Comshare's new multidimensional budgeting application: "An Alternative to Drudgery"; cuts the time and effort of budget development.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 1996--No one really knows how much today's corporations spend on developing their annual budgets, but many of them are not happy with the results. International Data Corporation (IDC), for example, has reported that over a third of the financial organizations they surveyed last year planned to purchase software to improve the budget planning process within the next two years ("Applications and Information Access: "Senior Finance Perspectives on Technology and Business Requirements," Clare Gillan, Michael Joseph., December, 1995, International Data Corporation). The most critical budgeting need of financial executives, according to a Comshare study, is to cut what they see as excessive time and effort required to complete the planning and budgeting processes. To serve those corporations seeking to improve their planning process, Comshare(R),Inc. (NASDAQ - NM:CSRE), is announcing its new enterprise budgeting application, Commander BudgetPlus(TM).

Commander BudgetPlus is an integrated budgeting, analysis, and reporting application designed to improve the budget development team's productivity, shorten budget cycles, and allow organizations to create budgets that support management in evaluating their investment plans. "Comshare has implemented thousands of enterprise budgeting applications for our customers over the years," said Dennis Ganster, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "We decided to build a software application that incorporated our knowledge of the real-world requirements of the budgeting process."

Many large corporations now create their plans using a network of spreadsheets which consolidate at many levels up to the corporate totals. This method carries a high cost in intensive administrative effort and data integrity problems. In contrast, Commander BudgetPlus gives the budget director push-button simplicity in tracking and controlling the process.

Commander BudgetPlus is also an advance over the market's few canned budgeting applications, primarily because it is based on an open, multidimensional database engine ("On-Line Analytical Processing" or OLAP). With built-in OLAP and intuitive ad hoc analysis capabilities, line managers, executives, and analysts can evaluate plans hands-on by any key business dimension -- by product, market, or distribution channel -- rather than just by department totals and account totals. Most executives would rather plan for investment in a successful product launch, for example, or what it will take to make a distribution channel profitable, rather than poring over reports of what they'll spend on desks and chairs next year.

One organization that has chosen Commander BudgetPlus is Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping agency. "We need to improve our current budgeting method so we can cut the time and effort required to complete our budget cycle and provide a better analysis of spending on key programs. We expect Commander BudgetPlus to enable us to meet the budgeting requirements of our budget holders and executive reviewers," says Mr. Peter Buist, Information Management Development Manager, Ordnance Survey. "Our experience with multidimensional analysis has shown us the value of looking at business information from the product, customer, and market perspectives. Before Commander BudgetPlus, we have spent up to 6 months creating, analyzing, and revising our budget. With Commander BudgetPlus, we expect to cut that time in half and improve the overall quality of our planning and cost monitoring."

"Many of our customers have been looking for the flexibility of analysis, fast performance, and large capacity you can only get with a multidimensional engine," said William Tomaney, product director, Comshare. "So we developed an application that transforms budgeting from a laborious and painful exercise into an efficient process -- with analysis capabilities that actively support decision making. Commander BudgetPlus gives companies an alternative to the drudgery of retyping data from existing systems and manually consolidating hundreds of separate spreadsheets. And by cutting the time executives need to review plans, Commander BudgetPlus buys management more time to actually run the business."

Commander BudgetPlus provides a streamlined approach to budgeting and planning to:

-- Shorten the budget cycle. With faster cycles, the plan can be based on fresher information, and Commander BudgetPlus allows for the option of more budget passes to improve the quality of the final plan.

-- Link top-down plans with bottom-up budgets. Commander BudgetPlus puts operational plans in line with strategic initiatives; and organizations can push accountability down the organization to the level of individual responsibility.

-- Provide integrated management reporting. Managers and executives can evaluate plans, immediately and directly, from key business perspectives -- for example, by products, markets, channels, business units -- not just from the account and department views.

-- Track results automatically. Commander BudgetPlus makes it easy for line managers and executives to see which specific units, products, or channels are not planning by the rules or performing up to plan.

Commander BudgetPlus is a software application designed for quick implementation, minimal maintenance, and flexibility to meet custom requirements. Server platforms include Microsoft's Windows NT (Intel), IBM's OS/2, and Sun Solaris. Desktop users run under Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.5, supported via LAN or dial-up communications. It provides full integration for data entry and reporting with Lotus 1-2-3, release 4 or 5, and Microsoft Excel 4.0 or 5.0.

About Comshare

Comshare, The Decision Support Company(TM), develops, markets and supports complete client/server decision support applications designed to improve business analysis, planning, reporting and decision making. Comshare decision support applications result in better decisions, improved profits, and enhanced competitiveness for its more than 3,000 customers in over 40 countries worldwide. Comshare's suite of financial applications in particular represent an integrated solution set to the most important information management problems facing financial executives in many industries today. Comshare, Inc. is a Microsoft Solution Provider.

For more information about Comshare products and services, call 800/922-7979 or see our home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.comshare.com -0-

Comshare is a registered trademark; The Decision Support Company and Commander BudgetPlus are trademarks of Comshare, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Comshare, Inc.

Dan Jankowski, 313/769-8742

or

Eiler Communications

Larry T. Eiler, 313/761-3399