Cognos Extends Wireless Business Intelligence Solution to Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphones

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(EON:Enhanced Online News)--Cognos® (NASDAQ: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced that it has extended its wireless business intelligence solution, Cognos 8 Go! Mobile, to support Windows Mobile 6 smartphones.

“This new version of Cognos 8 Go! Mobile uniquely addresses the needs of Cognos customers who are Windows Mobile users and require mission-critical performance information delivered directly to their mobile workforce”

According to Gartner, the enterprise mobility market is expected to grow dramatically over the next few years and “the number of mobile applications deployed by enterprises to their employees will continue to grow by 30% per year through 2011 (0.7 probability).”(a)

Cognos 8 Go! Mobile is the industry’s first business intelligence solution designed to make it convenient to view, consume and interact with highly relevant performance information on mobile devices. Cognos 8 Go! Mobile delivers enterprise data through an intuitive interface optimized for each different type of mobile platform. It now brings timely decision-support information directly to Windows Mobile 6 devices. All decision makers who need to access BI content across the enterprise, either through a mobile device or on the Web, are able to use the same consistent, trusted source of operational information.

Existing Cognos 8 BI customers, such as MTD Products, will be able to use their Windows Mobile 6 smartphones to further leverage their BI investments.

“We beta-tested this new version against our Windows Mobile Treo environment and saw immediate opportunity to add value by bringing BI reporting to new users across the company,” said Natalie Sabo, manager, Business Intelligence, MTD Products. “With Cognos 8 Go! Mobile, we have the capability to provide executives and sales personnel with daily sales and shipment information in a convenient, easily consumable format.”

Gartner reports that “worldwide combined shipments of PDAs and smartphones totaled 57.4 million units in 1H07, a 36% increase compared with the same period in 2006.” They “forecast combined shipments of PDAs and smartphones for all of 2007 to reach about 129 million units, up 42% compared with 2006.”(b)

Within this growing market, Windows Mobile lets small to medium businesses or larger enterprises extend Microsoft Office Outlook e-mail, familiar Microsoft Office programs, and information management applications, such as BI, to their mobile workers.

“Windows Mobile delivers a flexible platform so that companies can adopt the productivity tools and applications they need to maximize mobile productivity,” said Eddie Amos, general manager of global ISV partners at Microsoft. “Mobile business applications that are designed for the platform, such as Cognos 8 Go! Mobile, help our customers leverage their systems to make more timely decisions based on real-time interaction with key operational or financial performance information.”

Cognos reseller and OEM partners, including Genware Computer Systems Inc. Locus Solution, LLC, and SpotOn Systems, Inc. beta-tested the new solution with a view to servicing their enterprise or mid-market customers who will now be able to extend their Cognos 8 BI solution to their Windows Mobile environments and capitalize on consistent performance information wherever and whenever they need it for improved decision-making. See related comments here: http://www.cognos.com/news/releases/2007/1217-quotes.html

Cognos 8 Go! Mobile is purpose-built for Windows Mobile and lets executives or front-line mobile workers securely access and interact with timely and personalized operational and strategic performance information automatically over the air. Even while users are offline, the product has a rich mobile client that fully leverages the capabilities of Windows Mobile 6 and the Cognos 8 BI platform, for decision-making anytime, anywhere. These capabilities include common security and access to all BI reports, graphs and analysis within a single report authoring environment, without requiring modification or duplication of reports. For further information about Cognos 8 Go! Mobile see: www.cognos.com/products/cognos8businessintelligence/go-mobile.html

“This new version of Cognos 8 Go! Mobile uniquely addresses the needs of Cognos customers who are Windows Mobile users and require mission-critical performance information delivered directly to their mobile workforce,” said Leah MacMillan, vice president of product marketing, Cognos. “Customers can expand the reach of their performance management deployments by efficiently putting key business information securely in the hands of more employees across the business. The net result is improved organizational performance for better competitive advantage.”

(a) Gartner, “Gartner’s View of Enterprise Mobility”, by Leif Olof-Wallin, July 16, 2007.

(b) Gartner, “Dataquest Insight: Worldwide PDA and SmartPhone Shipments Soar 45.7% in 2Q07”, by Robert Cozza, October 2, 2007.

Pricing and Availability:

The solution is available direct from Cognos or its network of resellers worldwide as a role-based, separately priced add-on option for Cognos 8 BI customers.

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. http://www.cognos.com. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Note to Editors: Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product information are available on Cognos' Web site at http://www.cognos.com.

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