FRx Announces Visual Financial Reporting Version 5.5.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 1998--

Release of New Application Positions FRx as Strong Competitor in

Enterprise Financial Integration and Reporting Market

FRx Software Corp., leaders in financial integration and reporting applications, announced today the release of Visual Financial Reporting(TM) version 5.5, a highly sophisticated, yet end-user focused, production financial reporting application.

Long the leader in the mid-tier market, the release of version 5.5 combined with partnerships with Oracle, Lawson, J. D. Edwards and Baan, marks the official FRx(R) entrance into the enterprise market as part of a continued strategy to provide financial reporting and integration across the entire spectrum of mid-tier and ERP financial systems.

"With version 5.5, we've leveraged our expertise as the de facto leader in the mid-tier market to create a visual, powerful software application for financial integration and reporting across the enterprise," said Michael Rohan, President, CEO and founder of FRx Software. "With the new release the product has evolved into a financial integration technology that provides ERP and mid-tier financial users with the ability to access data from general ledger and non-general ledger sources to create comprehensive, timely, financial reports for electronic distribution throughout the enterprise.

OLE Component Architecture Drives High-Level Integration Functionality

Unlike other financial reporting solutions that utilize data warehouses as a central repository for manipulating data, FRx products interface directly with multiple ERP or mid-tier partners' financial systems through an OLE component architecture. Real-time posted and unposted data from these general ledgers, as well as data from spreadsheets and other non-general ledger sources, can be combined in financial reports. Consequently, the reports include up-to-the-second information, resulting in a significant positive impact on the decision making process.

"As the amount of data in the enterprise continues to grow, user organizations need reporting engines that can pull information from a variety of data sources, cleanse it, and deliver it in a form that will help the intended users do their jobs," said Bob Moran, an industry analyst with the Aberdeen Group. "With its OLE component integration architecture and finance-specific approach to reporting, FRx provides a viable solution to this problem for financial users operating in the ERP market."

Enhanced Automation and Distribution Functionality Speeds Information Sharing 

Among many new features available with version 5.5 is the automation of several key reporting processes. A scalable, multi-threaded, high-speed NT Report Server enables high-performance generation of report requests from multiple users. Running on the Report Server is the Report Scheduler, which helps automate repetitive report generation by providing unattended processing and automated email distribution of financial reports.

Electronic distribution of reports, a key FRx benefit cited by many customers over competing paper-based reporting technologies, has also been improved. Reports are automatically compressed before email distribution. As a productivity gain, users can create pre-defined email lists on a report-by-report basis and then distribute them automatically throughout the enterprise. Two additional options include a report encryption option to increase the secure transmission of sensitive data and the ability to e-mail either an entire report as a file attachment or as a file link for page-at-a-time (demand paged) viewing. As before, viewers can easily drill down to the transaction detail to answer any questions.

"When we first installed the ERP financial system, it took 22 hours to create our standard monthly report packet of 150 statements. Each month that time increased. We needed a solution that would decrease run time and enable electronic distribution of the reports to extensive internal and external publication lists," said Mark Field, Director Information Systems & Technology for Production Operators Inc., a leader in the contract gas compression and oil services industry. "With FRx, we've reduced run time by an average 94.6 percent. Not only are we able to produce and distribute standard reports on time, but we're now able to achieve our goal of producing 1100-1200 internal reports as well -- one of our key ERP implementation initiatives. Without FRx that would not have been possible."

Other New Features

Other new features available with version 5.5 include:

-- Account set capability to group a series of account numbers, simplifying report design and coordination of random charts of accounts.

-- Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) support, eliminating the need for static drive mapping.

-- More user control and flexibility in rounding of report values throughout reporting hierarchies.

-- New subtotal functionality in the DrillDown Viewer that enables users to restructure report presentation by applying various filter options without the need for report regeneration.

-- Report "carving" functionality to facilitate the extraction of segments of an enterprise report (such as the Eastern Region) and distribute those segments to a different location or set of users.

Availability

Throughout the last year, FRx has created partnerships with several key ERP vendors including Oracle, J. D. Edwards, Lawson and Baan. Visual Financial Reporting version 5.5 is currently available on all four. In the mid-tier market, FRx is bundled or integrated with more than 26 different accounting vendor applications. Many of the vendor-specific versions of the 5.5 application are currently available, while the rest are scheduled for roll-out. Besides the English version, Spanish, French and German language versions will be available shortly.

About FRx Software Corp.

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Denver, FRx Software Corporation produces advanced Visual Financial Reporting software that interfaces directly with more than 30 leading client/server financial systems and is used in over 65,000 sites worldwide. FRx applications feature the automatic creation of complex financial reports with rollups through multiple reporting hierarchies; electronic distribution with drill-down from summary level financial information into the underlying transaction level details; presentation-quality reports that can be printed, exported to worksheets or e-mailed for remote viewing or printing; exception and multi-currency reporting; and the FRx Report Server for high-speed production and distribution of financial reports. FRx's reporting trees (hierarchies) provide effective dating capability to manage organizational restructuring and allow financial users to easily consolidate multiple cost centers, business units and companies, even when the data resides in different accounting systems or have different charts of accounts or fiscal years. FRx was recognized by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Software Companies for 1998. FRx Software products are designed by and for CPAs, CAs, CGAs, CMAs and other financial professionals to build and maintain complex financial reports that support Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). For information about FRx Software's product offerings call 1-800-379-8733 or visit them on the Web at www.frxsoft.com.