COBE Cardiovascular Implements SSA Global Technologies BPCS Sales Analysis Solution.

Business/Technology Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 2002

SSA Global Technologies, Inc.(TM) (SSA GT(TM)), a worldwide provider of enterprise solutions and services, today announced that COBE Cardiovascular(R) (COBE CV), the leading supplier of perfusion products, has implemented BPCS(R) Sales Analysis. Based on Cognos(R) Analytic Applications, the solution is one in a suite of BPCS(R) Enterprise Performance Analytics (EPA) applications that allow organizations to gain timely, comprehensive insight into customer buying behavior and sales performance trends across the enterprise.

BPCS Sales Analysis is a pre-packaged business intelligence solution that delivers an accurate and complete picture of sales organizations, allowing managers to dissect, analyze, view and present information on all aspects of the sales function.

"Organizations understand the need for analytic applications that complement existing ERP systems. BPCS Sales Analysis is one part of a very broad suite of analytic applications that provides a foundation for business performance measurement. The deployment of this product at COBE Cardiovascular is a prime example of how our solutions deliver results quickly and enable our clients to provide exceptional customer service," said Graeme Cooksley, executive vice president of Global Sales and Marketing for SSA Global Technologies.

COBE CV is one of the world's leading companies involved in delivering therapeutic solutions in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Due to a commodity marketplace that has recently undergone a great deal of consolidation, executives needed a solution that would help maintain high customer service levels while providing the ability to analyze sales trends. As a result of implementing BPCS Sales Analysis, COBE CV is able to pinpoint and graphically portray buying trends, customer satisfaction levels, product line performance and distribution and fulfillment data to ultimately deliver the highest service levels in the industry.

"BPCS Sales Analysis allows our sales force to have up to the minute information as well as to anticipate the needs of our customers," said Marsha Williams, vice president of Information Technology, COBE Cardiovascular. "Not only is this solution exactly what we needed to run our processes more efficiently, we have been able to realize value very quickly. Because SSA Global Technologies and Cognos partnered to pre-build this solution specifically for BPCS, we were able to cut deployment time from five months to eight weeks. Our sales teams were also able to get up and running in a minimal amount of time."

Key Benefits for COBE CV:

    -   The application provides a deeper level of analysis and
        information to leverage sales data that already resides in
        BPCS.
    -   BPCS Sales Analysis is a complete turnkey solution that
        drastically shortens implementation times.
    -   The solution allows a paper-based organization to move to an
        online reporting structure.
    -   The sales staff has access to current sales information within
        hours instead of waiting days and weeks for reports to be
        generated.
    -   The application can be tailored to deliver information with
        specific views to support marketing, sales, customer service
        and finance perspectives.

Because BPCS Sales Analysis is one in a suite of applications where each application addresses a different enterprise performance category, COBE CV is planning to add to the sales datamart with additional applications from the suite that will address other areas of their business. These applications include BPCS General Ledger and BPCS Inventory Analysis.

About COBE Cardiovascular

COBE Cardiovascular, founded in 1964, is a member of the SNIA family of companies dedicated to delivering therapeutic solutions in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. The SNIA family of four unique companies - COBE Cardiovascular, Dideco, Sorin and Stockert - has a long rich history in providing innovative products for the cardiovascular surgeon, the perfusionist and the patient.

SNIA, a company listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 1922, is one of Italy's main industrial groups, with headquarters in Milan and operating units in the European Union, the United States, Australia and Japan. For additional information, visit the SSA GT web site at http://www.cobecv.com/.

About Cognos

Cognos, the world leader in business intelligence (BI), delivers software that helps companies improve business performance by enabling effective decision-making at all levels of the organization. A forerunner in defining the BI software category, Cognos delivers the next level of competitive advantage "Corporate Performance Management (CPM)" achieved through the strategic application of BI on an enterprise scale.

CPM lets organizations measure execution against business strategy to ensure the two are aligned at all levels across the enterprise. Cognos provides a framework for CPM that links people, information, and decision-making processes throughout the organization, and enables the complete management cycle with integrated software for planning, budgeting, reporting, analysis, and scorecarding.

About SSA Global Technologies

SSA Global Technologies, Inc., is a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the world's industrial sector companies with a focus in the automotive supply, consumer goods, pharmaceutical/chemical and general manufacturing industries. SSA GT's enterprise resource and planning (ERP) platforms easily integrate with strategic partner applications to deliver e-commerce, business intelligence, customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) solutions. Headquartered in Chicago, SSA GT serves more than 9,000 longstanding, market-leading companies in over 90 countries from more than 70 worldwide offices. For additional information, visit the SSA GT web site at www.ssagt.com.

BPCS is a registered trademark; SSA Global Technologies and SSA GT are trademarks of SSA Global Technologies, Inc. Other products mentioned in this document are registered, trademarked or service marked by their respective owners.