COGNIZANT AND ACTIVE RESEARCH WIN AWARD FOR ANALYTICAL APPS

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, a leading provider of e-business solutions, announced that its client, Active Research, a leading Web-based market intelligence and e-commerce services company, was awarded The Data Warehousing Institute's 2000 Best Practices Award for Analytical Applications. The technology for Active's pioneering Web-based consumer market research offering was designed and built by Cognizant. The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) is the leading educational organization in the data warehousing and business intelligence market. Cognizant is listed by Forbes as the "Best Small Company in America," and as one of BusinessWeek's top 20 hottest growth companies.

"Most data warehouses deal with relatively static data structures such as sales or inventory data," said Wayne Eckerson, vice president of TDWI. "Active Research was awarded this recognition for having designed a dynamic analytical tool that reports and forecasts real-time changes in the marketplace. Active Research's data warehouse is able to reflect the idiosyncrasies of market research and buyer behavior on the Internet." Cognizant was recognized as the solution developer.

The competition provides thousands of IT practitioners with the best practices they can follow as data warehousing continues to grow and expand. Best Practices winners, chosen from more than 100 nominations in 12 areas, were judged by a panel of experts, including: practitioners, consultants, industry analysts, journalists, Journal of Data Warehousing editors, Institute Fellows and Institute management. The winners clearly demonstrated that their data warehouse projects: (1) are truly innovative solutions to problems commonly faced by data warehousing practitioners; (2) are practices that can be followed by others; and (3) resulted in large, measurable impacts on the business success of their organizations.

"By leveraging our e-business and data warehousing expertise, we helped Active Research develop the high volume processing and OLAP tools needed to manage the consumer preference information from their Active Buyer's Guides," said Kumar Mahadeva, chairman and CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions.

"We faced an immense technical challenge and many doubted the ability to design and manage a 100 percent Web-based solution," said Tom DuBois, CEO of Active Research. "Cognizant really delivered for us." He continued, "We believe this technology is revolutionizing how product marketers and market research professionals at manufacturers, retailers, and service providers make informed product management decisions."

Both the Active Buyer's Guide product recommendation engine and the Advisor analytical tool feature advanced methods for gathering and managing large volumes of real-time consumer purchasing preference data. The Active Buyer's Guide provides nearly one million consumers per month with personalized recommendations on which products best meets their needs. It is distributed directly at more than 40 e-commerce partner Web sites, including Web Portal Shopping sites Go.com, I-Won, and Lycos along with leading shopping comparison and e-commerce sites including Bizrate, Dealtime, MySimon, Productopia and others.

The result of this unique Web-based data collection methodology is live, continuous measurement of actual consumer buying behavior. To manage the huge accumulation of consumer data that Active Buyer's Guide generates, Cognizant Technology Solutions helped Active Research develop the 100 percent Web-based data warehousing solution.

About Active Research

Active Research provides Web-based Market Research Automation services, including surveys of actual shoppers every month through its network of buyer's guides. These decision guides collect anonymous product preference data from consumers directly at the point of shopping while providing them with customized, unbiased product recommendations. Active Research is recognized as an Upside 2000 "Hot 100 Private Company" and Webby Awards 2000 finalist. Founded in 1997, the company is based in Burlingame, Calif. and on the Web at www.ActiveResearch.com and www.ActiveBuyersGuide.com.

About The Data Warehousing Institute

The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), a division of 101communications, is the premier provider of in-depth, high quality education and training in the data warehousing and business intelligence industry. TDWI is dedicated to educating business and information technology professionals about the strategies, techniques and tools required to successfully design, build and maintain data warehousing implementations, and also to the advancement of data warehousing research, knowledge transfer and the professional development of its members. TDWI sponsors and promotes a worldwide membership, annual educational conferences, regional educational seminars, onsite courses, solution provider partnerships, awards programs for the best practices in data warehousing and innovative technologies, resourceful publications and in-depth research programs, and a comprehensive Web site.

About Cognizant Technology Solutions

Cognizant delivers high-quality, cost-effective, full life-cycle solutions to complex software development and management problems. Cognizant employs more than 2,400 computer science and engineering professionals globally, including at its eight development centers in India. The company specializes in e-business and application management. Cognizant has been assessed at SEI/CMM Level 4 and is ISO 9001 certified across all of its development centers. Based on sustained revenue and earnings growth, Forbes magazine named Cognizant the best small company in America in its Nov. 1, 1999 listing of the "200 Best Small Companies." Cognizant was also listed as the top solutions provider in BusinessWeek's top 20 hottest growth companies. For more information, visit Cognizant on the Web at www.cognizant.com.

Contact Austin Lawrence Group, Chris Wailes, 203-391-3022, c.wailes@austinlawrence.com or Cognizant Technology Solutions, Larry Gordon, 201-678-2743, lgordon@cognizant.com.