Cognos Unveils New Performance Solution Designed To Help Retailers Optimize Store Development Initiatives

– Cognos Store Development Blueprint enables retailers to more effectively plan, manage and measure capital-intensive projects like new store construction, remodels and upgrades –

BURLINGTON, MA May 17, 2006— Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI) and performance management solutions, today announced the launch of a new retail performance solution designed to help retailers effectively plan, manage and measure the financial impact of store development initiatives, including new store construction, remodels/refurbishments and upgrades.

To remain competitive, retailers today are continuously optimizing store formats to fit current market conditions. The Cognos Store Development Blueprint consists of integrated financial planning capabilities that let retailers easily understand which store development plans deliver the highest business benefits, best returns and greatest support for corporate objectives. It allows chains to define initiatives; develop financial plans; apply initiatives to regions, stores or groups of stores; communicate initiatives to store managers; and then measure return on investment.

The Cognos Store Development Blueprint is the latest in a series of industry-specific performance solutions Cognos is rolling out this year, and the second retail solution in less than six months. In January, Cognos unveiled the Cognos Store Operations (P&L) Planning Blueprint , which helps retail chains build top-down and bottom-up budgets and performance reports for comprehensive profit and loss management.

Anchored on Cognos 8 Planning and Cognos 8 BI and based on retail industry best practices, the Cognos Store Development Blueprint allows retailers to benefit from:

• Top-down planning that integrates finance, store development and store operations, ensuring all departments have visibility to strategic initiatives, and are working towards common objectives
• ‘What-if’ analysis for multiple store development scenarios, empowering retailers to identify the most profitable initiatives to support key company strategies, model financial impact of capital investments, and provide visibility on new initiatives throughout the organization
• Flexible ‘on-the-fly’ planning, enabling store development staff to input or update plans while on-site or working with suppliers or contractors
• Fast plan consolidation features, reducing planning cycles and allowing chains to move to rolling forecasts that better suit the dynamic nature of the retail industry
• Rapid re-forecasting, helping store operations managers quickly react and implement operational changes, such as adding/reducing staffing, to accommodate updated plans
• A flexible ‘break-back’ ability, for pro-rating revenues and costs to meet investment goals
• Embedded workflow functionality, complete with alerting capabilities, helping drive collaboration and accountability, while streamlining the approval and monitoring process
• Calculated information linked to built-in scorecards and reports, enabling flexible measurement, reporting and analysis of store development ROI
• Complete integration with the Cognos Store Operations (P&L) Planning Blueprint,allowing store development plans to be communicated to regional and store managers so they can properly plan for the operational impact of remodels and upgrades, such as hiring more staff

“Given the growing complexity and competition in today’s fast-moving business world, retailers need the ability to model, plan and measure performance of store development initiatives so they can make more informed business decisions that positively impact their bottom line,” said Brad Smith, managing partner at JCB Partners, a Cognos Platinum Partner and leading provider of business intelligence and analytics consulting and services to retailers, including Red Robin and CDW.  “Cognos Blueprints deliver value through best practices that gives chains insight in developing and executing strategies while accelerating the business planning, forecasting and investment return analysis processes.”   

Developed by the Cognos Innovation Center for Performance Management, the Cognos Store Development Blueprint consists of targeted, pre-built data, process and policy models that are based on proven best-practices in retail planning, budgeting and forecasting, and are designed to reduce the time and risks associated with new performance management implementations. The solution equips customers with all of the necessary technology and process design choices, enabling them to synchronize and coordinate financial and operational plans in order to make better resource allocation decisions, from the corporate center down to the branch network.

“Store development initiatives can be quite capital-intensive, and usually evolve in scope from initial project planning to completion, making it critical for retailers to maintain strong control over plan objectives and eventual outcomes,” said Patricia Waldron, retail industry director at Cognos. “With Cognos, retail management gain ‘right-time’ visibility into their store development projects, enabling them to define, manage and measure financial performance for multiple initiatives across the organization in an efficient and timely manner.”

The Cognos Store Development Blueprint is available immediately to Cognos customers, and will be demoed at the 2006 Retail Systems Conference and Exposition, Booth # 1516, McCormick Place, Chicago, May 22-23, 2006.

Cognos is a recognized leader in delivering business intelligence and corporate performance management solutions for the retail industry. In fact, 25 per cent of the world's top 250 retailers, and over 300 retail chains worldwide, are already Cognos customers. Retail customers include Amazon.com, American Eagle Outfitters, and 7-Eleven. More information about Cognos solutions for retail can be found at http://www.cognos.com/solutions/industry/retail/index.html.

ABOUT COGNOS 8 PLANNING:
Cognos 8 Planning further leverages Cognos 8 BI to enable reporting and analysis on real-time plans and integrates with Cognos 8 Controller for certified financial data. This provides customers with a consistent platform from which to plan future performance and avoid predictable surprises.  New enhancements include native integration with Cognos 8 BI – plans are accessible live to accelerate reporting, analysis and dashboarding.  This provides additional and timely insight to the status of the planning process for more effective plans. For further information on Cognos 8 Planning see http://www.cognos.com/products/planning_consolidation/enterprise_planning/index.html

ABOUT COGNOS PERFORMANCE BLUEPRINTS:
Cognos offers a full suite of Performance Blueprints to address planning and performance management process areas that directly impact an organization’s ability to create business value. Both functional and industry specific process areas can now be automated, streamlined and transformed to help organizations quickly create more business value.  The Cognos Performance Blueprints are a key component within the Cognos Performance Management System, which combines technology, best practices, analytical applications and solutions, and a broad network of partners into a single performance management solution. For further information on the Cognos Performance Blueprints see http://www.cognos.com/innovationcenter/blueprint.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.