Aston Martin Selects Comshare to Prepare for Explosive Growth With the Launch of the AMV8 Vantage

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 2 -- Comshare, Incorporated announced today that Aston Martin, creator of the world's most prestigious and exclusive hand-built sports cars, has selected corporate performance management (CPM) software from Comshare to satisfy increased reporting requirements of its parent company, and to enable more detailed profitability analysis and business performance planning at a local level. Comshare MPC(TM) will automate a significant proportion of Ford Motor Company's corporate reporting requirements while delivering substantial improvement in profitability forecasting and analytical capability to the Aston Martin team.

Aston Martin selected Comshare to help manage the business through a period of immense cultural change, the result of an aggressive, product led growth plan and the consequent requirement to report more than just monthly bottom-line profit and cash flow numbers to Ford Motor Company.

Neil Coathup, Business Planning and Special Projects Manager, Aston Martin, explained the significance of the coming three years and why Comshare's CPM solution was the obvious choice. "With total annual volumes set to grow from 1,700 to more than 7,000, it was vital we found an alternative to churning through spreadsheets that were developed over a decade ago when we had two products and produced 500 cars a year. The next three years will see us operating in a greater number of markets and offering a larger number of models. These elements, combined with a growing focus on the company from a corporate level have created an urgent need for more detailed analysis and reporting capabilities," said Coathup.

"We recognized in Comshare MPC a product that answered our unresolved questions. Comshare's solution is not modular, an issue we had with many of the competing products, which appeared to be several solutions bolted together," continued Coathup. "We were also struck by Comshare MPC's clear user interface and felt confident that this would provide something more user friendly for our functional managers. A further differentiator was its built in submission and approval processes, which will solve the difficulties we have experienced in identifying missing or late submissions."

Delivered on the Microsoft business intelligence platform, Comshare MPC will link the profit forecasting and business planning processes. The monthly profit forecast model will monitor performance across all sectors of the business, getting to the cause of any issues quickly, and creating a better understanding of the market forces at work. These findings will form part of the monthly management pack.

"Reducing the amount of time 'number crunching' will increase the analytical time available to members of the Finance Analysis team, enabling them to support the functional managers with information that is accurate and timely," said Coathup. "Ultimately, the application will be rolled out to members of the senior management team across all functions, enabling them to do their own performance management analysis."

The business plan, a detailed five-year view of the business, will be used to create the targeted budget for the next year. Linking this with the monthly profit forecast model, Aston Martin will turn its planning process into true corporate performance management.

About Aston Martin

Founded in 1914 in a small West London workshop, Aston Martin has grown over more than 80 years to become a world renowned manufacturer of the finest, exclusive, luxury sports cars. Aston Martin is a member of the Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group (PAG) which includes Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln Mercury and Volvo.

Unveiled in January 2003 the Aston Martin AMV8 Vantage is a tailored two- seater concept car that is destined to become the most significant model in the company's 89-year history. The Aston Martin AMV8 Vantage is the basis for a smaller third Aston Martin model, due to be launched in 2005, and will sit alongside the DB7 and the flagship Vanquish. The AMV8 Vantage will be hand- assembled at Aston Martin's state-of-the-art production facility at Gaydon, in the United Kingdom, which is currently under construction.

About Comshare, Incorporated

Comshare, Incorporated is a leading provider of software that helps companies implement and execute strategy. Comshare's application for corporate performance management 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 Products.

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