Cognos Focuses On Compliance with New Version Of Its Performance Management Offering


– Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 cuts costs and makes IFRS compliance easier by improving the close, consolidate and report process –


LONDON, UK, May 1, 2007– Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, has launched Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 for the Office of Finance.

Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 is a comprehensive, web-based solution, which is designed for the finance team. It enables the finance department to automate the entire close process, while reducing the close cycle time and ensuring data integrity. This ensures financial statement quality, efficiency and control in closing reports, from data collection to financial consolidation to output. This is critical for helping listed companies meet modern compliance requirements, including the IFRS and Sarbanes Oxley regulations.

“Cognos really stands apart by allowing financial users to manage the change process effectively,” said Andrea Evans, manager, financial accounts and systems, Royal & Sun Alliance. “Our management process for in-house changes generated a mountain of paperwork and used to take us a minimum of two days to complete. This will be attainable in less than a day with Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 , with the audit log eliminating the need for as many external controls.”

Research by The Hackett Group shows that by reducing process, systems and control complexity, leading companies are able to operate with a more effective internal control environment. By doing so, they spend less on Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance, which has been a cash drain for many companies in recent years. Companies will also spend less time on managing all other regulatory compliance.

Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 enhancement highlights include:

Audit and compliance capabilities: Data lineage allows users to understand the date and time stamp of the data access and load, and maintain an original unchanged version of source data. This ensures data quality to support financial statements in the consolidation process. Audit trails allow users to track application and data changes, by user, with the date and time stamp – along with the ability to filter, evaluate and analyse their impact. In an age focused on internal controls, audit trails supply a reliable mechanism to support efficient and effective compliance.

“We’ve identified opportunities for compliance by strengthening the financial control framework with Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2,” said Raymond Pineda, partner, Deloitte.  “Built-in application controls streamline the data validation process by reducing the risk for error and provide the CFO with the confidence to attest to the accuracy and completeness of financial results.”

Support for performance management: Seamless integration with Cognos 8 Planning and Cognos 8 Business Intelligence provides a single view of all operational and financial data, using rich analytics, to support decision-making requirements.

Advanced consolidation techniques: Different geographies and financial jurisdictions continually evolve their regulatory and financial reporting requirements. Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 includes deep domain capabilities to support these changing regulatory reporting needs.

“Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 offers world-class capabilities for financial consolidation that delivers on compliance imperatives for financial controls while supporting efficiency in the close process, and reducing the amount of time required to consolidate financial results,” said Doug Barton, vice president, performance management, Cognos. “Timely, complete, and accurate performance data is central to both compliance and performance management.”

Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 will be generally available in June 2007.

Product screenshots as well as pricing and licensing information is available to media upon request. For additional Cognos 8 Controller version 8.2 features, visit http://www.cognos.com/products/planning_consolidation/
controller/better-consolidation.html

About Cognos:
Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, provides world-class enterprise planning and BI software and services to help companies plan, understand and manage financial and operational performance.

Cognos brings together technology, analytical applications, best practices, and a broad network of partners to give customers a complete performance system. The Cognos performance system is an open and adaptive solution that leverages an organization’s ERP, packaged applications, and database investments. It gives customers the ability to answer the questions -- How are we doing? Why are we on or off track? What should we do about it? – and enables them to understand and monitor current performance while planning future business strategies.

Cognos serves more than 23,000 customers in more than 135 countries, and its top 100 enterprise customers consistently outperform market indexes. Cognos 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.

Cognos and the Cognos logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Note to Editors:
Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on the Cognos Web site at http://www.cognos.com.