OTTAWA, CANADA, October 24, 2001—Safilo Canada, a subsidiary of the Safilo Group, one of the largest suppliers of high quality eyewear, today announced that they have implemented a Web-based reporting solution from Cognos^® (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE:CSN), the leading global provider of business intelligence solutions and Cognos partner and e-business integrator, Syntax.net.

Based in Italy, Safilo oversees an international network of factories, retail stores, and distributors that make and sell eyeglass frames bearing the Gucci, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior, and Valentino names. Cognos business intelligence has been deployed in the Canadian division to provide the sales force with a powerful, Web-based reporting and analysis solution, enabling them to dramatically reduce report creation times, derive critical customer insights, and make faster, more informed decisions.

"Cognos reports have become an important information-sharing and decision-making tool for our senior managers and sales force," said Claude Groppi, manager of Information Services, Safilo Canada. "The speed of their Web-based reporting means that our sales team now receives critical sales information when it is current, instead of learning about account and market changes when it is too late to respond to them."

Using Cognos Impromptu Web Reports^® and Cognos PowerPlay Web^®, Safilo provides its sales force with the ability to conduct detailed analysis of sales and customer reports when they are traveling or visiting a customer. "Safilo wanted its sales reps to be able to show customers what they bought, when they bought it, what was on back order, and to demonstrate trend analysis," explains Corey Mendelsohn, Syntax.net's technical director for business intelligence. "We knew that Cognos would allow Safilo to easily fulfill all these requirements and more."

Before deploying the Cognos solution, sales and account performance reports were produced manually, a process that required staff to collect and sort over 13,000 pages of data bi-monthly. By the time these reports were delivered, they were usually out-of-date and offered no analysis. Now the internal staff uses a Cognos system, implemented by Syntax.net, to automatically generate and share reports via the company intranet.

"Cognos' reporting and analysis solution reflects the true needs and realities of today's marketplaces, enabling organizations to perform managed reporting and to distribute those reports instantly via the Web," said Alan Rottenberg, senior vice president E-Business Applications Unit, Cognos. "With Cognos business intelligence, Safilo can report on and analyze data to immediately extract valuable customer insights to maximize sales opportunities and make informed business decisions."

About Safilo Canada
Safilo Canada is a subsidiary of the Safilo Group, based in Italy. Safilo manufactures and markets eyewear with a variety of features designed to appeal to different target consumers: from optical eyewear to sunglasses, high-tech products, designer frames, sports eyewear and ski masks, so that all demands and requirements are met.

The Group's policy regarding the extension of its supply of products and the diversification of the distribution channel should be interpreted with this strategy in mind. Its famous collections, Safilo, Smith, Carrera, Blue Bay, Oxydo, Gucci, Polo Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior, Diesel, Valentino, Oliver by Valentino, Max Mara, Gianfranco Ferrè, Pierre Cardin, Burberry, Fossil, Nine West and Kate Spade are distributed through more than 120,000 outlets throughout the world, assuring the Safilo Group top world ranking in the eyewear field.

About Syntax.net
Syntax.net is a full service business solution provider specializing in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Business Intelligence (BI) and e-business. The company partners with IBM, J.D. Edwards, Cognos and other technology leaders in order to provide the best combination of hardware, software, and services to help its customers gain competitive advantage.