TM1 Real-time OLAP Gaining Broad Acceptance for Financial Decision Support; Comshare's Commitment to TM1 Technology Further Validation.

WESTBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 1997--Applix Inc. (NASDAQ: APLX) announced yesterday a strategic relationship with Comshare, a leader in the financial OLAP application marketplace. Comshare has licensed Applix's TM1(TM) real-time analytical processing engine (an evolution of traditional OLAP technology) for use in Comshare's Commander Decision(TM) software, further validating TM1 as a superior platform for financial decision support applications.

This agreement, along with other partnerships and competitive wins, accelerates acceptance of TM1 as the leading, real-time analytical processing engine for time-critical, closed-loop financial applications.

TM1 technology departs radically from most other OLAP products which achieve fast response time by pre-calculating consolidations and derived values and storing results on disk. Calculating large incremental updates can take hours and cause data explosion. TM1 only stores the lowest level input elements (10 bytes per record). When a user asks for a consolidation, or changes a number that affects a consolidation, TM1 calculates the results on demand, in real-time, using memory which is hundreds of times faster than disk. TM1 handles large data models because source files are typically one-fifth to one-tenth their input size in TM1 and are immediately available for use once they are loaded.

Comshare will initially use TM1 as part of its Commander Decision DSS application development software and will bundle TM1 with its planning, analysis and operational decision support applications.

"Comshare's application and industry expertise, plus TM1's advanced real-time analytical processing represents an important advance in decision support solutions," said Jay McGinley, vice president responsible for TM1 at Applix. "With forthcoming TM1 enhancements including very thin client architecture, symmetrical multi-processing and full multi-threading, the benefit to companies can be very strategic."

Because TM1's real-time analytical processing engine is well suited for integration into other applications, Applix TM1 continues to focus on developing strategic relations that have the potential for major impact on the market. Applix TM1 has penetrated large accounts throughout the world through various channels -- the current TM1 VAR program (more than 35 companies in 22 countries), business partners such as Hyperion Software and IQ Software and Applix TM1's direct sales force. A sampling of notable new customers secured in competition with all major OLAP vendors includes:

- MCI (Denver) - Bell Atlantic (NJ) - Signature Group (Chicago) - Consolidated Freight (Portland) - Texaco (Houston) - The Associates (Dallas) - Southern Electric (UK) - Norwich Union (UK's largest insurance company)

Large companies and strategic partners have selected TM1 for the following reasons: real-time calculation on demand, distributed network architecture, desktop and nomadic OLAP, rapid time to benefit, workgroup collaboration, no data explosion, scalability, and tight integration with Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3.

According to Greg Shireman, director of financial and business information systems at The Signature Group in Chicago, TM1 works as a natural extension to Excel, making it easy to automate spreadsheet reporting, format reports and write macros - saving valuable manhours. "I can take educated spreadsheet users, give them a half a day of education on TM1, and they're able to produce reports immediately," Shireman said.

TM1 has been the technology leader since the software was introduced by Sinper Corp. in 1984. After acquiring TM1 in October 1996, Applix continued this tradition by introducing two capabilities unique to TM1:

- spreadsheet access to TM1 using any Java-enabled browser via integration with Applix Anyware WebSheets; and - the ability to process real-time feeds from services such as Reuters, Bloomberg and Technocron or stock exchanges.

More information on TM1's real-time analytical processing is available in a TM1 White Paper, "Real Time Analytical Processing -- The Case for Real Time OLAP." To obtain the White Paper interested parties can call Applix at [phone] or download it from the World Wide Web at www.applix.com.

About Applix, Inc.

Applix, Inc., based in Westboro, MA, provides solutions for the Real Time Enterprise -- those organizations that seek and gain competitive advantage by converting raw data into effective action in the shortest possible time. Applix develops, markets and supports Applixware, Applix Enterprise, Applix Anyware and TM1.

Applix Enterprise is an integrated set of customer interaction applications for customer service and help desk environments. Applixware is an open suite of integrated desktop tools that enable individual users with time-critical and historical data needs to access, analyze, display and communicate information from a universal desktop across heterogeneous client/server environments, including the Web. Applix Anyware is the first commercial applications solution that leverages Java to develop and deploy interactive business applications to networked desktops. TM1 products provide real-time analytical processing for financial decision support applications.

Applix acquired TM1 Software, formerly Sinper Corporation, in October, 1996. The TM1/Applix business unit develops and markets OLAP products for real-time analytical processing which provide significant productivity gains in financial and business resource planning, reporting, analysis and control.

The TM1 family of products enables users throughout the enterprise to share financial OLAP information and to collaborate, regardless of location. TM1 was founded in 1984 and has 2000 customers worldwide. Products include TM1 Server, TM1 Perspectives, TM1 Anyware (Web spreadsheet access) and TM1 Client plus modules for graphical access and RDBMS connectivity.

About Comshare, Inc.

Comshare is The Decision Support Company. Comshare develops, markets and supports complete client/server decision support applications. Comshare's software applications are designed to improve business analysis, planning, and operations for decision making, enhanced competitiveness, and improved profits. Comshare's application software is popular among major corporations in many industries, with particular concentration in financial services, utilities, manufacturing, energy, services, retail and consumer goods industries. One of the top 50 independent software companies, Comshare has over 3,000 customers worldwide, many of which are Fortune 1000 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare, Inc., is a Microsoft Solution provider. For more information, call 1-800-922-7979, or visit Comshare's Web site at www.comshare.com.

Comshare is a registered trademark and Comshare Application Architecture and Commander Decision are trademarks of Comshare, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Lawson Abinanti Laura Schiavi

Applix TM1 Technology Solutions, Inc.

[phone] [phone] ext. 204

Compuserve: 76563, 23 [e-mail]