Business & Money Trail:

DATA TRANSMISSION NETWORK STREAMLINES DECISION-MAKING

Comshare Incorporated announced that Nebraska-based Data Transmission Network (DTN) has chosen Web-based Comshare software for management planning and control (MPC) to dramatically improve the way it runs the business. DTN is a leading provider of business-to-business electronic commerce and information services to users in the agriculture, weather, energy, and financial services industries through Internet, satellite, leased lines and other distribution technologies. A privately held company in existence since 1984, DTN learned about Comshare MPC software through Ban-Koe Companies, a "total solution" value-added reseller.

DTN is implementing Comshare's web-architected software on a centralized Microsoft SQL Server database. The application integrates information from a variety of data repositories, including more than 100 spreadsheets and DTN's ERP system, creating efficiencies in information collection and flow. The system is designed to empower product managers and executive decision-makers with easy and timely access to budget, product performance, and other business-critical information. Users will be able to drill down into the system for detailed analysis.

The Challenge

Using the new Comshare system, the company expects to save time and money while empowering its users with easy access to current information needed to make better decisions. "We had two really big issues to address," says Neal Goldsworth, financial systems analyst, responsible for maintaining financial reporting information at DTN. "The first issue was the time it took to turn around a final set of financials, and the second was lack of built-in analysis capabilities available to our users once we had the numbers."

Dan Kleoppel, a senior software engineer who makes up the other half of DTN's implementation team says, "Comshare is going to help us address the speed with which we finish our budgets and monthly financial reports. It will provide users with the immediate analysis capabilities they need to understand and act upon."

The Solution

Kleoppel and Goldsworth have about 50 users who can easily access the system using Comshare's concurrent user approach. "We looked at other alternatives but thought Comshare provided the flexibility and analysis capabilities our users demanded," says Kleoppel. "We also found Comshare's concurrent licensing saved us money and fit better with our organization, especially at budget time when we have up to 70 people who might enter budget information."

The fact that Comshare software runs on mainstream database technologies also played an important part in the solution. "Because DTN already has Microsoft SQL Server in place for many of its applications, Comshare was a good fit for our situation," continues Kleoppel. "And Comshare was a web-based software solution that would allow us to grow the application when we were ready to expand it to the Internet. It allows users to access the information they need anywhere, anytime using a simple browser."

The Benefits

"Our users have the opportunity to do so much more with Comshare's system than they did previously, using spreadsheets that were difficult to report from and maintain. I have no doubt that Comshare will provide our users with faster, better, more detailed and more flexible information than they ever had," says Goldsworth. "In the past, we produced four- to five-thousand pages of printed reports monthly using our multidimensional database so we could analyze our performance. With Comshare, that just isn't the case anymore, because it uses one central database and information can be viewed and analyzed within the application." Because of Comshare, data integrity and version control, which are common problems found in systems that are not integrated and rely on redundant user input, are no longer issues for DTN.

Goldsworth and Kleoppel see the Comshare system being released to users in stages. "It just gets better and better as we introduce each phase of the application," says Kleoppel. "The software lets users see if they are meeting their budget goals by comparing actuals, budgets and variances side by side every month. Users can see where they need to focus their attention. And the system's reporting capabilities are extremely flexible and faster than anything we've had before," attests Goldsworth. "The application's ability to do rolling forecasts will allow us to keep budget performance in front of us throughout the year," says Kleoppel.

"The Comshare system's built-in data visualization and analysis capabilities will be a big benefit for our upper management," continues Kleoppel. "Users are going to find that simple navigation will produce extremely valuable, flexible, and detailed information," confirms Goldsworth. "They'll be able to report on that information themselves in ways we never could have given them before. That's empowering."

About Ban-Koe

Ban-Koe has sales and service locations in seven states in the upper Midwest and supports customers worldwide. With revenues of over $20 million in 2000 and over 4,000 customer installations at sites throughout the world, the company has evolved to become a "total solution" value-added reseller. It is comprised of six specialty groups with products and services to meet nearly every organization's needs. For more information, call 800-969-0963, email gbowar@bankoe.com, or visit its Web site at: www.Bankoe.com.

About Comshare Incorporated

Comshare Incorporated is a leading provider of e-business software applications for management planning and control (MPC), which integrates planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis. Comshare's applications help companies to implement their strategies and track progress against their plans, budgets, forecasts and other performance metrics. In business since 1966, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Business Intelligence, Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance Platinum Partner, an IBM Business Partner, an Oracle Business Alliance Partner, and a Hyperion Alliance Partner. For more information on Comshare, call 800-922-7979, send email to info@comshare.com or visit Comshare's Web site at www.comshare.com.

Contact Sandy Ellinger of Comshare Incorporated, 734-769-6194, sellinger@comshare.com.