Cognos Continues Leadership in K-12 Education Market; Now Empowers 530 School Districts to Improve Performance for Over 12 Million Students

– Arkansas Department of Education set to deploy Cognos as BI standard across all school districts –

BURLINGTON, MA, June 21, 2005— Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM), has extended its market leadership in the K-12 education market, announcing today that the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) is standardizing on the Cognos Enterprise Business Intelligence series.

Cognos is the performance management platform of choice among U.S. K-12 organizations, many of whom use Cognos to fulfill the reporting and program management requirements set out by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a law enacted in 2002 to bring greater accountability and flexibility to federal education programs. To date, Cognos can be found in over 530 K-12 school districts, 13 State Departments of Education, and the U.S. Federal Department of Education. The Cognos solution empowers over 20,000 schools to deliver optimal education programs and improve student performance for over 12 million American children and young adults.

The Arkansas Department of Education faced increasing pressure from its State legislature to be more accountable to the performance of each student who passes through the system. This pressure was further magnified by education standards set out by the No Child Left Behind Act. To meet these demands, the ADE needed a solution that could plug into the vast amounts of student and program information found across the department and among each school district, and enable in-depth analysis and timely reporting. Ensuing product evaluations quickly pointed to Cognos as the answer.

With Cognos, the Arkansas Department of Education will be able to tie disparate information together into a single view, both at the state- and district-level. Users will be able to drill into real-time data and monitor program effectiveness ‘on-the-fly’ using powerful trends analysis and reporting. In turn, Finance can then confidently make the necessary budget and funding adjustments to maximize performance and best tailor educational programs and services according to the needs of each student.

“The raw data we need to effectively manage the State education system has always existed, be it student performance, admissions, finance and district operations. The challenge was transparently accessing and massaging that data in order to create meaningful reports and make informed decisions,” said Dr. Bobbie Davis, assistant director for internal administration at the Arkansas Department of Education. “Cognos gives us the expert analysis and reporting we need without making it complicated for the average business user to learn, build and interpret. We are very excited by what lies ahead with Cognos – I don’t think there is a single bit of information that we won’t be able to provide with this software.”

At the heart of this transformation is an education performance management solution that includes more than 150 pre-built reports that explicitly fulfill the reporting requirements of the NCLB Act. Developed with the input of Cognos’ K-12 customers, the reporting templates address critical areas like student assessment, enrollment, HR, finance, teacher profiles and more. The solution enables K-12 districts and departments of education to rapidly identify students and schools that need help, as well as understand and replicate successful programs and classroom factors that have contributed to increased student performance. School districts can then securely and selectively provide student and classroom performance information to all stakeholders – relevant state agencies, school administrators, principals, teachers and parents – over the Web.

“There are few things as important as ensuring that our children get the quality education they deserve. Cognos provides K-12 organizations with the visibility and information insights they need to build a curriculum that delivers on critical performance obligations and, above all else, meets the special needs of all students for whom they are accountable," said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions at Cognos. "The Arkansas Department of Education has demonstrated a commitment to fulfilling the obligations they have to their student and parent communities. By partnering with Cognos, the ADE will be able to quickly understand and identify the factors that will assure that the children in their system receive the best education available.”

Arkansas joins an impressive list of Cognos K-12 customers that includes TIES, an education technology consortium of over 400 schools in 37 school districts across Minnesota; School District of Palm Beach County (FL); and the New York City Department of Education, the largest school board in the United States with over 1 million students.

ABOUT ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION:
The Arkansas Department of Education oversees the state's public school system and is responsible for the education of more than 450,000 students in more than 1,100 schools. The Arkansas Department of Education is focused on providing the leadership and resources necessary to ensuring every student has access to an education that meets world-class standards. Arkansas was most recently ranked among the nation’s leaders in integrating technology into the classroom, and using technology to advance educational program delivery. For more information, visit the Arkansas Department of Education’s web site at http://arkedu.state.ar.us

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.