BURLINGTON, MA, October 13, 2004—Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management, today announced that the Cognos North American Customer Support Team has achieved certification for the third year in a row under the prestigious Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program. Cognos achieved certification after an extensive audit of its North American customer support center. SCP Certification quantifies the effectiveness of customer support based upon a stringent set of performance standards and represents best practices in the industry.

"It is a tremendous achievement for Cognos to once again receive SCP certification," said Ed Shepherdson, Cognos vice president, customer support. "Cognos puts the highest priority on customer success and we are committed to continually increasing the value customers receive from their support investment. This re-certification reflects the talent and expertise of our entire global customer support staff at Cognos and the strong relationships we enjoy with our customers around the globe."

Cognos offers the most effective global customer support and services in the BI industry, maintaining one of the industry's highest customer renewal rates. Through its award-winning Global Customer Services Portal, Cognos provides the most comprehensive range of proactive Web-based support services, including proactive notification tools, remote diagnostic support, live technical support information sessions, extensive knowledge base documents, and call tracking software. This end-to-end support system ensures premium customer service around the world, in multiple languages, and time zones.

SCP Certification, an internationally recognized standard created with the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), a consortium of leading technology companies, and Service Strategies, defines best practices for delivering world-class technology support. The program quantifies the effectiveness of customer support, establishes a foundation to build on existing quality processes, and provides a clear focus on measurable results. SCP Certification requires comprehensive on-site audits to confirm that companies meet the requirements of the over 100 business elements defined in the program. Certified organizations must demonstrate their continued commitment to high performance standards through annual re-certification audits.

"During the audit process, the Cognos team demonstrated a clear commitment to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement," said Gordy Stauffer, SCP Auditor. "As a result of their dedication, the Cognos achieved SCP Certification for the third time and confirmed that they are a world-class provider of technology solutions."

Cognos remains in the ranks of other leading technology companies that have achieved the prestigious and much sought-after SCP Certification, including Lawson Software, Lockheed Martin Incorporated, PeopleSoft Incorporated, McKesson Corporation, Mentor Graphics Corporation, Network Appliance Incorporated and Xerox Corporation among others. Currently over two hundred technology support organizations around the world participate in the SCP program.

ABOUT SUPPORT CENTER PRACTICES (SCP) CERTIFICATION:
The Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program was developed to address service quality issues that affect the rapidly growing technology support industry. The SSPA and forty of its member companies created the program along with Service Strategies Corporation. These companies contributed their insight and perspective into defining the key elements required for delivering World Class support. The SSPA represents over 23,500 service executives in over 2,700 support centers worldwide. Service Strategies Corporation is responsible for administering the SCP Certification program and conducting on-site certification audits. For more information about SCP Certification, contact Service Strategies Corporation at 858.674.4864, email info@servicestrategies.com or visit http://www.scpcertification.com/.