Comshare Harnesses Latest Technologies in New Release of Its Financial Consolidation Application.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 1999--

Comshare FDC Boasts Major Enhancements that Make Complex

Consolidations a Breeze

Comshare Inc. announced today that version 5.1 of Comshare FDC is commercially available. Comshare is a leader of software applications for management planning and control (MPC), which includes planning, budgeting, consolidation, management reporting and analysis. The major enhancements to Comshare FDC include:

--   Support for Microsoft Excel 2000
--   Complex-group accounting for intercompany ownership calculations
--   Multiple-currency views and reports for financial results in
     different currencies
--   Updated Excel user interface for more intuitive operation
--   XML data transfer capability over the Web

"We have a large, loyal, and growing FDC customer base," said Dennis Ganster, Comshare President and CEO. "We are committed to the financial consolidation market and Comshare FDC. Version 5.1 of FDC clearly demonstrates that resolve and introduces several new capabilities that make financial consolidation even easier."

FDC Functionality Expands with Version 5.1 Enhancements

Comshare FDC is a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for statutory and management reporting with built-in financial intelligence for general ledger loads, financial currency translations, journal entries, intercompany eliminations, audit trails, account reclassifications, and changing reporting requirements. Comshare FDC collects financial data from general ledgers, spreadsheets, and other sources; manages the data in a shared, secure database; and produces financial reports, powerful analyses and advanced exception alerting. FDC is designed to be set up and maintained by accountants with minimal IT support requirements.

Comshare FDC 5.1 includes several enhancements that expand the product's functionality and its competitive position in the market. Those new capabilities include:

--   Support for Microsoft Excel 2000 -- allows users to harness the
     power of the new technology in Excel 2000 (while also supporting
     Excel 95 and Excel 97) for entering and manipulating data,
     viewing results and generating reports
--   Complex-group accounting -- calculates the inter-company
     ownership relationships that are allowed in many countries in
     Europe and South America, where a company is allowed to "own" its
     parent -- a practice not allowed in the United States or the
     United Kingdom
--   Multiple-currency views and reports -- provide an easy way to
     create and report financial results in any currency defined in a
     user's application using the translation methodology of
     triangulation, and allows users to view financial results in
     different currencies for comparative currency reporting for
     multinational analysis
--   Updated Excel user interface -- provides a more logical interface
     and consistent appearance and operation for more-intuitive
     operation, from data entry to file data import processes
--   XML data transfer -- allows exchange rate values to be exported
     or imported among FDC sites over the Web using this standard,
     mainstream technology with Universal Resource Names (URNs) to
     reach across the Web to directly load the XML file for import

"FDC provides extensive reporting capabilities through its own standard reports, its excellent Excel interface and Comshare's outstanding FDC Management Reporting and Analysis(TM) module," Ganster added. "FDC transforms an organization's reporting process -- and has been doing so for hundreds of companies for more than 10 years -- from one that took days or weeks to one that takes only hours. Nobody does it better."

Worldwide Customer Base for Comshare FDC

Customers the world over use Comshare FDC, including Alberto-Culver USA Inc., Automated Financial Systems, Ball Corp., Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, Becton-Dickinson and Co., Blount Inc., Campbell Soup, Cargill Inc., Carlisle Companies Inc., Century Sevice Group Inc., Citation Corp., Citizens Bank of Rhode Island, City of Victoria, Cleveland Machine Controls, CMS Enterprises Company, Consoltex Group Inc., Cook Communications Ministries, Decision Servcom Inc., Donaldson Company Inc., EG&G Inc., The Enterprise Social Investment Corp., Esprit Telecom, EVI Weatherford, Foote Cone and Belding Communications Inc., Four M Corp., Franklin Resources Inc., General Instrument Corp., Grosvenor Estate Holdings, Hartmarx Corp., Hollister Inc., Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, Howmet Corp., Huntsman Corp., ICO Worldwide, Insignia Financial Group Inc., Interprovincial Pipe Line Inc., James Martin and Co., Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp., Lee Company, Lorillard Tobacco Co., Macdermid Inc., Morris Material Handling Inc., NL Industries Inc., Novus International, Pacific Physician Services Inc., Paging Network Inc., Pegasus Gold Corp., Petrolite Corp., PrimeCare Medical Group Network Inc., Progress Software Corp., Resource Group International Inc., Rheox Inc., Seagull Energy Corp., SPX Corp., Starbucks Coffee Co., Tokheim Corp., Toshiba America Consumer Products Inc., Tropicana Products Inc., USI Insurance Services Corp., Wajax Limited, Watts Regulator Co., and Weatherford International Inc.

About Comshare Inc.

Comshare (Nasdaq: CSRE) is a leading provider of software applications for management planning and control (MPC), which includes planning, budgeting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis. Comshare's MPC applications deliver business-critical information that can be used to make sound planning and management decisions. In business for more than 30 years, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is an Hyperion Alliance Partner, an IBM Business Partner, a Microsoft Certified Solutions Provider, and an Oracle Business Alliance Partner. For more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, send e-mail to [e-mail] or visit Comshare's Web site at www.comshare.com.

Comshare is a registered trademark of Comshare Inc. Comshare FDC and FDC Management Reporting and Analysis are trademarks of Comshare Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.