COGNOS AND INFORMIX ARE FIRST TO LINK FRONT END OLAP, BACK END ROLAP
SYSTEMS FOR DATA WAREHOUSING ANALYSIS

POWERPLAY PROVIDES FIRST OLAP CLIENT ACCESS TO METACUBE

INFORMIX BECOMES CHARTER MEMBER OF COGNOS INSIGHT PARTNER PROGRAM

BURLINGTON, MASS., APRIL 16, 1996 -- Cognos (NASDAQ:COGNF; TSE:CSN) and
Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:IFMX) today announced an agreement to
integrate Cognos PowerPlay, with Informix MetaCube. PowerPlay is Cognos'
industry-leading Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) desktop-based client
and MetaCube is Informix server-based Relational OLAP (ROLAP) engine for
data warehousing applications. The integration will provide the first
complete, client/server solution for analysis of data residing in data
warehouses. This agreement furthers Cognos position as the leading
provider of front-end tools for OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) data
sources, and establishes MetaCube as the ROLAP engine of choice in the
server space. Additionally, Informix has announced its participation in
Cognos Business Intelligence Insight Partner Program.

Cognos PowerPlay client software delivers multidimensional OLAP analysis to
users' desktops, from sources such as relational databases, other OLAP
servers and spreadsheets. PowerPlay's ability to function independently of
a proprietary OLAP server has made it the most widely deployed OLAP client
in the marketplace. The PowerPlay/MetaCube combination will allow users to
choose the optimum platform for analytical processing: PowerPlay on the PC
for fast, intuitive interaction with moderate amounts of data; or the
MetaCube engine for accessing and analyzing larger, more complex scalable
data warehouses.

MetaCube is a sophisticated relational OLAP engine that provides high
performance access to a data warehouse. MetaCube leverages a customer's
investment in an Informix RDBMS, eliminating the need for a proprietary
multidimensional database. MetaCube also opens its data warehouse engine
to all development environments, such as PowerPlay, though
industry-standard OLE, and all query tools through a special ODBC driver,
providing flexibility, openness and integration for customers.

"As Informix recognized with its acquisition of the MetaCube technology
last year, the business intelligence marketplace demands OLAP and data
warehousing solutions that keep enterprises competitive and profitable,"
said Alan Rottenberg, senior vice president, Cognos Business Intelligence
products. "Our integration with Informix strengthens PowerPlay's position
as the de facto universal OLAP client with the broadest range of
support."

"Cognos' commitment to open OLAP architectures provides Informix customers
with the flexibility they require to fully utilize data warehouses," said
Steve Sommer, vice president, marketing, Informix. "The PowerPlay/MetaCube
combination will deliver a data warehouse and OLAP solution that leads the
marketplace in ease of deployment and use, low cost and scalability."

As part of Cognos' and Informix' ongoing partnership, Informix has joined
Cognos' Insight Partner Program as a Charter member.

"Informix has always been committed to working through partnerships in
order to provide customers with the most complete and open solution," said
Marianne Elkholy, director of data warehouse marketing, Informix. "It is
important for Informix to be a part of the Insight Partner Program so that
Informix and Cognos can provide fully optimized products to our data
warehousing customers."

INFORMIX

Informix Software is the leading supplier of high performance, parallel
processing database technology for open systems. Informix products also
include application development tools for creating client/server
production applications, decision support systems, and ad-hoc query
interfaces, and connectivity software that allows information to be shared
transparently from PCs to mainframes within the corporate computing
environment. Informix's corporate headquarters is based in Menlo Park,
California. More information about Informix is available via the World
Wide Web; http://www.informix.com/. Informix is a registered trademark and
MetaCube is a trademark of Informix Software Inc.

COGNOS

Cognos is the global leader in providing business intelligence software to
satisfy enterprise-wide data access and analysis needs. With over 250,000
seats in thousands of companies worldwide, PowerPlay and Impromptu
consistently service the widest range of users across corporate,
departmental, workgroup, personal and mobile applications. The products
support over 100 relational and OLAP data sources and are available in
seven major languages. Cognos Business Intelligence products are sold
through the company's 40 sales offices and over 450 resellers around the
globe.

Cognos develops, markets and supports -- both directly and through
resellers worldwide -- advanced client/server tools for data access, data
analysis and application development on a wide range of open and
proprietary computing platforms. Cognos is a publicly held company with
dual headquarters in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, MA. Cognos' World Wide
Web address is http://www.cognos.com.

Copies of previous Cognos press releases and Corporate and product
information are available on Cognos' World Wide Web (WWW) site, at
http://www.cognos.com and at PR Newswire's site at
http://www.prnewswire.com. Product and company information can also be
found at the Cognos CompuServe forum (GO COGNOS).
 
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