Silvon Software and Business Forecast Systems Form Alliance to Integrate Demand Planning & Forecasting Capabilities with Silvon's Sales Performance Management Application.

Business & Technology Editors

WESTMONT, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2002

Silvon Software, a global supply chain-focused provider of analytic applications for business performance management, and Business Forecast Systems (BFS), a leading developer and marketer of forecasting software solutions, have formed an alliance to bring demand planning and forecasting functionality to the Silvon Stratum(TM) suite of analytic applications.

Under the agreement, Silvon will offer BFS' Forecast Pro(R) software as an add-on planning and forecasting application with total integration to the Silvon Stratum solution for Sales Performance Management. The combined application will offer to manufacturing and wholesale distribution businesses extensive functionality for product demand planning and forecasting and for systematically comparing the results of system-generated forecasts to adjusted forecasts, actual sales, and more. The integrated application will be available from Silvon in mid-2002 when it announces general availability of Stratum 3.0 - the company's next major product release.

"Silvon's Stratum(TM) application for sales performance management, combined with Forecast Pro, will allow businesses to better manage their product portfolios through comprehensive demand planning, forecasting and analysis," said Business Forecast Systems Vice President Eric Stellwagen. "The understanding resulting from these capabilities can then be leveraged into strategic plans and decisions that can help supply chain businesses reduce inventory and stockouts, while increasing profits."

Mike Hennel, president and CEO of Silvon Software elaborated: "The combined offering of Silvon Stratum and Forecast Pro will give organizations the single, unified foundation they need to produce sales forecasts that drive all inventory supply and production planning systems; to measure the accuracy of forecasts against sales achievements; and, to make better demand planning decisions on a continual basis. Our offering is an ideal solution for supply chain businesses that must support rapid product introductions, complex and shorter product lifecycles, varied product configurations and other issues. It's a pleasure for us to team up with the #1 forecasting software solution provider. Forecasting is a critical issue for the manufacturing and distribution enterprises we serve."

About Business Forecast Systems - www.forecastpro.com

Business Forecast Systems, Inc., develops, markets and supports the award-winning Forecast Pro product line for professionals in sales, marketing, finance and manufacturing. Forecast Pro is a state-of-the-art statistical forecasting package featuring a rule-based expert system to analyze data, select the appropriate forecasting technique, and explain the reasoning behind its selection. The product's forecasting techniques cover virtually all business applications and include curve fitting, exponential smoothing models, Box-Jenkins and methods specifically designed for low volume data sets. Forecast Pro also features more advanced forecasting capabilities based on dynamic regression models, multiple-level models and special event models.

With over 18,000 installations worldwide, BFS is the leader in packaged forecasting solutions.

About Silvon Software, Inc. - www.silvon.com

Silvon Software is a global supply chain-focused provider of analytic applications for business performance management. Since 1987, Silvon has focused on software-based business performance analytic application solutions for manufacturing, wholesale distribution and retail organizations.

The Silvon Stratum suite of analytic applications features completely integratable modules for Sales Performance Management, Marketing Performance Management, Manufacturing Performance Management, Procurement Performance Management, e-Business Performance Management, Customer Relationship Analytics and Activity Cost Management. In addition to the demand planning & forecasting functionality that the Stratum Sales Performance Management module will offer as a result of today's alliance announcement, the module features a number of analytical views, reports and tools that support sales and profitability performance, inventory planning and analysis, open-order analysis, sales and operations planning and analysis, and new product forecasting and analysis.

Silvon's analytic applications run on the IBM AS/400, Windows NT and Unix platforms. Silvon provides professional services and global support along with a network of OEMs, value-added resellers and independent distributors. The company's products are currently installed in more than 1,400 sites worldwide.