BURLINGTON MA, July 23, 2003—Cognos (Nasdaq:COGN; TSX:CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management, today announced that Cognos Enterprise Planning Series is at work in some of the world's largest and most innovative organizations. Cognos Enterprise Planning Series, a component of Cognos' Corporate Performance Management Solutions, streamlines the performance management cycle, bringing together planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidations, reporting, and financial analytics to eliminate the inconsistencies that constrain effective decision-making.

Among the many organizations worldwide using Cognos Enterprise Planning Series are Ricoh UK Products Ltd, European market leader in photocopier sales and part of global Ricoh group; Krystal Company, 70 year-old fast food restaurant chain in the southeastern United States; and Pioneer-Standard Electronics (Nasdaq: PIOS), one of the foremost distributors and premier resellers of enterprise computer technology solutions from HP and IBM as well as other leading manufacturers.

"Customers like Ricoh and Krystal Company value and attribute their operational success to the critical role Cognos' solutions play in reducing the cycle time required to pull enterprise plans together," said Dave Kleinhans, vice president of Enterprise Planning for Cognos. "With Cognos Enterprise Planning Series, we are delivering a solution that provides unmatched collection, control, and versioning , ensuring our customers have superior collaboration around financial and non-financial planning processes. This allows organizations to link individual execution with overall business strategy across the enterprise, fulfilling a critical element of effective corporate performance management."

Leading global organizations that have selected Cognos Enterprise Planning Series include:

Ricoh UK Products Ltd:
Ricoh UK Products Ltd, the European leader in copier manufacture and sales, wanted to increase the number of managers involved in the planning process, without suffering the inconsistency and unreliability of spreadsheets. In addition, it sought to offer departmental contributors a fast, flexible input mechanism that would reflect their view of the business, so they would easily recognize and buy into in the published plan.

Before implementing Cognos Enterprise Planning Series, the quarterly rolling forecast took three months to complete - leaving almost no time for analysis and action. Since implementing the Cognos solution, this has been reduced by 77% to just three weeks, lifting an immense resource burden on the finance department.

"Cognos makes collaborative planning a reality by allowing those involved in the forecasting process to share their colleague's contributions. For example, much of our engineering is project-based and previously a 'toner engineer' would not be able to see or learn from other engineers' forecasts even if their suppliers and pricing were very similar," said John Gittins, finance manager, Ricoh UK Products. "With Cognos Enterprise Planning, they can now share this information and gain a valuable insight into their colleagues' projects, saving time, and uncovering potential cost savings."

Pioneer-Standard Electronics:
Pioneer-Standard Electronics is one of the foremost distributors and premier resellers of enterprise computer technology solutions from HP and IBM as well as other leading manufacturers. Prior to implementing Cognos Enterprise Planning Series, Pioneer-Standard used a homegrown tool and spreadsheets for planning and forecasting. The cycle time for that process was far too long, and version control was a problem. With Cognos, the company realized it could speed up and control the process.

To date, Cognos has helped to automate Pioneer-Standard's aggregation and workflow processes, as well as its ability to change data quickly. "Our number one objective was to find a solution that would help complete the budget cycle on time," said Ed Gaio, vice president and corporate controller, Pioneer-Standard. "With Cognos, every function of every department touching the Cognos solution, which has lead to increased confidence in forecasts and plans, reduced plan cycle time, as well as a reduction in staff required to support planning."

Krystal Company:
The Krystal Company is engaged in the development, operation and franchising of quick-service restaurants in the southeastern United States. Prior to implementing Cognos Enterprise Planning Series, Krystal ran on mainframe computers and propriety systems, leveraging Excel spreadsheets for budgeting and forecasting across multiple divisions within the company. The old system did not offer the power and speed Krystal required. With Cognos, Krystal was able to consolidate marketing, transactional and financial data from four divisions into one, significantly increasing the speed of its enterprise planning process.

"Today we also use Cognos PowerPlay and Cognos Impromptu for all of our month-end financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and business intelligence," said Spencer Chinery, director of financial analysis and planning for Krystal Company. "Prior to the Adaytum acquisition, on a number of occasions a colleague and I had discussed how, if Cognos' business intelligence, analysis and reporting capabilities were to ever merge with Adaytum's budgeting and forecasting, the two would be unstoppable. We are certainly excited that they have merged and plan to leverage Cognos Enterprise Planning Series to the fullest extent throughout our corporate performance management initiative."