Cognos and Oracle Forge Alliance Oracle Financials Users Receive Tightly Integrated Reporting Solution.

BURLINGTON, Mass--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 1995-- Cognos(r) (NASDAQ:COGNF;TSE:CSN) today announced that it has joined Oracle Corp.s Cooperative Applications Initiative (CAI). As part of the alliance, Cognos will provide data access and reporting by seamlessly integrating Impromptu 3.0(r) with Oracle Applications, Release 10.

Companies participating in Oracle Cooperative Applications are "best-in-class" applications for Oracle Applications, including Oracle Financials, Oracle Manufacturing and Oracle Human Resources. These highly integrated enterprise-wide packaged applications broaden the scope of Oracle-based solutions.

"We are pleased that Cognos, a leader in reporting and analysis tools, has joined Oracles Cooperative Applications Initiative. By offering a tightly integrated solution, we will be able to offer our joint customers a database reporting tool that is quick and easy to implement with Oracle Financials," said Polly Sumner, vice president of Oracles Worldwide Business Alliances.

"Our goal is to provide the "Best-of-Class" out-of-the-box reporting solution for all Oracle Financial customers," commented Alan Rottenberg, Cognos, senior vice- president, business intelligence group. "Impromptu 3.0 is the industry leading reporting tool and the only Oracle CAI partner to offer this level of integration."

Oracle Applications users will benefit from their ability to interact with live data, create reports and make additional queries all in a single unified Windows interface. Oracle administrators will appreciate Impromptu 3.0s inheritance-based architecture that provides for easy deployment and consistency of management across all users and reports. In addition, Impromptu provides the lowest cost of ownership of any database reporting tool on the market.

Cognos will deliver Impromptu Catalogs and reports for some of the best-selling Oracle Financial modules including general ledger, accounts payable and purchase order. Shipments are expected to begin in the second quarter of 1995.

Impromptu Catalogs are a key feature within Impromptu that provide: o a single point of maintenance o complete insulation for users from database structure such as

tables and joins o precise control over database access, client/server partitioning,

costly query activity, security and user permissions o comprehensive user profiles that determine how data is accessed,

by whom, and what users see in their catalog.

Cognos is uniquely positioned to deliver business intelligence software to satisfy enterprise-wide data access and reporting needs. With over 100,000 seats in more than 5,000 companies, PowerPlay and Impromptu consistently service the widest range of users across corporate, department, workgroup, personal and mobile applications. The products support over 100 relational and OLAP data sources and are translated in eight languages. Cognos products are available through the companys 45 sales offices and over 250 resellers worldwide. Cognos is a publicly held company with dual headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, and Burlington, MA. -0-

COGNOS, IMPROMPTU and POWERPLAY are registered trademarks of Cognos Incorporated. Other products mentioned in this document are registered, trademarked or service marked by their respective companies.

CONTACT: Roberta J. Carlton, Cognos

[phone], ext. 2446

Rich Nagle or Larry Bouchie, LNS Communications

[phone]