Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, today announced that Couche-Tard Eastern Canada Division has selected Cognos 8 Controller for corporate reporting. The Cognos solution will be used to produce market reviews and financial statements for internal reporting on profitability and income tax returns on the many entities within Couche-Tard's Eastern Canada Division.

Couche-Tard Eastern Canada Division was looking for a solution that would allow its staff to provide faster and more accessible financial reporting for the 600 stores in Eastern Canada. In addition to reducing the data integrity risks associated with spreadsheets, Couche-Tard expects to decrease the amount of time it takes to produce its financials with the added flexibility of altering performance reports more easily with Cognos 8 Controller.

?The main value we saw in selecting Cognos 8 Controller is that it will be faster and more flexible than our existing solution,? said Robert Mathieu, director of finance for Couche-Tard Eastern Canada Division. ?We will use Cognos 8 Controller to do all of our internal reporting, preparing financial statements for income tax returns for the many companies within the group and for official corporate statements.?

Couche-Tard is a long-time user of Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) providing a true performance management platform for the Eastern Canada division. In addition to supporting corporate reporting with Cognos 8 Controller, Cognos 8 BI provides for all of Couche-Tard's operational reporting and analysis, including store-level reporting, category management and vendor performance across all divisions.

Cognos 8 Controller will deliver a single, secure, and robust reporting process for Couche-Tard's finance group in the Eastern Canada division.

Organizations are looking to improve their close, consolidate and report process made difficult by continual business changes, new SOX, IFRS, and local compliance requirements and collection of data from disparate systems. Cognos 8 Controller automates and structures the financial consolidation process, provides centralized control and collection of data, supports the improvement of the internal controls environment and ensures delivery of valid, financial performance information for internal and external reporting. Customers get a transparent, accurate and timely enterprise view of financial performance.

?Couche-Tard Eastern Canada Division's selection of Cognos 8 Controller is testament to the depth and completeness of the Cognos solution portfolio and our ability to partner with customers across all of their key performance management initiatives,? said Doug Barton, vice-president, product marketing, Cognos. ?Cognos 8 Controller delivers the power of linking the financial consolidation and corporate reporting application with world-class business intelligence and yet ensures this mission critical process is easily owned and maintained by finance managers responsible for performance management and regulatory compliance.?

Cognos performance management solutions provide a single line of sight across all time horizons. Planning and consolidation combine the forward management view of the business (planning, budgeting and forecasting) with the current and historical view of the business (consolidations, reporting, and financial analytics.) This integrated operational and financial view lets customers proactively address business challenges for greater operational effectiveness.

Cognos is a recognized leader in delivering business intelligence and performance management solutions for the retail industry. In fact, 30% of the world's top 250 retailers, and over 300 retail chains worldwide, are already Cognos customers. In addition to Couche-Tard, retail customers include Burlington Coat Factory, Steak N Shake, Amazon.com, LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics, 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:

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 3,000worldwide 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.

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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Investor Relations:
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