Comshare introduces Web-based strategy; company's whole product strategy strengthened; user's functionality enhanced.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 1996--Comshare, Inc. (NASDAQ-NM: CSRE), The Decision Support Company, today announced an aggressive initiative to leverage the value of the World Wide Web as a new client/server platform by incorporating web-enabled capabilities into its newest and future software products and applications.

"The World Wide Web is changing the 'structure and makeup' of the software industry at an unprecedented rate," said Steven J. Tonissen, senior vice president, marketing. "Comshare is moving quickly and decisively to adopt a Web-based strategy. We are determined to enhance our customers' access to the power of the Internet and the security of the Intranet through the richness and functionality of our complete line of whole-product decision support applications."

"Comshare's commitment to a Web-based strategy reflects its characteristic whole-product approach to decision support application development," said Kirk Cruikshank, vice president of marketing for Arbor Software. "Its strategy correlates with our introduction of the Essbase Web Gateway and the significant market interest in OLAP over the World Wide Web."

Comshare's initial strategy focuses on three distinct areas:

1. Production reporting for selected applications will be Web-enabled. As such, once a document has been created, the end user will be free to distribute it as he or she likes. For example, the document could be stored on a Web server and accessed over an Intranet; it could be downloaded over a LAN/WAN and read with a browser; or it could be E-mailed and read with a browser. This would ensure support for those users who are not directly attached to the company's Intranet.

2. Comshare will provide a Web-browser OCX with Commander Decision(TM), the management-oriented planning, analysis and reporting system introduced last February, so users can access Web content directly from within Commander Decision instead of using an external Web browser.

3. Comshare will Web-enable the Decision Access Module component of Commander Decision and produce a new version of the multidimensional grid that can be embedded or inserted into a Hyper Text Mark-Up Language (HTML) document. In this way, users can access and interact with the multidimensional data from within a Web browser with the same level of functionality as when working with Commander Decision, not just simple point-and-click drill-down.

"Rather than following the course set by other vendors, our Web-based solution will provide greater interactivity by incorporating active objects based on Java and Web-based OCX technologies," said Dr. David King, Comshare's director of research. "Our Web-based strategy leverages those standards and provides richer solutions with greater interactivity by also incorporating active objects such as Java applets or Web-based OCXs into our software products and applications."

Arbor Software's recently announced Essbase(R) Web Gateway is integrated in Comshare's Web strategy. The Essbase Web Gateway is a multi-threaded server application that enables high-speed, interactive, read and write access to the Essbase multidimensional database server for operational OLAP (on-line analytical processing) over the World Wide Web. Web functionality for Comshare's decision support applications, including Web OCX for Commander Decision and the Web-enabled Decision Access Module, will be available next September.

Comshare is The Decision Support Company. One of the top 50 software companies in the world, Comshare develops, markets and supports complete 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 more than 40 countries worldwide.

For more information about Comshare products and services, call 1 800 922-7979 or see our home page on the world wide web at http://www.comshare.com

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

NOTE: There should be a double slash between "http:" and

"www.comshare.com" in the World Wide Web address listed

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CONTACT: Comshare, Inc., Ann Arbor

Dan Jankowski, 313/769-8742

or

Eiler Communications, Ann Arbor

Larry T. Eiler, 313/761-3399