A3 Solutions Ships A3 Expense Modeling; First Out-of-the-Box Software Solution for Enterprise Budgeting, Planning and Reporting.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2002

A3 Solutions Incorporated(TM) (A-Cubed) today announced the general availability of A3 Expense Modeling(TM), the first out-of-the-box software solution for budgeting, planning and reporting. Combining Web, Spreadsheet and OLAP technologies in a simple-to-use application, A3 Expense Modeling reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) of budgeting and planning technology.

Said A3 Solutions CEO, Robert Lautt: "A3 Expense Modeling changes the economics of enterprise budgeting and planning. Our Web architecture, and rich, innovative feature set goes way beyond the scope of most of today's planning software. And our usage-based pricing means customers pay only for what they use when they use it. A3 Expense Modeling costs a fraction of the industry leader, deploys in a fraction of the time, and its feature set is more comprehensive. What is really exciting is that our new usage-based pricing means customers can freely increase and decrease their usage without penalty or risk."

A3 Solutions achieves these cost efficiencies by making maximum leverage of infrastructure that large enterprises already have in place: spreadsheets, the knowledge within spreadsheets, and the multi-dimensional analytic environment of OLAP. A3 Expense Modeling is appropriate for any enterprise standardized on J2EE, OLAP and Microsoft Excel.

What's Your Number?

A3 Expense Modeling is designed to help both Financial and Operational planning teams manage and optimize resource usage enterprise-wide. "Every planning team within the enterprise has to hit a `number,' and every individual on that team has a `number,'" stated Stuart Ratner, COO at A3 Solutions. "More than any other technology, this product helps every one manage to their `number'... and then get home for dinner! With this product, Planning teams are able to automate more planning processes, giving them more time to actually do their jobs. Or, just more time, period," he said. "That's a good thing!"

Built to J2EE specifications, A3 Expense Modeling works with established Web application servers including IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic and Apache Tomcat. The software is easy to deploy and can be managed by non-technical personnel. Recognizing that real-world issues make planning more than a once-a-year activity, the product is designed to be easily reconfigured to add new reports, analyses, access to new/different databases, as needed.

Key Features

A3 Expense Modeling supports:

-- Personalized Web access to budgets, forecasts and reports.

-- Submission tracking and approvals.

-- Users work conveniently and productively in Excel where they

receive dynamically generated models. When their budgets are complete, they submit them across the Web with a push of a button.

-- Financial and operational spreadsheet data is captured centrally in a multidimensional OLAP repository, and becomes instantly available for enterprise-wide visibility and analysis by department, product, project and business unit.

-- Users access and create variance analysis reports to contrast budgets with actuals, forecast and prior year.

-- Collaborative planning features including discussions and posting of planning-specific information and announcements on the A3 Modeling Portal. All Portal features can be administered by nontechnical personnel.

-- A3 Expense Modeling supports both online and offline work modes.

-- Users can include line item detail, they can insert new expense accounts into their budgets, and they can even permanently link their home-grown spreadsheets directly into A3 Expense Models, significantly increasing productivity and eliminating re-keying of information.

Availability

A3 Expense Modeling is available now at prices starting at $32,500 installed. To learn more about A3 Expense Modeling, please contact A3 at [e-mail] or call 1-800/666-CUBE.

About A3 Solutions Incorporated (www.a3si.com)

Company: Based in San Francisco, California, A3 Solutions has been helping large enterprises hit their numbers for over 10 years.

Customers include: American Airlines, Avon Products, Cox Communications, Del Monte, McDonald's of Canada, Staples, Toyota Motors, UCLA, and Verizon.

Partners: A3 Solutions has established several marketing partnerships, including Hyperion Solutions (Nasdaq:HYSL), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), and ShowCase, a division of SPSS (Nasdaq:SPSS).

To contact A3 Solutions, go to www.a3si.com or call 1-800/666-CUBE (2823).

Note to Editors: The name of the company is A3 (pronounced "A-Cubed") Solutions, which is an "A" with a super-scripted "3".