OTTAWA, ON AND BURLINGTON, MA, November 2, 2004—Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in Enterprise business intelligence (EBI) and corporate performance management, today announced that Rob Ashe, president and chief executive officer of Cognos, will participate in a featured panel discussion at Forrester's upcoming Executive Strategy Forum 2004: Accelerating Top Line Growth on November 4 at 4:45 p.m. EST at The Westin Copley Place in Boston, MA.

During the panel, Ashe will speak on the topic of, "Managing Performance: Identify Opportunity and Create Efficiencies to Achieve Top-Line Growth." Ashe will explain how organizations make faster, more effective decisions that accelerate top-line growth; optimize the allocation and management of critical resources to achieve performance goals; link operational performance to strategic business drivers; and deliver critical business information across departments and management tiers.

In his role as president and chief executive officer of Cognos, Rob Ashe is responsible for the strategic vision, direction and day-to-day leadership of the company. Mr. Ashe is a Cognos veteran, who joined the company in 1984 and has previously held senior positions in finance, operations, research and development, and worldwide services. During his most recent tenure as chief operating officer, Mr. Ashe oversaw the company's entry into the corporate performance management market, the successful acquisition of Adaytum, and the launch of the next-generation enterprise reporting solution, Cognos ReportNet.

The 2004 Forrester Executive Strategy Forum is designed to provide the tools, knowledge, and best practices necessary to use technology to speed innovation, win new customers, and accelerate top-line growth. Presentations from business and technology executives will focus on the journey to profitable growth. The conference is being held from November 4-5, 2004.

ABOUT COGNOS
Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software that helps companies drive, monitor and understand corporate performance.

Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage - Corporate Performance Management (CPM) - achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale. Our integrated CPM solution helps customers drive performance through planning; monitor performance through scorecarding; and understand performance through business intelligence.

Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise business intelligence solutions and services are also available from more than 3,000 worldwide partners and resellers. For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.