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UGI Corporation Chooses Comshare FDC

Comshare Incorporated announced that Pennsylvania-based UGI Corporation has chosen Comshare financial consolidation software, Comshare FDC, for its monthly multinational consolidation, reporting and analysis needs. Comshare 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.

"Before Comshare FDC was introduced at UGI, we spent too much time trying to get our multiple subsidiaries consolidated and not enough time analyzing what the information was telling us," says Richard Russo, manager of corporate general accounting for UGI. "Comshare has cut our consolidation and reporting time in half and enables us to satisfy management's need for monthly reporting and analysis."

The Challenge

Dating to 1882, UGI Corporation is the holding company for two principal businesses: AmeriGas Partners LP, the largest retail marketer of propane, and UGI Utilities Inc, a distributor of natural gas and electricity to nearly 330,000 customers in eastern Pennsylvania. In addition, the company has a number of other subsidiary companies in the United States, Austria and France. Responsible for UGI's annual consolidated revenues of well over $2 billion, Rich Russo and Malinda Pride, consolidations and reporting accountant, who support senior management at UGI with monthly consolidation, reporting and analysis functions, faced a recurring dilemma each month.

"We have a PeopleSoft general ledger that is a very good general ledger package, but it was not designed for the monthly consolidation, reporting and analysis that is required of us by senior management," says Pride. "At the corporate level, we need quick turnaround of this information, especially at the end of each quarter. We tried to use the general ledger package for consolidation and found it extremely slow and time consuming. I was putting in a lot of overtime, even using two PCs just to get our board reports processed for senior management."

Russo and Pride knew they needed software specifically designed to do the job at hand. "We wanted a straightforward consolidation package that would meet our needs," says Russo. "In addition, we wanted something that was very user-friendly so that learning the new system wouldn't be a big burden to us and to those reporting sites that would eventually use it." Russo and Pride called in three vendors: Hyperion, Great Plains and Comshare.

The Solution

"The presentation had a lot to do with our decision," affirms Pride. "Comshare demonstrated its product using our data. That was very impressive. And since much of the product was Microsoft Excel-based, we knew everybody who would use it would feel comfortable with it," she continues.

"In the end, we felt more comfortable with Comshare's product demonstration, its people, and its price," remembers Russo. "We also knew that Comshare had been in this industry for many years, and just knowing that we had local support if we needed it was reassuring to us."

Pride also found working with Comshare professionals helpful during the implementation. "We wanted to implement the system on our own to save money, so we enlisted a Comshare consultant to help us map out the implementation and check our progress. He charted what needed to be done and in what order. Comshare's methodical approach proved to be an invaluable resource to us," says Pride. "And Comshare's Helpline played an important part, too. I usually had a response within the hour and was quite impressed by their ability to walk us through complex issues."

The Benefits

"Our executives want analysis on a monthly basis and with Comshare, we are able to set up reports they want to look at for trends and other analysis very easily," confirms Pride. "That's the way we should be supporting UGI's management team, and with Comshare, we are able to do it."

Russo and Pride add that they want to roll the system out in stages. They see great value in the opportunity to expand the use of the system at the corporate and reporting site levels using the software's built-in financial intelligence and Web design.

"We have more than 40 companies reporting in to us on a monthly basis and we have several different general ledgers that are interfacing with Comshare," says Pride. "Creating schedules and hierarchies was simple, as was mapping our reporting site information to the new Comshare system. We use its automated currency conversion capability and load reporting site numbers directly into the database. It has made our consolidation process much easier," says Pride.

"Everybody notices the benefits," confirms Russo. "Because Comshare uses a single database, we can share it with others, including our auditors, who can get their own reports, while we focus on the consolidation." Pride also confirms the system's benefits. "Once we generate reports, we send 'what-if' and other analysis questions back to the reporting units," says Pride. "We will eventually move some of the functions we perform to the reporting site level. The product's Web capability will conceivably replace our current method of sharing information via our own network, especially for our international holdings," explains Pride.

"We even have a person from the treasury department who is starting to use the Comshare application for budgeting," attests Russo. "The system just keeps opening up new opportunities."

About Comshare Incorporated

Comshare Incorporated is a leading provider of e-business software applications for management planning and control, 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, a Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance Platinum Partner, an IBM Business Partner, and an Oracle Business 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 Corporate Communications, 734-769-6194, sellinger@comshare.com.