Digital Equipment Leverages Dimension Data's Dimension Budget and Arbor Essbase for Successful Worldwide Forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 25, 1998-

Digital Declares the Dimension Budget, Arbor Essbase Combination a Strategic Edge in Timely, Successful Budgeting and Forecasting

Dimension Data Systems Incorporated, a leading provider of Enterprise Solutions for Profit Planning & Control, announced today that Digital Equipment Corporation (NYSE:DEC) has completed a very successful implementation with Dimension Data's Dimension Budget running on Arbor Essbase OLAP Server from Arbor Software (NASDAQ:ARSW).

With Dimension Budget and Arbor Essbase, Digital achieved a number of "firsts" and "bests". All forecasting from a country level was submitted on time -- and analysis and reporting were easier than ever. "In short," says Rick Hills, Digital's Director of Internal Information & Reporting, "the quality of our forecast and timeliness of the submissions improved significantly."

"This company places extraordinary importance on our quarterly financial planning as a basis for direction finding and performance measurement," says Hills. "I can say that Dimension Budget and Arbor Essbase are key components of our core reporting strategy and we look forward to the product growing with our business."

"The dramatic improvements came by re-engineering both our business process and the technologies we use to execute our process," says Hills. "Before Dimension Budget we reverted to high-level spreadsheet models. When that happens, you lose that sense of unified goals and purpose among all of the contributors to the budgets and forecasts."

With worldwide operations driving over $13 Billion in annual revenues across all regions of the globe, streamlining the forecasting/budgeting processes into a centralized process utilizing a common data base and tool across the many geographic and business entities is indeed a great achievement.

Says Rob Lautt, President & CEO of Dimension Data Systems, "What the Digital team accomplished is remarkable. After two weeks of training on the proper configuration and deployment of Dimension Budget solutions, they rolled out a solution to over 400 users worldwide. Incredibly, their over-prepared support desk received only 5 calls. This is a testament to the depth of built-in functionality, ease of use, and deployability of solutions based on Dimension Budget."

"Digital's success with Arbor Essbase and Dimension Budget demonstrates the value that Essbase-Ready solutions are delivering to customers," said Steve Fioretti, director of channel marketing for Arbor Software. "Our partnership with Dimension Data reinforces Arbor?s commitment to delivering open, enterprise OLAP solutions. This enables customers to deploy analytic applications such as budgeting, forecasting, allocations and customer and product profitability analysis that leverage the performance and scalability of Arbor Essbase with the technology and applications expertise of Dimension Data."

About Dimension Data Systems, Inc.

Dimension Data Systems develops and markets packaged software to provide Enterprise Solutions for Profit Planning & Control. These solutions unify budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, allocations management, and customer & product profitability analysis across all corporate functions including finance, administration, sales, manufacturing and operations. Dimension Data leverages packaged, flexible software products and a strong customer and partner focus to deliver robust, scalable solutions to the Fortune 1000. Together, Dimension Data's product suite, Dimension Budget, Dimension Control, and Dimension Allocate, are rapidly deployed to plan and control every line of the corporate P&L, every product, every customer and every department. Dimension Data's customers include AirTouch, Del Monte, Digital Equipment, Grand & Toy, Iomega, Medtronic, Staples, Toyota, and T.Rowe Price. Dimension Data's products are co-marketed with partners worldwide including Arbor Software Corporation, ShowCase Corporation, and IBM. Additionally, Dimension Data partners with system integrators, consulting partners, and resellers including, Clarity Systems, Painted Word Consulting, Data Into Action and Decision Support Technology.

About Digital Equipment Corporation

Digital Equipment Corporation, recognized for product and service excellence, is a leading supplier of high-performance, Web-based computing solutions which help enterprises compete in the global marketplace. Digital gives its customers a winning Internet advantage through a comprehensive portfolio of Internet solutions based on award-winning systems, advanced networking infrastructure, innovative software, and industry applications -- including those from its business partners. The expertise and experience of Digital employees help customers plan, design, implement, manage and support Internet solutions in countries throughout the world. For the latest company information, visit Digital on the World Wide Web at http://www.digital.com and/or newsdesk.com.

Information on Dimension Data products and services can be found at http://www.dimensiondata.com. Dimension Data can be reached via e-mail at [e-mail] or by calling 1-800/666-2823.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Dimension Data and Dimension Budget, Dimension Control, and Dimension Allocate are trademarks or registered trademarks. Arbor and Essbase are registered trademarks of Arbor Software Corporation. Any other product or company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

    CONTACT: Dimension Data Systems, Inc.
              Brad Margolis, 415/356-2322
              [e-mail]