COGNOS AND VMARK SOFTWARE TO PARTNER IN DATA WAREHOUSE INITIATIVE

VMARK TO RESELL COGNOS' BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS WORLDWIDE

BURLINGTON, MA (APRIL 22, 1996) -- Cognos, (NASDAQ:COGNF;TSE:CSN), the
global leader in business intelligence products and VMARK Software, Inc.
(NASDAQ:VMRK), one of the world's foremost providers of client/server
software and services, today announced a worldwide agreement by which
VMARK will resell Cognos' award-winning business intelligence tools as
part of its UniVersal Warehouse initiative.

The agreement provides both companies with greater accessibility to new
markets.

Under the terms of the agreement, VMARK will resell Cognos' data base
reporting and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) software, Impromptu and
PowerPlay, to its worldwide customer base of more than one million users
and through its indirect sales channel of more than 360 value added
resellers.

VMARK's UniVersal Warehouse initiative combines its UniVerse RDBMS Server
and HyperStar data access middleware with third-party software and a range
of professional services to deliver a comprehensive data warehousing
solution. The worldwide agreement follows a successful UK-only
relationship where Cognos' PowerPlay replaced rivals Forest & Trees, Pilot
Lightship and GQL, as VMARK's OLAP client.

The data warehouse market has become one of the fastest growing segments of
the computer industry. Characterized by the need for rapid access to large
volumes of historical or reference data and for the ability to manipulate,
analyze and "warehouse" information from many different sources, its
growth is driven by companies looking for a competitive advantage. The
worldwide data warehouse market is estimated to reach $7 billion by 1999,
a compound annual growth rate of 34.7 percent from 1994, according to
International Data Corporation, a research firm located in Framingham,
Mass.

"This relationship, alongside other recently announced partnerships,
underlines Cognos' position as the world leader in business intelligence,"
said Ron Zambonini, Cognos' CEO and president. "Impromptu and PowerPlay
are the best-of-breed desktop tools for decision makers at all levels of
an enterprise, a position which attracts partners who are also themselves
world leaders. VMARK's UniVersal Warehouse initiative positions VMARK to
be a leader in the market and we look forward to a mutually beneficial
business alliance, " Zambonini concluded.

"The addition of Cognos' well-respected business intelligence tools
complements our UniVersal Warehouse initiative," said Robert M. Morrill,
VMARK's president, CEO and chairman. "Impromptu and PowerPlay greatly
enhance our product set as we aggressively pursue the data warehouse
market. The partnership will also contribute significantly to the Cognos
channel, creating thousands of new Impromptu and PowerPlay customers,"
Morrill said.

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 by over 450 resellers around
the globe.

Cognos develops, markets and supports -- both directly and through
resellers worldwide -- 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.

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).

VMARK Software Inc., with its headquarters in Westboro, Mass, is a global
supplier of client/server software and services. VMARK's offerings are
available worldwide in virtually all areas of business, industry and
government. Its product family includes the UniVerse RDBMS server,
HyperStar, object-messaging middleware, and ObjectStudio, an
object-oriented application development tool. Its product are complemented
by a suite of services including 24 hour customer support, consulting and
integration.

You can obtain this release and other information about VMARK Software,
Inc. on VMARK's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.vmark.com.
 
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