Project Scheduling Gets a Boost With New Milestones Professional 2000.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2000

One-Click Web Publishing, New Number Crunching Capabilities and

Functions for Managing Large Projects are Just Some of the New

Features

KIDASA Software announced today that it has started shipping Milestones Professional 2000, the newest release of its Windows-based project scheduling tool.

One-click Web publishing of a schedule hierarchy, new number crunching capabilities, additional functions for managing large projects, and tighter integration with Microsoft Project are some of the additions to Milestones Professional 2000.

Also included in Milestones Professional are a variety of general improvements to creating, customizing, and presenting schedules, such as enhanced color shading, password protection, enhanced programmability, additional print options, and floating legends.

Internet Publishing

Multi-site enterprises that rely on Web technology for their business communications can benefit from the new Web publishing capabilities in Milestones Professional. An Internet Publishing Wizard helps users quickly create Internet-ready HTML pages of the schedules, complete with images of the schedules and "hot spots" for hyperlinks to other schedules.

New Number Crunching Capabilities

New SmartColumn capabilities enhance the spreadsheet-like functionality already found in schedules produced in Milestones Professional. Now, any column in a schedule can be a SmartColumn, which will interact directly with the schedule and with the schedule's DataGraphs--smaller graphs that track any numerical information related to the schedule, such as labor allotments, earned value, or budgeted costs versus actual.

Through SmartColumns, any application that combines schedules and numbers can be calculated in one view within Milestones Professional. SmartColumns are at the core of calculating the earned values used by government contractors, the cost-performance measurements used by architects and builders, the resource utilization numbers that initiate preventive maintenance operations, the sales totals that bonus checks are based on, and other key performance indicators and what-if analyses used in all industries.

Functions for Managing Large Projects

Milestones Professional will refresh a master schedule defined from a set of subschedules upon request or when the file is opened. The subschedules can be on the same desktop computer, on a network server, or on someone else's computer.

Another way to manage multiple projects is through symbol linking. This feature lets users link the date of a symbol on one schedule to the date of the symbol in another schedule. The main schedule will automatically be updated based on the most recently saved information associated with the symbol links.

Tighter Integration With Microsoft Project

A new Microsoft Project interface, using OLE automation, can read Project MPP files to build a Milestones schedule. Users can choose one of the pre-formatted templates, or use the wizard to map the Microsoft Project fields to their Milestones Professional chart.

A dual-use project scheduling environment is not unusual. At Seattle-based Boeing Company, the largest aerospace company in the world, project managers use Microsoft Project for large schedules that must be tracked in the MS Project format required by some government contracts, while line managers, schedulers, presenters, and other staff members use Milestones Professional for daily scheduling and schedule communication.

Availability

KIDASA products are sold both direct through KIDASA Web site (www.kidasa.com) and through the retail channel through an international network of resellers. In the United States, customers can purchase KIDASA products through corporate and government resellers including: Beyond.Com, Software Spectrum, Software House International, Corporate Software and Technology, Provantage and Softmart. Outside the United States, KIDASA has distributors in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

About KIDASA Software

KIDASA Software Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas, introduced its first product, Milestones Etc., in 1989, when founders Sue Butler and Don Elder, two analysts with a major American defense contractor, determined to fill a void in the project management area.

Since then, the company has refined and developed this original concept into two distinct project scheduling titles: Milestones Professional and Milestones Simplicity. Milestones Professional offers the functions required by most corporate and government customers, including the management of multiple schedules, Web publishing, DataGraphs to depict time-phased numerical data, and an MS Project import wizard.

Milestones Simplicity is an inexpensive software package for managers who need to produce schedules quickly, but have a limited amount of time to invest in learning new software.

Copyright(C) KIDASA Software Inc., Milestones Professional and Simplicity are trademarks or registered trademarks of KIDASA Software Inc.

All other product names used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.