Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, and General Business Machines Corporation (GBM) today announced a regional partnership that will help customers integrate business processes across the enterprise and gain greater insight into company performance.

GBM is IBM's exclusive distributor and integrator in the region, and represents other leading technology brands as well including Cisco Systems, Diebold, ZyXEL, Lexmark and Tripp Lite. As Cognos' premier solutions provider in Central America, GBM will market and sell Cognos Performance Management solutions to its installed customer base, which represents top companies and conglomerates in the region.

?GBM will provide our customers with unmatched direct local presence, strong customer service focus and in-depth market knowledge,? said Javier Ramirez, regional director at Cognos for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. ?This strategic partnership reinforces our position as the leader in Performance Management and Business Intelligence in Central America, while leveraging the success of the Cognos-IBM partnerships worldwide.?

?With this initiative, both companies will bring greater coverage and drive Performance Management and Business Intelligence success to customers in the region with solutions and services provided by the undisputed market leaders,? said Ramon Aguilar, director of marketing at GBM Corporation. ?Together with Cognos' Business Intelligence, Scorecarding and Planning solutions, GBM will offer integrated solutions with IBM's infrastructure.?

GBM operates throughout Central America and the Caribbean and has offices in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

About Cognos:

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence and corporate performance management, delivers software and services that help 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.

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

About GBM:

GBM is a solution integrator with strong experience in information Technologies. It provides all the components for a technology infrastructure with hardware, software and specialized services. GBM's objective is to become a strategic partner of its clients with the purpose of advising and implementing solutions that allow the creation and evolution of automated processes, and as a result reach higher levels of competitiveness.

GBM is a regional company with Central American capital headquartered in Costa Rica and with presence in 7 countries. In addition to offices in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic, it serves the Haitian and Belize markets. Offices in Miami, FL serve as a distribution point for its products.

GBM is IBM's exclusive distributor in the region. Additionally, GBM represents such leading brands as Cisco Systems, Diebold, ZyXEL, Lexmark and more recently Tripp Lite. GBM has alliances with SAP, i-flex, Byte and Klein. For more information, visit http://www.gbm.net/

Media Contacts:
Cognos, Inc.
Steve Milmore, 781-313-2403
steve.milmore@cognos.com
or
Lois Paul & Partners, LLC
Jolene Hajj, 781-782-5849
jolene_hajj@lpp.com
or
Investor Relations:
Cognos, Inc.
John Lawlor, 613-738-3503
john.lawlor@cognos.com