AAA Michigan applauds successful performance of LBMS's Process Engineer.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 1997--Got a vacation planned and need to know the best route -- who do you call? Most everyone knows you call AAA, of course -- the largest motor club organization in the world.

In the near future, however, you'll jump in your car, hit the switch on your on-board computer, plug in your CD-ROM based atlas (provided by AAA), program your destination and voila -- your route is planned, mapped and you are ready for departure; all a direct result of LBMS's Process Engineer and it's library of "Best Practices."

AAA Michigan chose LBMS's PE/Process Library(TM), PE/Process Manager(TM) and PE/Project Manager(TM) processes after an exhaustive search and evaluation process for their first implementation wave.

According to John Klesmith, Director of AAA Michigan's Process Management group, the biggest strengths of the LBMS products are their "ease of use," how quickly user project plans can be developed and a major benefit, Klesmith is quick to point out, is the high user involvement capability.

In using Process Library, a PE component which comes "ready-to-use" complete with proven, repeatable industry best practices for application development and management, Klesmith noted, "We don't have to keep re-inventing the wheel," he said. "The design is simple and it's easy to pick particular pieces when selecting and adapting templates. We didn't have to do a lot of training," commented Klesmith.

Process Library reduces the learning curve; Project team members don't have to figure out the process every time they start a new project or deploy an unfamiliar technology. The processes are designed to enable continuous improvement and team members can measure how they are being applied and the company can then improve them based on experience.

AAA Michigan is using the PE components to create customized "Best Practice" routes. As an example, they created an insurance rate revision template to accommodate state mandated insurance changes. AAA Michigan developers are now able to re-use the template on subsequent rate revisions. They modified the existing kernels (re-usable process modules used in assembling templates or in building project plans) to build their rate change templates.

Another key strength of LBMS's Process Engineer, AAA Michigan discovered, is the ability to deploy PE/Process and Project Manager throughout the organization, involving users and management, to rapidly define, customize or assemble any type of process, (e.g., opening a branch office) irrespective of subject matter or content and distribute those processes to the users, team leaders, project leaders and senior management.

Because of PE/Process Manager's ease of deployment, AAA Michigan found a tremendous benefit in the ability to gain active user involvement early on in the development process. All staff have been able to apply company "best practices" immediately allowing for constant and continuous improvement on projects and approaches.

A case in point involves AAA Michigan's need for a standardized method for opening branch offices. Once this work-in-progress is completed, AAA Michigan will have a standard template for all new branch openings. AAA Michigan estimates they will achieve a 75 percent savings over "doing it from scratch" each time.

After the first implementation wave of LBMS's PE processes, AAA Michigan created a new group called the Strategic Information Office (SIO) that is chartered with managing high priority strategic projects. SIO identified significant high priority projects and using PE/Project Manager, has been able to keep their projects on schedule and within budget.

According to industry IT executive managers, three reasons a project will succeed are user involvement, executive management support and a clear statement of requirements -- all basic components within LBMS's Project Manager.

The benefits of PE/Project Manager according to Klesmith are:

Actual user involvement

Senior management support

Realistic expectations

Management of scope

Ease of use

Quality project plans based on proven best practices can be generated in hours or days instead of weeks or months. AAA Michigan found this to be the case when several projects that would normally have taken three weeks to plan took only three days. PE/Project Manager removed the `guesstimation' from project estimates, reduced overhead and increased effectiveness of project control allowing AAA Michigan projects to come in on time and within budget.

As AAA Michigan expands its operations, it will be taking LBMS's PE components along, establishing new avenues, advanced services and increased productivity for its organization and for AAA Michigan's 2 million members.

AAA Michigan is a member of the AAA family, a not-for-profit federation of motor clubs, founded in 1902, with more than 37 million members. One in five US adults is a AAA member. AAA's purpose is to provide specialized services for members and to protect the rights, safety, comfort and economic well-being of motorists and travelers. They also provide benefits to members traveling in 109 countries on six continents. For more information on AAA Michigan's history and services check out their web site at http://www.aaamich.com .

Based in Houston, Texas, LBMS Inc. (NASDAQ:LBMSY) is the leading provider of process management products to Fortune 1000 organizations. LBMS's integrated line of process management products provide organizations with a library of "best practices" for all areas of applications development, and a comprehensive set of tools for process definition, deployment, execution and improvement. LBMS has an installed base of more than 30,000 users worldwide in areas such as financial service, technology, manufacturing, retailing, oil, government and utilities. LBMS company and product information can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.lbms.com .

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