China's Largest Coal Company Deploys Datastream Enterprise Asset Management Solution

Shen Dong Coal Company Goes Live With Datastream Web-Architected EAM Implementation to Manage Capital Assets Across Multiple Locations

GREENVILLE, S.C., Sept. 23, 2002 -- Datastream Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTM), today announced that Shen Dong Coal Company has successfully deployed and gone live with Datastream's Chinese version of its industry-leading Web-architected enterprise asset management (EAM) solution.

Shen Dong Coal Company is the largest coal company in China and the third largest in the world. It is using Datastream's EAM solution to automate the management of capital assets and parts inventory across nine mines, six supplementary units and a bonded warehouse. Shen Dong Coal Company is owned by the Chinese government, which recently approved the deployment at an official acceptance ceremony.

With output growing by nearly 10 million tons per year, Shen Dong Coal Company is also one of the world's fastest growing coal producers. The company needed a way to gain more production capacity out of its infrastructure to support this growth rate, without making enormous investments in additional capital equipment. It plans to accomplish this goal through the implementation of Datastream's EAM solution enterprise-wide.

"Datastream offers the most technically advanced EAM system available today, while also providing us with the management know-how and world class practices to help us restructure and optimize our business processes," said Zhai Gui Wu, vice chief engineer for Shen Dong Coal Company. "Datastream's solution will be critical as we achieve our company-wide goals of increased efficiency and leading-edge management practices. It will be the foundation on which Shen Dong Coal Company builds its future success."

Datastream's EAM solution will help Shen Dong Coal Company reduce operating costs and improve efficiency by automating the tracking, management and maintenance of assets through product modules such as work order management, inventory management, purchase management and project management. This will keep the company's equipment running at peak efficiency with minimum downtime, enabling it to meet its aggressive production goals while also maintaining a high degree of safety for workers.

Shen Dong Coal Company, utilizing Datastream's Web architecture, can deploy the application across all locations from a single server, drastically reducing total cost of ownership in comparison with traditional client/server site-by-site installations.

The Datastream EAM system integrates with Shen Dong Coal Company's finance, office automation, inventory automation and scheduling systems to provide real-time asset data integrity across all systems. Through its interface with the corporate scheduling system, the Datastream system can reduce the cost of maintenance by using metrics such as production volume to determine maintenance frequency. Datastream's solution also provides senior managers with a broad range of key performance indicators (KPIs), which facilitate quick, effective asset management decisions.

"Datastream has worked very closely with Shen Dong Coal Company to upgrade its production capacity. To date we've helped the company systematize management of its capital assets, collecting more than 14 million data records in over 40 categories as the basis for a single, standard, enterprise-wide asset management process," said Larry Blackwell, chief executive officer of Datastream Systems, Inc. "Additionally, Datastream has participated in training almost 8,000 of the company's workers. We are working with Shen Dong Coal Company to help solve a classic business problem: maintaining their fast rate of growth while controlling operating costs."

About Datastream Systems, Inc.

Datastream Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTM) provides enterprise asset management (EAM) software, automated procurement and supporting services to organizations worldwide, including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500. Customers rely on Datastream's products and services to drive down operating costs and improve productivity through better management of capital assets.

Datastream's flagship product, Datastream 7i, was the first product in its class to combine an Internet architecture with broad EAM functionality. Datastream 7i integrates with the company's iProcure industrial procurement network to provide customers with a complete EAM solution that maximizes return on investment in capital assets, while minimizing the total cost of application ownership. Datastream was founded in 1986 and has customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, please visit www.datastream.net.

Datastream, Datastream 7i and iProcure are marks of Datastream Systems, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other products or Company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: increasing competition in the markets in which the Company competes; the stability of certain of the Company's strategic relationships, including those with suppliers of maintenance, repair and operations parts; the ability of the Company to: sell larger and more complex software solutions, successfully transition to the development of further Internet-based products, successfully implement an application service provider business model, enhance its current products and develop new products that address technological and market developments; and other risk factors listed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including, but not limited to the "Risk Factors" contained in the Company's Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001. The Company does not have, and expressly disclaims, any obligation to release publicly any updates or any changes in the Company's expectations or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statement is based.

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      CONTACT: Datastream Systems
               Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific 
               Haja Mohideen, +65 6 474 0988
               haja.mohideen@datastream.net
SOURCE: Datastream Systems, Inc.