COGNOS AND MACROMEDIA COMBINE WEB SERVICES WITH RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS

Business intelligence data integrated into custom applications; sample applications and source code available

San Francisco and Ottawa, Ontario—August 19, 2002—Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) and Cognos (Nasdaq: COGN; TSX: CSN), the world leader in business intelligence (BI), today announced the integration of the Macromedia MX product family and Cognos Web Services, a universal integration platform for extending the industry-leading Cognos Series 7 business intelligence into other applications and environments. Macromedia and Cognos are leading the way in enabling enterprises to take full advantage of web services and rich Internet applications.

The collaboration between the two companies includes joint development of a sample, with source code and documentation, that demonstrates the potential of combining Cognos Web Services with Macromedia Flash to create usable, responsive, "desktop-like" applications. By combining both products, Cognos and Macromedia enable enterprise developers and system integrators to deliver high-impact, customized business intelligence visualizations and reports immediately.

"Macromedia built its product family to be open enough to ensure easy integration with leading solutions such as Cognos Web Services," said David Mendels, senior vice president, Macromedia. "By building on top of an industry standard like XML Web Services, developers will be able to deliver rich Internet applications that pass structured business intelligence from robust back-end systems without having to sacrifice visual appeal and functionality, due to the strength of Macromedia Flash Player."

The sample, co-developed by Macromedia and Boston-based Molecular, Inc., a Macromedia premier Alliance partner, provides some of the rich, multi-dimensional data and functionality available in Cognos and is available at http://cognos.molecular.com. The sample was built with Macromedia Flash MX, Macromedia Flash Remoting, and Cognos Web Services.

Cognos Web Services and Macromedia Flash MX provide developers with templates and pre-built components to rapidly develop business intelligence applications. Macromedia Flash MX and Macromedia Flash Remoting are both built to be easily integrated with other back-end solutions to enable the deployment of rich Internet applications. Users require high quality data visualizations on screen and in print; responsive and intuitive controls to sift through the data, including drag-and-drop and drill downs; and high performance, low bandwidth solutions that work seamlessly across browsers and platforms. Rich Internet applications promise significantly more intuitive, responsive, and effective user experiences by building on the rich client of Macromedia Flash Player. Macromedia Flash Remoting, which provides the infrastructure to connect remote services exposed by application server developers and web services, is currently available as a native feature of Macromedia ColdFusion MX and Macromedia JRun 4, and is scheduled to be available for purchase separately later this year.

"By including Macromedia Flash MX developer samples as part of the Cognos Web Services solution, we give developers a means to enhance the user experience and provide the widest range of users with high-impact business intelligence content," said Patrick O'Leary, vice president of strategic alliances, Cognos. "Cognos Web Services will provide customers with a means to drive web-based business intelligence across their extended enterprise, across devices and applications to ensure more effective corporate performance management."

"The integration of Macromedia Flash MX technology with Cognos Web Services aptly displays the power of Cognos and how it can be leveraged in other distributed Web-based applications," said Darryl Gehly, vice president, corporate development, Molecular.

Announced today, Cognos Web Services allows organizations to bring the power of Cognos Series 7 into a broad range of applications including CRM, ERP, SCM, collaborative computing, specialized vertical applications, a full range of mobile devices, as well as extending Cognos capabilities into .NET and J2EE. Macromedia Flash Remoting is used to connect applications running in the Macromedia Flash Player to server-side business logic and data from Cognos Web Services.