Ottawa, Dec. 21, 2001—Cognos® (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE: CSN), the leading global provider of business intelligence solutions, today announced the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ) has chosen Cognos Analytic Applications. SAQ is one of the largest retail networks in Quebec, handling commerce of all alcoholic beverages in the province.

With 379 retail branches, 303 agencies and 9,200 store outlets, the SAQ handles 29 million transactions per year, offers more than 5,299 products, and provides liquor permits to 14,000 hotels, bars, discotheques, and restaurants.

Given the scale of its operations and mandate, the reporting and analysis requirements of the SAQ are complex. A J.D. Edwards customer, SAQ needed a means to easily create reports and perform sophisticated analysis on the rich business information housed in its ERP solution.

After evaluating other solutions, SAQ selected Cognos Analytic Applications, the leading analytical applications for J.D. Edwards, and Cognos DecisionStream as the most effective integrated means to create sales, purchasing, distribution, and finance analysis and reports, as well as handle the extraction, transformation, and loading of large amounts of raw data to build datamarts.

"For the SAQ, one of our most critical requirements was the time to result," said Damien Dumas, SAQ director of commercial systems & architecture. "Based on our evaluations, Cognos Analytic Applications offer a robust, pre-packaged solution for J.D. Edwards that slashes months, even years off what we could have reasonably achieved with other solutions or by tackling a project of this scale in-house."

An existing Cognos business intelligence user, SAQ purchased the entire Cognos Analytic Applications foundation for J.D. Edwards including Sales Analysis, General Ledger Analysis, Inventory Analysis, Account Receivable Analysis, Account Payable Analysis and Procurement Analysis. The organization also purchased Cognos PowerPlay Enterprise Server and Cognos Impromptu Web Reports.

"SAQ is yet another innovative organization that has turned to Cognos Analytic Applications," said Alan Rottenberg, senior vice-president, Cognos Analytic Applications. "Some of the world's leading companies have achieved significant, measurable business results using Cognos Analytic Applications. By working closely with customers and key global professional organizations we've created an analytical solution that offers the best time to result demanded by today's enterprises."