National Association of College and University Business Officers Taps Cognos and Exeter Group to Deliver Dynamic Tuition Benchmarking Solution: NACUBO's Benchmarking Tool enables higher education institutions to interactively compare critical management information among peers

Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, and Exeter Group, a leading provider of IT consulting services to the higher education marketplace, today announced their role in the launch of NACUBO's online, interactive solution designed to help colleges and universities compare management strategies with a peer group and industry norms. The first application for this tool will be in the area of tuition discounting strategies.

NEW ORLEANS (BusinessWire EON) July 30, 2007 -- Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN) (TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence and performance management solutions, and Exeter Group, a leading provider of IT consulting services to the higher education marketplace, today announced their role in the launch of NACUBO’s online, interactive solution designed to help colleges and universities compare management strategies with a peer group and industry norms. The first application for this tool will be in the area of tuition discounting strategies.

This solution, jointly developed by Exeter Group and Cognos, promises to simplify tuition benchmarking practices while ensuring a fair and competitive market among member institutions.

Each year, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) conducts a detailed tuition discounting survey among its members. To date, results were only shared as a flat file on a CD, preventing business officers’ from drilling into the data and conducting their own queries and analysis.

With the NACUBO Benchmarking Tool – developed by Exeter Group and powered by Cognos software – participating NACUBO members can now access the information online, viewing and comparing critical tuition discounting information against self-selected peer groups. Leveraging Cognos 8 Business Intelligence (BI) – which offers reporting, analysis, scorecarding and business event management all on a single architecture – users can perform detailed multi-dimensional analysis to confidently identify the tuition discounting strategies that best suit their organization’s needs. All survey information is aggregated and presented anonymously in order to maintain sensitive data confidentiality.

“This solution has evolved the tuition discounting survey from a ‘one size fits all’ set of complex, static data to a dynamic decision support model that is more personalized and more meaningful to each higher education institution,” said Phil Doolittle, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operations and Planning Officer at the University of Redlands. “The ease of use is also impressive – instead of digging out information from a giant report, we can now pick our peer set, customize analysis parameters and easily drill straight to the answers we need.”

Available on or about August 1 at www.nacubo.org to 425 participating universities, the NACUBO Benchmarking Tool will be expanded to include over 700 universities by the fall. The tuition discounting application is the first in a series of benchmarking solutions that NACUBO plans to make available to its members in topical areas such as endowment management and key financial indicators.

“As the authoritative resource for business and financial management in the higher education market, NACUBO embraces innovative technologies that will help advance the economic viability and business practices of our member institutions and help them fulfill their academic missions,” said John Walda, President and Chief Executive Officer of NACUBO. “This solution, jointly developed by Exeter Group and Cognos, promises to simplify tuition benchmarking practices while ensuring a fair and competitive market among member institutions.”

“The tuition benchmarking survey provided Exeter Group with a great opportunity to demonstrate how business intelligence tools can provide tremendous value to higher education institutions,” said Jonathan Kutchins, Chief Executive Officer of Exeter Group. “Cognos allowed Exeter Group to highlight the value that an institution like NACUBO provides to its constituents through a powerful toolset that enabled us to deliver a feature-rich application that is remarkably intuitive and focused on the end-user’s business needs.”

Cognos is a recognized leader in delivering performance management solutions for colleges and universities. Over 1,000 higher education institutions worldwide use Cognos, including Southern Methodist University, The George Washington University, University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, University of Ulster (Ireland) and University of Wollongong (Australia). More information about Cognos solutions for higher education can be found at www.cognos.com/higher_ed

“Whether it is facilitating tuition discount benchmarking, enabling enrollment and tuition planning, or improving the performance of Advancement Services, Cognos brings extensive domain knowledge and a strong commitment to the higher education market, its institutions and member organizations,” said Terence Atkinson, Director of Government and Education Solutions at Cognos. “Our collaboration with Exeter Group and NACUBO in the development of this solution serves as a testament to the value performance management technology offers higher education institutions in enabling excellence in business and financial management.”

NOTE TO EDITORS: Representatives from NACUBO, Exeter Group and Redlands University will be showcasing the new solution at an open panel session on Monday July 30, 2007, from 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm ET, in Room 203, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA. As well, a demo of the NACUBO Benchmarking Tool will be available at NACUBO Central during regular exhibit hours.

ABOUT NACUBO:

Established in 1962, NACUBO serves a membership of more than 2,500 colleges, universities, and higher education service providers across the country. NACUBO represents chief administrative and financial officers through a collaboration of knowledge and professional development, advocacy, and community. Its vision is to define excellence in higher education business and financial management. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NACUBO takes pride in offering its membership the best resources, advocacy, and professional development programs in higher education business and financial administration. For more information, please visit the NACUBO Web site at http://www.nacubo.org.

ABOUT EXETER GROUP:

Since its inception in 1984, Exeter Group has been helping its clients create business value by providing top quality business analysis, planning, design, and implementation services. Exeter Group consultants bring a combination of business understanding and technical expertise to every project, enabling the company to skillfully craft realistic, powerful solutions that enable complex organizations to achieve their objectives. For more information, visit Exeter Group’s Web site at http://www.exeter.com.

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.