- Cognos recognized for continued growth, leadership and innovation in the manufacturing sector - BURLINGTON, Mass., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced that it has been selected by START-IT Magazine as one of the Hottest Companies of 2006. The START-IT Hottest Companies Award recognizes software and hardware vendors that have developed innovative applications or products for the manufacturing industry. Nominees were asked to describe their essential product or service, provide their growth record for the last three years, explain how their product or service was unique, and pinpoint reasons they were "hotter" than their competitors. Chosen as one of the industry's leading technology providers in manufacturing, Cognos exhibited solid year-over-year financial growth, industry innovation and market leadership underpinned by the recent launches of Cognos 8 Business Intelligence, Cognos Go! and manufacturing-specific Performance Blueprints, namely the Cognos Sales & Operations Planning Blueprint, and the Cognos Trade Promotion Management Blueprint. "Manufacturers need accurate information in a timely fashion and those named as 'Hot' are at the top of their game in providing the information technology to accomplish it," says Peggy Smedley, editorial director of START-IT. Many of the world's largest, most innovative manufacturers -- including the top ten automakers, 19 of the top 20 consumer packaged goods companies, and nine of the top 10 high tech organizations -- use Cognos performance management solutions to increase profitability, improve sales performance, drive operations effectiveness and optimize the supply chain. "With our Cognos investment, we can now use our resources to solve problems, not just understand that they exist," said Joe Jeffery, director of manufacturing systems at Vicor Corporation, a leading manufacturer of modular power components and power systems used in the communications, data processing, industrial controls, test equipment, medical, and defense electronic markets. "Cognos enables middle management to capitalize on an integrated metrics suite in the form of tailored dashboards. This ensures commonality of data sets and facilitates the integrated relationships necessary for balanced scorecard reporting and continuous improvement across the organization." "It is an honor to be selected by START-IT Magazine for our continued contributions to the manufacturing industry," said Paul Hoy, director of manufacturing industry solutions at Cognos. "Cognos is focused on delivering solutions and best practices to our manufacturing customer base, enabling them to drive, monitor and alert against key metrics for optimal enterprise performance." ABOUT VICOR: Vicor Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets modular power components and complete power systems based upon a portfolio of patented technologies. Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, Vicor sells its products primarily to the communications, information technology, industrial control and military electronics markets. For more information, visit the Vicor Web site at http://www.vicr.com/. 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. Media Contacts: David DeRosa Cognos, 613-738-1338 ext. 3317 Kristen Orfanos Lois Paul & Partners, LLC, 781-782-5852 Investor Relations: John Lawlor Cognos, 613-738-3503 DATASOURCE: Cognos CONTACT: Media: David DeRosa of Cognos, +1-613-738-1338 ext. 3317, ; or Kristen Orfanos of Lois Paul & Partners, LLC, +1-781-782-5852, ; or Investor Relations: John Lawlor of Cognos, +1-613-738-3503, Web site: http://www.cognos.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/107867.html

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