Healthcare Professionals Make Comshare(R) Software the Clear Choice To Help Meet Greater Industry Demands

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 28, 2003 -- Comshare, Incorporated, (Nasdaq: CSRE) a leader in corporate performance management (CPM) and well-known for its years of experience in supporting decision-makers in such diverse sectors as manufacturing, retail, utilities, service, energy, government, and entertainment, is increasingly being identified as a preferred vendor by healthcare professionals charged with keeping an eye on efficiencies. Healthcare providers are facing the same challenge that many businesses are facing today -- how to manage finite resources in a world that seeks the same high quality product or service.

Comshare solutions are gaining recognition in the healthcare sector as tools that help increase efficiency and worker productivity while delivering quality care. Comshare was recently selected as the vendor of choice by such noted hospitals and healthcare systems as Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) of British Columbia, Community Hospitals Network of Indiana, Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital Systems in California, and University Health Care System, Inc. that serves Georgia and South Carolina.

Gaining Information Control - PHSA and Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System

Like many enterprises in the business sectors Comshare serves, healthcare is data rich and information poor. Hospitals tend to have many standalone systems that collect information about patients and the services they receive, but on a departmental basis. Centralizing the information so that it is accessible to those who need it in order to make informed decisions is of paramount importance.

There has been a major shift in the governance of healthcare within the province of British Columbia, Canada. Children & Women's Health Centre of British Columbia (C&W), an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority, needed more timely information to help manage its operations. C&W is now taking more of a business approach to managing patient care by developing a system that integrates all pertinent data, resulting in one version of information that is available to all its managers.

C&W needed a system that could handle a large amount of information such as patient condition, patient tests, and service provider that resided in a variety of disconnected systems. Today, the healthcare agency uses Comshare Decision(TM) to manage patient care, financial reporting, and performance measurement functions.

"Our plan is to implement a balanced scorecard model to track key indicators related to service delivery; outcomes of care; patient satisfaction; resource use; innovation and learning; and employee, workplace, and community benefits," said Sharon Beynon, Director of Decision Support Services for C&W. "Because we are a provincial resource, we have a responsibility to develop standards and educate the other care providers in the province. We're leading the way with Comshare Decision."

At Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System (SCVHHS) in California, managers access Comshare MPC(TM) to view the most current information at a glance and to use the application's drill-down capabilities for ad hoc investigation -- line item by line item -- to determine where resources are being used. SCVHHS also uses Comshare MPC to track patient days and outpatient visits by payment method, and uses historical data to project revenues.

Increasing Efficiency - Community Health Network and University Health Care System

Like many other health institutions, Indiana-based Community Health Network has experienced a decline in reimbursements but an increase in costs. Comshare MPC is being deployed directly to service-line managers via the web, without IT intervention. The easy to use, paperless application is designed to help administrators track key metrics to keep the hospital efficient while delivering the finest care.

"Community Health Network and other hospitals are not that different from other industries with regard to budgeting, reporting, and forecasting processes," said Jeff Kirkham, Director of Finance, Community Health Network. "We realized that Comshare MPC could help us in the same way it has helped many other enterprises."

Georgia-based University Health Care System will customize Comshare MPC so managers can track key performance metrics and drill down into more detail as needed, while leveraging the health care system's investment in Microsoft's business intelligence platform. In addition, Comshare MPC will be used for budgeting and management reporting, replacing old, inefficient systems.

About Comshare MPC and Comshare Decision

Comshare offers healthcare professionals both Comshare MPC -- its flagship application that integrates planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting, and analysis in a single system -- and Comshare Decision -- its business intelligence (BI) platform for building custom BI applications such as sales and marketing analysis, customer analysis, and BI portals to its growing list of healthcare customers. Comshare uses the Comshare Decision platform to build many of the modules available in the Comshare MPC application suite. Both applications are designed to be easy to use and can be customized to the unique circumstances of the enterprise they support. Their open architecture and web-based technology makes it easier to integrate the CPM applications with legacy systems to collect, analyze, and report information across multi-facility healthcare systems.

About Comshare, Incorporated

Comshare, Incorporated is a leading provider of software that helps companies implement and execute strategy. Comshare's corporate performance management application encompasses planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting, and analysis. In business for over 35 years, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 customers around the world. Comshare is a Business Objects Partner, a Siebel Software Partner, and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Business Intelligence and Software. For more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, send email to info@comshare.com or visit Comshare's website at http://www.comshare.com .

Comshare(R) is a registered trademark. Comshare MPC(TM) and Comshare Decision(TM) are trademarks of Comshare, Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

SOURCE Comshare, Incorporated

Web Site: http://www.comshare.com