- Cognos POM Planning Blueprint enables defense organizations to more effectively model and drive multi-year scenario planning in support of mission objectives - BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced the launch of a new performance solution designed to help U.S. defense agencies deliver top-down and bottom-up program plans, budgets and forecasts that are in line with pre-defined departmental objectives. As part of the U.S. Department of Defense's Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) process, defense agencies are required to deliver a comprehensive Program Objective Memorandum (POM) detailing all proposed programs, so that cross-departmental budget expense planning can be based on measurable goals. The Cognos POM Planning Blueprint helps simplify this complex undertaking by enabling budget officers or analysts to deploy demand planning to the appropriate departmental level to more efficiently determine anticipated agency needs for the coming years. The Blueprint enables budget planners to include dynamic cost model estimations into the POM process, something they are typically unable to do with the budgeting planning tools currently available to their agencies. "Budget authorizations are declining year to year, and unplanned cuts typically come just before the fiscal year starts, leaving little time to re-plan. In defense organizations, there is a significant need to plan scenarios in advance, so we can prioritize key programs and justify maximum funding envelopes," said James M. Russell, executive director of financial and business operations, and controller at U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). "Using Cognos has enabled us to develop a more efficient, closed-loop budgeting and planning process, where resources allocations could be easily modeled, then prioritized according to the value of outcomes. This affords us the necessary agility to manage tradeoffs and better accommodate increased program requirements." Anchored on Cognos 8 Planning and Cognos 8 BI, the Cognos POM Planning Blueprint delivers an intuitive planning and reporting environment where budget owners can: * analyze trends and projections to better understand the 'what-if' implications of various program scenarios * collaborate with key agency stakeholders to build long-term plans that reflect agency-wide performance targets * easily respond to new challenges, modifying plans 'on the fly' * drive management accountability through embedded workflow functionality, complete with alerting capabilities and a streamlined approvals/monitoring process Developed by the Cognos Innovation Center for Performance Management, the Cognos POM Planning Blueprint consists of targeted, pre-built data, process and policy models that 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 across the organization. "Static, spreadsheet-based budget formulation and financial modeling processes fall well short in delivering valuable insight into an agency's performance and long-range program needs," said Terence Atkinson, director of government and education solutions at Cognos. "The Cognos POM Planning Blueprint helps support the budget formulation and planning process by enabling a flexible environment for budget owners to consider the implications of various budget decisions, resulting in more accurate budget estimates and better management." Available immediately to U.S. defense customers, the Cognos POM Planning Blueprint is the latest in a series of industry-specific solutions to be rolled out by Cognos this year. Since January, Cognos has launched Performance Blueprints for retail store operations, retail store development, bank branch performance, pharmaceutical clinical trials, pharmaceutical sample optimization, and sales & operations planning and trade promotions management for the manufacturing industry. Cognos' industry-leading performance management solutions have helped numerous agencies within the U.S. Department of Defense increase organizational performance, enhance operational readiness and improve mission effectiveness. Cognos can be found in such leading defense agencies as U.S. Army Reserve, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard. For more information about Cognos solutions for defense, please visit http://www.cognos.com/solutions/industry/defense/index.html. Cognos is hosting a Web seminar today, September 26, 2006, at 2 pm EST, and will demonstrate how U.S. federal agencies have capitalized on a Cognos trusted planning environment to effectively connect strategy to plans, targets and operational objectives. To register, please go to http://click.101comm.hdsmail.com/t/86084/71363393/2957908/0/ 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/inde x.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/. 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: 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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