Southern Methodist University Selects Cognos as Business Intelligence Standard

— Cognos EBI will help drive ‘single version of the truth’ across all administrative systems —

HEUG 2005 CONFERENCE (COGNOS BOOTH #211) LAS VEGAS, NV, March 22, 2005 — Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in enterprise business intelligence and corporate performance management (CPM), announced today that Southern Methodist University (SMU) is standardizing on Cognos Enterprise Business Intelligence (EBI) Series to deliver more consistent reporting and greater data analysis across the entire university administration.

With more than 10,000 students and 2,000 faculty and staff, SMU collects and processes a significant amount of student, financial, HR and program data. Although cross-departmental transaction data is maintained and accessible through a centralized ERP system, reporting against this information has been a challenge. Each administrative department uses its own reporting tools and creates its own data queries. In many cases, results have differed from one department to the next, calling into question the accuracy of the data.

By rolling out Cognos’ industry-leading EBI solution across the university, administrators will benefit from uniform, consistent information – a ‘single version of the truth’. With greater confidence in the data, executive and departmental administrators will be able to capitalize on Cognos’ powerful analysis and query capabilities to drill into their data, uncover trends, and make informed decisions on how to increase performance and reduce costs.

"Given the size and diversity of the university, we needed a proven business intelligence solution that could seamlessly integrate within our ERP environment to transform the mountains of data we collect into a gold mine of valuable, timely information that will help streamline administration and facilitate decisions," said Joe Gargiulo, director of software applications at Southern Methodist University. "Cognos EBI gives us a far better approach to viewing, analyzing and accurately reporting on our data in a way that is visually appealing, intuitive and easy to use.”

”Increased competition in student recruitment has underlined the need for higher education institutions to get more value out of their data, from being able to better forecast and manage administrative costs, to getting the most out of their relationship with each and every student that passes through their halls," said Terence Atkinson, director of public sector solutions at Cognos. "Cognos looks forward to working with SMU to help the university take its information to the next level of performance – through better resource allocation, insightful program and staff management and analysis, and greater fiscal responsibility and accountability.”

Cognos' industry-leading solutions are driving best-in-class performance at some of the most innovative higher education institutions. In addition to Southern Methodist University, others include Penn State University, Idaho State University, George Washington University, University of Texas at Austin,University of Toronto and Queen’s University Belfast. For more information about Cognos solutions for higher education, please visit http://www.cognos.com/solutions/industry/education/higher-education.html.

ABOUT SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY:
Founded in 1911 by what is now The United Methodist Church, Southern Methodist University (SMU) is nonsectarian in its teaching and committed to academic freedom and open inquiry. A private university, SMU cultivates well-rounded leaders and thinkers through a liberal arts foundation and nationally competitive undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. SMU offers seven degree-granting schools – including the nationally acclaimed Cox School of Business and Dedman School of Law – and is consistently ranked in the top half of national universities, according to America's Best Colleges guide. For more information, visit the Southern Methodist University website at http:// www.smu.edu.

ABOUT COGNOS:
Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software and services that helps companies drive, monitor and understand corporate performance.

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.

ognos serves more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Cognos enterprise business intelligence 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.