CFM Inc. introduces TeamFlow 4: The Work Processor.

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 1995--CFM Inc. Tuesday introduced TeamFlow 4: The Work Processor, the first integrated software package for Microsoft Windows combining the functions of deployment flow charting, organizational charting, Gantt charting and document management into a single, powerful application for team-based process management.

Specifically designed to take advantage of the Windows workgroup environment through support for Dynamic Data Exchange and client/server configurations, TeamFlow 4 enables end-users with no programming skills to create a wide variety of process mapping applications, including Total Quality Management (TQM), ISO 9000 certification and business process redesign.

It allows users to quickly and easily define, chart, modify and re-chart their business processes. With an easy-to-learn GUI-based interface, TeamFlow utilizes a team database architecture to automate the repetitive tasks associated with process mapping and management.

TeamFlow 4 provides users with a powerful new triple-pane window view for greatly enhanced flexibility and ease-of-use. Using familiar Windows-style toolbar buttons, the user can quickly switch contexts from among several combinations of org chart, Gantt chart and deployment flow chart, and optionally synchronize their team, time and task views. In addition, TeamFlow 4 also offers powerful new features to support cost/scheduling tracking, enabling users to perform project management and tracking functions without requiring them to become cost/scheduling engineers.

"TeamFlow 4: The Work Processor provides a complete set of tools in one package for professionals who must design or document, manage and communicate their complex business processes," noted Ron Cordes, president of CFM. "The layout of TeamFlow worksheets, in the form of an org chart, deployment flow chart or Gantt chart, is automatic.

"This lets the user focus on the work process, and avoid the time-consuming, repetitive steps of redrawing, rerouting, resizing and relocating elements of the process. And with the new cost/scheduling modeling features, users can simply enter cost and schedule data, and TeamFlow 4 does all the earned-value and roll-up calculations and automatically generates the associated Gantt charts."

The new version, which runs on Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher systems, has a suggested retail price of $295 for the single user version, and is available immediately from CFM and from select resellers and catalog outlets.

Registered users of earlier versions of TeamFlow for Windows may upgrade for $89. TeamFlow 4 for Macintosh will be available in Q2. In the interim, registered users of both the Windows TeamFlow 4 and Macintosh 3.x versions may request a free upgrade disk allowing their Mac version 3.x to read files from the Windows 4 version.

"TeamFlow still is an excellent process definition tool, focused on deployment flow charting," said Richard Daugherty, CFM's director of marketing. "Now, with TeamFlow 4, we offer the first truly dynamic process management tool. Business managers, knowledge workers and other professionals can gain the benefits of an integrated org chart, Gantt chart and deployment flow chart that also meets their document management needs -- all in a single, integrated product."

"We have used TeamFlow extensively as part of our company-wide business process re-engineering project involving business units in 29 countries," said Gus Vess, training manager for the Demand Flow Office of American Standard, the multi-billion dollar manufacturing company headquartered in Piscataway, N.J. Each division of American Standard uses the TeamFlow software to map and then modify individual business processes.

"I did 39 reengineering sessions last year, and 25 so far this year, all around the world," he said adding, "It's amazing that the processes are engulfed in the same kinds of problems from one country to the next. Using TeamFlow, each team is able to break through its old problems and develop new models. We found that TeamFlow's flexibility, along with the easy-to-understand visual symbols used to build the maps, make it simple to see the whole picture."

"TeamFlow 4's new and enhanced features make it even more powerful," added Karl Gardels, process team manager at ConAgra Frozen Foods in Omaha, Neb. "The unique triple-pane window creates a simultaneous organizational chart, deployment flowchart and Gantt chart view. You can work in multiple views simultaneously, and cut and paste between process models. Best of all, TeamFlow is a work process management tool that's easy to learn and easy to use. Within an hour you can be creating your own deployment flowcharts, Gantt charts and org charts."

Among the other key new features of TeamFlow 4 are the ability to quickly and easily cut and paste data to and from multiple TeamFlow worksheets; support for easy, one-button import/export of data to and from TeamFlow and Microsoft Excel (allowing users to tap Excel's outstanding report generation capabilities); a "hot" active status bar with real time updates as the cursor moves; context-sensitive on-line help screens; real-time screen scrolling for traversing TeamFlow charts; and major printing enhancements, including user-selected vertical or horizontal "shrink-to-fit" scaling, percentage scaling, user margin control and a convenient "print all worksheets" command.

TeamFlow is sold directly by CFM, and also by the company's reseller partners in the United States and international distributors in Europe. CFM's software products are also carried by a number of national catalog retailers, including Micro Warehouse in the United States.

Founded in 1989, CFM Inc. is based in Bedford. A privately-held company, CFM sells its software products directly and through value-added resellers and catalog distribution channels in the United States, Canada and Europe. More than 1,000 companies worldwide, including major corporations such as 3M, American Standard, Apple Computer, Boeing, Catepillar, Coca-Cola, Coopers and Lybrand, EDS, Eli Lilly, General Motors, Goodyear, Hewlett Packard, Host Marriott, Hyatt Hotels, National Semiconductor, Pacific Bell, and Texas Instruments use TeamFlow for process re-engineering; planning and meeting ISO 9000 standards; and total quality management (TQM). The company's headquarters is located at 60 The Great Road, Bedford, Mass. 01730. CFM can be reached at 617/275-5258, or on the Internet at [e-mail]. The fax number is 617/275-7008.

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Note to Editors: TeamFlow 4: The Work Processor is a trademark of CFM Inc.

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