Cincom opens Italian office.

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 6, 1996--After supplying strategic software products for over 20 years to some of the largest Italian corporations and government institutions in conjunction with an ally, Gruppo Formula, today Cincom is making a further important commitment to the Italian market by opening a direct office in Milan.

According to David Miller, Director of Cincom International Licensees, the group responsible for Italy, "The importance and strength of the Italian market cannot be denied. Since Cincom's initial activity in Italy some 20 years ago, the Italian economy has dramatically advanced and currently ranks as one of the top five GNPs in the world. Cincom is expanding its activities in this market in recognition of its importance and the needs of our Italian customers. Cincom is also building additional relationships with Italian information technology suppliers."

Miller sees the establishment of a Cincom office in Italy to be the natural sequence of events and to hold great advantages for customers and partners. "Through a local office, Cincom will be able to strengthen relationships with our many Italian customers and partners."

Cincom has thousands of users of its strategic software with over 200 Italian corporate users. In Cincom's customer list, it is very common to see not only the names of many well-known, large Italian firms but also many of the Regions and Commune, as well as local operations of large multinational corporations. These customers have been provided Cincom software and services through a close and mutually fruitful relationship with Cincom's long-time representative, Gruppo Formula, a major and important Turin-based software supplier.

Cincom and Gruppo Formula have grown together over the past 20 years in Italy and will continue their mutually successful relationship in the future. To the current Cincom/Formula user community, Formula will continue to market and support the enterprise development tools from Cincom: SUPRA(R), SUPRA Server, MANTIS(R), AD/Advantage(R), and MANAGE:Series(TM). Formula will also continue to market and support C:M(TM), a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system for manufacturing companies which have given Italian users tangible success, measurable in value and return on investment.

Alberto Gabbai, president of Gruppo Formula, commented that "Gruppo Formula is pleased to see Cincom strengthen its commitment to the Italian marketplace to the extent of making the investment required for a direct operation. This decision was made together, in order to help each company better concentrate on its primary goals: Cincom shall be promoting its new software technologies, while Gruppo Formula will continue to concentrate on implementing business solutions for its customers. In the past 20 years of close cooperation between our two companies, we have appreciated the quality of Cincom's commitment to leading-edge technology and to the success of customers; in the future, we will continue to cooperate, although in a slightly different way, in order to continue providing strong business value to our joint customers."

With the establishment of its first Italian office, Cincom is bringing with it a large portfolio full of strong, market-ready technology. Major accounts (Cincom's customer base and large corporations) and additional Cincom partners will stand to benefit from:

-- CONTROL(TM), a full life-cycle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for growing to large manufacturing companies;

-- CONTROL:Acquire(TM), a unique sales cycle management and product configuration system;

-- AuroraDS(TM), a world-leading "One Class, First Class" document solutions product line which helps customer-focused companies to maximize their productivity, excel in their quality of customer service and drastically reduce their costs in the areas of document design and document production;

-- TOTAL FrameWork(TM), the next generation in application development environments which uniquely enables users to separate data access from application logic and business rules, and to enjoy the numerous benefits of object-oriented technology in the commercial environment.

Cincinnati-based Cincom Systems, a developer and marketer of strategic business software to leading corporations for over 28 years, is ranked among the world's largest independent software companies and operates in every major market worldwide. Cincom can be contacted by e-mail at [e-mail], by phone at 800/543-3010, or from its World Wide Web site (http://www.cincom.com). -0-

AD/Advantage, AuroraDS, C:M, CONTROL, CONTROL:Acquire, MANAGE:Series, MANTIS, SUPRA and TOTAL FrameWork are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cincom Systems Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is an "at" symbol before "cincom.com" and "hsr.com" in the e-mail addresses referenced in this release. This symbol may not appear properly in some systems.

CONTACT: Cincom Systems Inc., Cincinnati

Dan Dyer, 513/573-3492

[e-mail]

or

Hensley Segal Rentschler

Kevin Dugan, 513/671-3811

[e-mail]