Integrated CPM Solution From Cognos and SSA Global Drives Performance at Caesars Entertainment

– SSA Corporate Performance Management powered by Cognos combines forward-strategic planning with daily reports on key metrics to improve budgeting and forecasting for 15 Caesars casino resorts –

Burlington, MA— May 16, 2005 - Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM), and Infinium, a wholly owned subsidiary of SSA Global, a leading provider of extended enterprise solutions and services, today announced that Caesars Entertainment has implemented SSA CPM powered by Cognos. SSA CPM provides an integrated reporting infrastructure to help Caesars determine how well it is performing against forecast on a daily basis.

The solution is integrated across Caesars IT, planning and finance departments, linking internal transaction systems with external and internal data sources. It gathers financials from the general ledger, personnel information, weather patterns and real estate detail to deliver daily cost, effect, and impact analysis and P&L reports to Caesars executives. These reports help predict the combined daily effect of these various factors on the company’s business performance. Caesars executives can then adjust plans as required to impact business performance in real-time.

In addition, Web-based enterprise planning is used for capital project budgeting at each Caesars property. Monthly rolling forecasts help predict cash flow for greater visibility across the business. The associated reporting process that used to take hours to complete manually is now a more accurate, automated 15 minute task.

Caesars Entertainment has long been an innovative implementer of technology. The US $4.2 billion-a-year company has been a valued customer of Cognos and SSA Global for two years. Its success with Cognos and SSA Global complements the deployment last year of advanced technology systems across its table games, food and beverage, marketing and promotion and hotel operations.

“We are interested in advanced technology products that can enhance our guest experience, grow our business and improve operating efficiency,” said Carol Pride, CIO and Caesars vice-president of Corporate Information Technology. “SSA CPM produces meaningful reports that can impact our financial forecasting in real-time and helps us manage the business more efficiently, with greater predictability and visibility across the board.”

SSA Global is Cognos’ largest global OEM partner. It has integrated Cognos CPM technology within the SSA CPM suite, tailoring and adopting Cognos’ industry-leading software for its ERP and financials applications and effectively extending Cognos’ market reach by offering the solution to its 13,000 customers worldwide. To date, SSA Global and Cognos have teamed for performance management success with more than 300 customers.

“Caesars Entertainment is a leading example of how customers can work in partnership with strategic providers to take performance management technology and craft and implement a vision for greater business success,” said Cory A. Eaves, chief technology officer, SSA Global. “SSA CPM, powered by Cognos, offers a complete corporate performance management solution to help our clients transform corporate strategy into business solutions.”
Cognos' technology for CPM comprises: Cognos Enterprise BI Series, one of the industry's most comprehensive business intelligence solutions; Cognos Planning and financial consolidation solutions, industry-leading software for planning, budgeting, modeling, forecasting and financial consolidation; and Cognos Metrics Manager, one of the most robust and flexible enterprise scorecard solutions.

“Caesars CPM application showcases the power of our CPM technology and our strategic partnerships in delivering tangible planning, reporting, analysis and scorecard capabilities for customers to drive business performance for greater competitive advantage,” said Dave Laverty, senior vice-president of global marketing at Cognos. “Our strategic partnership with SSA Global has been a winning combination for many similar-size customers across North America and we look forward to continuing our work as we help more organizations embark on their performance management journey.”

About Caesar’s Entertainment:

The company's Board of Directors in July 2004 accepted an offer from Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. to acquire the company for approximately $1.9 billion in cash and 67.7 million shares of Harrah's common stock. Shareholders of both companies approved the merger in separate meetings on March 11. The transaction is contingent on approval by federal and state regulatory agencies and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2005.

Additional information on Caesars Entertainment can be accessed through the company's web site at www.caesars.com.

About SSA Global and Infinium:

About Cognos:

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 and performance management 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.