of-breed software to create networked solutions that streamline business processes, promote better communication & collaboration, and optimize efficiency and cost-effectiveness.