CAS Develops Next Generation Collaboration Process Capabilities Using Extricity Software.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 1999--

World's Leading Customer Relationship Management for Consumer

Products Provider Leverages Extricity Business-to-Business

Integration Software to Offer New Collaborative Planning Processes

Between Consumer Products Manufacturers and Retailers

CAS Americas, the world's leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for the Consumer Products market, announced it is developing the next generation of collaborative planning processes for the manufacturing and retail industries.

Using the Extricity Software, Inc.'s family of business-to-business integration packaged application products, CAS will develop a new class of Consumer Products Requirements Planning (CPRP)(TM) processes to be used between Consumer Products manufacturers and retailers, thereby managing all aspects of these relationships within complex supply chain systems. These new CPRP processes are expected to redefine the high ground for collaborative planning within these industries and set the agenda in helping businesses move closer to the consumer by linking front office to back office requirements and aligning them with an organization's e-commerce strategy.

The front office has largely been ignored as innovations have been made in furthering the relationships between manufacturers and retailers. However, by ignoring front office solutions, most of these initiatives have only enjoyed limited success and lacked the scalability required by the market. "CPRP is the next generation of processes that Consumer Products firms are evolving towards," says Greg Doyle, president and CEO of CAS Americas. "It is critical to have a strategy in place now of how you plan to migrate your firm to the CPRP environment over the next two to five years."

CPRP defines the next logical step in moving your business closer to the consumer. "CPRP includes not only linking the front office to the back office, but to your eCommerce strategy - and becomes the virtual core process in a CPG company," says Dave Cope, vice president of marketing for Extricity. Automating inter-company process workflows become a critical piece of the CPRP equation, eliminating redundant systems in many cases. Cope continues, "by aligning Extricity with the world's leading CRM solution in this industry, we are confident that we will be able to save our clients time and money and drive further competitive advantage to forward-thinking CPG companies."

J. Rollins, vice president of sales for CAS says, "We're excited about the potential benefit that Extricity brings to our clients, and to the CPRP initiative. Like CAS, Extricity has already brought benefit to a number of companies. Similarly, our companies share a common culture that places a high priority on delivering customer value first. Extricity's advanced use of the Internet is also a good fit with our own commitment to help our clients leverage the Internet. And the fact that they are the leaders in this technology means that our clients can get a proven and deployable solution today."

About CAS

Founded in 1985, CAS is the world's leading provider of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for the Consumer Products industry. CAS helps more than 150 customers, including Pillsbury, Bacardi, Philip Morris, Beck's, Philips Consumer Electronics and CPC/Bestfoods to plan better, spend smarter and move faster than their competition. CAS uniquely addresses the full spectrum of needs of Consumer Products organizations by providing a comprehensive set of business planning, trade promotion management, account management and field sales tools. With an impressive 100 percent customer retention rate, CAS provides a closed-loop chain that integrates seamlessly with ERP, supply chain management and other legacy systems.

For more information call the CAS North American headquarters at 770-399-8000 or visit www.cas.com.