BURLINGTON, MA, October 14, 2004—Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management, today announced that it has been named to the Balanced Scorecard Hall of FameT for breakthrough performance results including average annual revenue growth of 20 percent, net income improvement from $19.4 million to $100.9 million, and earnings per share growth from $0.21 to $1.10 between fiscal year 2002 and 2004.

This consistent improvement in financial performance and operational efficiencies can in part be attributed to the company-wide CPM@Cognos initiative, which has the balanced scorecard approach at its core.

"BSC Hall of Fame members are selected from a diverse range of industries. Winners are those organizations that present the most compelling case in terms of how the BSC has helped them achieve significant results," said Robert L. Howie, Jr., senior vice president, Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. "Cognos' enterprise-wide implementation of its BSC is an exemplary illustration of the five principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization as defined by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, creators of the Balanced Scorecard and Strategy-Focused Organization concepts."

Lead by Cognos President and CEO Rob Ashe and CFO Tom Manley, the Cognos senior management team developed a corporate strategy map, which is used to align cascading functional strategy map scorecards across the company's different business units. Today, every Cognos employee can monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs), such as marketing program response rates, for their responsibilities in the business. They can look at these functional KPIs in the context of the overall corporate strategy map and company metrics for an understanding of how their contributions enable Cognos to execute on strategy.

"Strategy execution is a core competency of our company. We believe the balanced scorecard is a core component for performance-driven organizations implementing a complete CPM strategy," said Ashe. "The BSC has helped Cognos focus on what is vital to the company strategy for improved effectiveness, organizational cohesiveness, and alignment of key stakeholders, to ensure that a consistent vision, mission, and strategy are communicated both internally and externally."

"Our scorecards have also assisted in providing a view to accountabilities and processes demanded by today's stricter financial regulatory environment," said Manley. "Our approach to scorecarding has proved flexible enough to accommodate growth and change, and it is no surprise that our financial and operational performance has consistently improved."

The awards ceremony took place in San Diego, CA., during the 2004 Balanced Scorecard North American Summit, hosted by the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (BSCol).

The full listing of Hall of Fame recipients is available at: http://www.bscol.com/bscol/hof/.

About the Balanced Scorecard:
The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a management concept which helps managers at all levels monitor results in their key areas, including financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes and learning and growth. Created by Drs. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in 1992, it has been implemented in thousands of corporations, organizations and government agencies worldwide, and has been cited by Harvard Business Review as one of the most important ideas of the past 75 years. Based on the simple premise that "measurement motivates," the BSC puts strategy at the center of the management process, allowing organizations to implement strategies rapidly and reliably.

About the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative
The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (BSCol) is a global family of professional service firms helping clients uses the Balanced Scorecard to successfully execute strategy. To learn more visit http://www.bscol.com.