BURLINGTON, MA, October 1, 2003—Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management, today announced that Noodles & Company has selected Cognos ReportNet from Cognos and its partner JCB Partners. As the company's reporting standard, Cognos ReportNet communicates real time operational information to field management throughout the U.S.

Prior to implementing the first phase of the Cognos ReportNet solution, IT and finance professionals spent days compiling report requests from numerous departments including sales and marketing, human resources, and real estate. Since completing phase one, operational Cognos ReportNet reports are being accessed on a daily basis through the Noodles & Company portal. This provides users with a single, 360 degree view of the business and consistent reporting throughout the enterprise.

"Technology is a key element in our plan to stay ahead of customers expectations, competition, and the industry," said Erik Duffield, finance manager for Noodles & Company. "Coupled with Cognos PowerPlay and Cognos Visualizer, Cognos ReportNet gives Noodles & Company visibility into our entire information chain - a key ingredient to rapid growth throughout the U.S."

Cognos ReportNet offers unrivaled enterprise reporting coverage including production reporting, the ability to dramatically streamline report authoring, and an unparalleled openness and flexibility - all designed to meet the needs of today's multi-national, diversified enterprises and dramatically reduce total cost of ownership. Designed to scale to 100s of 1000s of users, Cognos ReportNet solution draws upon Cognos reporting and query leadership, delivering the next revolution in reporting. Cognos ReportNet is fully integrated with the Cognos Enterprise BI solution, including flexible scorecards, dashboards, powerful industry-leading OLAP analysis, event detection and alerting, and data integration.

Noodles & Company users benefit from the flexible query and reporting capabilities, allowing them to see patterns in the data to leverage new business opportunities. Cognos ReportNet can pull information directly from a broad array of relational, operational, and other ERP solutions. The organization also has plans to implement Cognos Enterprise Planning Series for store budgeting and forecasting and Cognos Metrics Manager to support enhanced KPI (key performance indicator) reporting.

"The launch of Cognos ReportNet was a game-changing event for the BI industry," said Dave Laverty, senior vice president, global marketing, Cognos. "Leading organizations such as Noodles & Company will be experiencing the unprecedented functionality of Cognos ReportNet to drive competitive advantage. Regardless of the industry or geographic market, Cognos ReportNet can fulfill the complete reporting needs of any enterprise."

ABOUT NOODLES & COMPANY
Noodles & Company has more than 70 restaurants throughout Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Michigan and Utah. The company was recently named a Hot Concept! by Nation's Restaurant News and an Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. Noodles & Company has been an Inc. 500 corporation since 2001.