Big M Saves Big Money With Comshare's Arthur; Apparel and Accessories Retailer Anticipates Big Savings Using Comshare's Arthur for Merchandise and Payroll Planning.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 1998--Innovative executives at Big M have expanded the use of Comshare's Arthur(TM) Planning application software beyond merchandise planning, to manage a new payroll planning system that improves store operations, and ultimately, the bottom line. Based in Totowa, New Jersey, Big M operates a total of 160 apparel and accessories stores in the Eastern United States, including Mandee, Annie Sez, and AFAZE chains. Comshare(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:CSRE), is the market leader in strategic merchandise management software applications for the retail industry.

Big M gets the big picture using Arthur

In the past, Big M had the company's stores plan payroll manually. "The Director of Stores had originally asked me to come up with a solution to the payroll planning issue using an Excel spreadsheet," remarks Denise Sabo, Arthur Administrator for Big M. "That soon became a nightmare. He would come to me on a daily basis with additional information that was needed, different variables, more calculations. It was painful. We needed a multidimensional capability that Excel just couldn't handle. That's when we brought in Arthur."

According to Frank Zarrello, Director of Planning and Allocation at Big M, most retailers are in the same situation, because there are no retail-based systems that aid in payroll planning. "We plan our yearly calendar by week and month, and then spread to days," says Zarrello. "It occurred to us that if we're using Comshare's Arthur to help us plan merchandise down to this level of detail, we could help the stores do their payroll, too."

Proactive use of Arthur improves Big M's profitability

Using Comshare's Arthur Planning, "business rules" are developed and built right into the software application. The rules define how payroll should adjust, based on factors such as seasonal trends, holidays, and the weather. "The new system is proactive rather than reactionary," says Zarrello. "For example, the receipt flow to the stores will change, based on the change in the merchandise sales plan. When that happens, payroll should change as well, based on the newly planned sales, inventory, and receipts. Arthur allows us to create an 'enterprise plan,' by linking all our planning to each store's sales and inventory needs. When linked to payroll, which is obviously a big expense, we improve the bottom line. As a result, Big M will save a ton of money and a lot of effort. Immediate savings on payroll will be realized," according to Zarrello.

The Arthur application saves store level retailers from the labor-intensive "number crunching" they dislike, so they can spend more time doing what they do best. "We calculated that using Arthur saved us three hours per store per week. When you multiply that times every store for every week, you start to realize that you are saving a great deal of money," says Zarrello. "And the best benefit comes at the store level. Because we use Arthur, store managers have the time to present the merchandise in the best possible way."

Big M executives look to Arthur Planning for their next innovative use of technology

"Big M is a quality company. We try to work as a group to bring the quality process to everything we do," says Phil Schatten, head of systems at Big M. "The payroll application is very exciting and the impetus for looking at the other ways we can use Arthur that, frankly, no one ever thought of before. This is just a start. We are constantly working on strategies to use our systems to aid in all operations. Arthur, and the information it can provide us, makes us smarter. Armed with this information and the underlying technology, we can build our own intelligence into our Arthur application. Although our next step is still in the planning stages, we consider it groundbreaking."

"Arthur is the industry leading planning application," notes Peter Charness, Vice President and General Manager of Comshare Retail. "Arthur's superior functionality is used day-in and day-out by hundreds of retailers around the world to plan and manage the inventory process. Innovative retailers like Big M have also understood that Arthur can be a full enterprise planning application. While Arthur is viewed primarily as 'for merchandise,'" says Charness, "we also have a number of customers who use Arthur to proactively manage catalogue operations, expense and GL planning, and promotional planning. When a change is made to the sales plan, the ripple effect throughout the organization can be significant. Progressive retailers can use Arthur to manage this entire process, and move from a reactionary mode into a proactive one."

About Comshare

Comshare is a market-leading provider of performance measurement, budgeting, financial consolidation and reporting, and retail strategic merchandise management software applications. Comshare develops, markets, and supports complete client/server and Web-based analytic applications. All Comshare applications incorporate innovative data visualization and Guided Analysis(TM) capabilities designed to improve decision-making for enhanced competitiveness and improved profitability. Comshare's applications are popular among major corporations in many industries, with particular concentration in the retail, financial services, utilities, manufacturing, and consumer goods industries. Our strong customer orientation, application expertise, and commitment to the best technologies have made us one of the top 100 independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare, Inc. is a Microsoft Solution Provider. For more information, call 1-800-922-7979, e-mail [e-mail], or visit Comshare's Web site at http://www.comshare.com.

Comshare is a registered trademark; Guided Analysis and Arthur are trademarks of Comshare, Inc. All others are the property of their respective holders.

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