Founded in 1992, Ariat is a leading manufacturer of innovative equestrian performance footwear, apparel and small leather goods. Prior to selecting Cognos, Ariat, like many companies, used a variety of manual spreadsheet-based planning solutions that offered very limited reporting and analytical capabilities. Consistency was also an issue, as similar reports run by employees and managers never matched, making it difficult for strategic decision-making.

Ariat selected Cognos because it delivers the complete range of business intelligence and enterprise planning functionality through a single platform, simplifying deployment and use. Specifically, Ariat will use Cognos 8 Planning to deliver a real-time planning, budgeting, and forecasting process throughout the company, particularly in the sales, finance and inventory demand planning departments. Cognos 8 BI will be used to report and analyze results against key performance benchmarks, enabling executives to quickly react to changing market conditions and optimize business decisions. In the Sales department, for instance, Ariat will be able to more effectively plan and forecast supply and demand by tracking sales performance by sales rep, customer, and channel, uncovering trends and dynamically responding to changing market conditions.

“Having worked with Cognos solutions in the past, and as Chairperson of the Northern California Cognos User Group for the past two years, I can attest firsthand that Cognos is the only truly integrated enterprise performance management solution in the market with the functionality to deliver Ariat’s needs. With Cognos, we’ll be able to quickly and accurately match our supply and demand,” said Pamela Vaughan, Vice-President of IT at Ariat, and co-author of the newly released “CIO Perspectives” book covering best practices from Silicon Valley’s leading IT experts. “This is a solution that can grow with Ariat. The fully integrated, single platform will truly revolutionize the way we plan, report on, and analyze product sales performance, allowing us to continue to be the leader in the performance footwear and apparel market.”

Cognos 8 BI is the only BI product that provides the complete range of BI capabilities – reporting, analysis, scorecarding, dashboards, business event management, and data integration – on a single, proven architecture. Cognos 8 Planning leverages Cognos 8 BI to enable reporting and analysis on real-time plans, providing customers with a consistent platform from which to plan future performance and avoid predictable surprises. Enterprise planning and business intelligence are key capabilities of the Cognos Performance Management System, which combines technology, best practices, analytical applications and solutions, and a broad network of partners into a single performance management solution for customers. Cognos also provides affordable and modular solutions that allow midsize businesses to consume performance management functionality as they need it and as they grow.

“Ariat understands that timely access to information about operations, products and customers is fundamental to sustainable growth,” said Paul Hoy, Manufacturing Industry Director at Cognos. “By standardizing on Cognos, Ariat is empowering its business users to make better business decisions and achieve greater visibility into revenue and profitability performance. Ariat can now move beyond cumbersome, error-prone spreadsheets using a flexible, connected performance management solution that will help them develop an integrated Sales and Operating Plan (S&OP) that unifies the sales, marketing, supply chain, and finance functions.”

Cognos is a recognized leader in delivering performance management solutions for the consumer goods industry. In fact, 19 of the top 20 consumer goods companies in the world use Cognos. In addition to Ariat, other leading CPG customers include Heinz, Miller Brewing, Fiskars Brands and Del Monte Foods. Cognos was named “Top Pure Play Business Intelligence Vendor” in Consumer Goods Technology (CGT) Magazine’s 2007 Best in Class Rankings, as voted annually by CGT readers. For more information about Cognos solutions for the consumer packaged goods industry, please visit http://www.cognos.com/solutions/industry/manufacturing/index.html

About Ariat International, Inc.:

Ariat International, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of innovative performance equestrian footwear, apparel, handbags and belts. Featuring a patented technology designed to deliver stability, durability and comfort, Ariat pioneered the application of advanced athletic shoe technology into English riding boots and authentic Western boots. Ariat products are sold in a network of retail outlets throughout the world. For more information about Ariat products, visit the Ariat Web site at www.ariat.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.

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