Quiksilver Selects Cognos' Web Based BI Solution

Cognos announced it has established an agreement with Huntington Beach, California-based Quiksilver Inc, a leading manufacturer of casual lifestyle apparel, for Quiksilver to standardize on Cognos' Web based business analysis and reporting solution. Quiksilver selected the Cognos solution to better leverage and access its corporate data, eliminate paper-based reporting, and facilitate their supply chain reporting. Quiksilver believes it will benefit from improved management of operations.

The Cognos business intelligence solution for e-business is designed to transform transactional data stored in Quiksilver's legacy systems into actionable information and distribute it via the Web to Quiksilver employees and suppliers. Quiksilver employees in sales, manufacturing and finance will have the capability to analyze this information, and create and distribute electronic reports via the Web with minimal assistance from technical staff. Employees will be enabled to analyze, for example: apparel sales by region; manufacturing data such as inventory turns and buy versus build schedules; financial reports; and sales and general administrative (S&GA) budgeting at an aggregate or micro level.

"In the digital based economy, it's all about data and how Quiksilver can leverage information to improve business processes and competitive advantage," said Gene Elias, Quiksilver's vice president of information systems. "With the Cognos solution, our executives and managers will make data enabled and therefore more confident business decisions based on a better understanding of the business and faster access to information. With a single source of operational data that is easily and quickly accessed, our business processes and infrastructure will be better able to stay abreast of Quiksilver's explosive growth."

"Whereas a lot of vendors disappear after making the sale and a lot of promises, Cognos is there for you," added Elias. "The Cognos professional services and consulting organization is phenomenal, and their sales support is excellent."

"Organizations such as Quiksilver recognize Cognos' business intelligence solution for e-business as a cornerstone to achieving a true e-business transformation," said Joanne K. Masingill, Cognos senior vice president of marketing. "There's a saying, 'Information is the currency of the e-business revolution.' The Cognos solution allows organizations to extract maximum value from this currency, providing access via the Web to internal and external information consumers, and improving organizational performance and business relationships as a result."

Cognos

Cognos is a leading vendor of enterprise business intelligence solutions. Business Intelligence software makes corporate data easily accessible to everyone in an organization, so they can better coordinate decision-making across the entire enterprise, and improve the performance of the business. Cognos products are available directly from Cognos and through an extensive network of channel partners. The Company also develops, markets and supports software tools for application development.

Founded in 1969, Cognos is a publicly traded company with offices around the world. U.S. operations for the company are headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. For more information, visit the Cognos Website at www.cognos.com.

About Quiksilver

Quiksilver Inc www.quiksilver.com designs, produces and distributes clothing, accessories and related products for active-minded people and develops brands that represent a casual lifestyle -- driven from a boardriding heritage. Quiksilver's authenticity is evident in its innovative products, events and retail environments across the globe. Quiksilver's primary focus is apparel for young men and young women under the Quiksilver, Quiksilver Roxy, Raisins and Radio Fiji labels. Quiksilver also manufactures apparel for boys (Quiksilver Boys), girls (Teenie Wahine and Raisins Girls), men (QS Silver Edition) and women (Leilani), as well as snowboards, snowboard boots and bindings under the Lib Technologies, Gnu and Bent Metal labels. Distribution is primarily in the United States and Europe and is based in surf shops and specialty stores that endeavor to provide an outstanding retail experience for their customers.

Contact Rich Sepe or Roberta Carlton of Cognos, 781-229-6600.