BURLINGTON MA and BRUSSELS, July 15, 2003 —Several departments across the Ministry of the Flemish Community, including the Department of Environment and Infrastructure and the Department of Welfare, Public Health and Culture have implemented business intelligence (BI) solutions from Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in BI and corporate performance management. Using Cognos, employees have improved access to data and senior managers have the accurate and up-to-date information they need to make critical policy decisions.

Flanders is one of the three Communities that form Belgium, a federal kingdom with a population of 10 million people. "Flanders", formerly the name of a county, is now the name for the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, where approximately 60% of the Belgian population lives. It is the most dynamic and prosperous region of the country. The administration of Flanders is in the hands of the Ministry of the Flemish Community.

"We found that Cognos drives business intelligence further than others, spanning the whole range of information needs - from operational up to strategic" said Luc Lathouwers, director-general within the Department of Environment and Infrastructure, "Cognos' scorecarding solution supports our policy preparation, as it helps us to see where we are and how we are doing. It allows decision makers to adjust their strategies".

"Business intelligence capabilities are a core part of our decision-making process and they affect policy decisions at the highest levels of government," said Koen Colpaert, information analyst, business intelligence, Department of Environment and Infrastructure. "Using Cognos, employees have instant answers to critical business questions like 'are our engineer's calculations in line with market conditions'? Or 'how do contractor's quotations compare across a series of projects?' Decision-makers now can adjust strategies based on factual analysis and reporting offered by Cognos."

The Department of Welfare, Public Health and Culture uses Cognos as a part of the Management Information System (MIS), which aggregates, analyzes and distributes data to policy makers. The Department uses Cognos for monitoring budgets, subsidy decisions, and recognition procedures. Thanks to Cognos, the Department has improved both the accuracy and timeliness of its data.

"The biggest problem was the quantity and quality of the source data," said Luc Silon, information manager, Department of Welfare, Public Health and Culture. "Taking care of data from a management's point of view was the weakest link in the chain. Now, data quality is clearly improving."

"Cognos enables governments worldwide to fulfill all levels of operational, tactical and strategic information needs and make effective decisions using every piece of relevant information," said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions, Cognos. "By unlocking data silos across government departments, providing powerful analysis and reporting, and dynamic scorecarding capabilities, the Ministry of the Flemish Community is able to improve operational performance and provide more accountable measures of success thus providing better performance management and governance."