DENVER, July 31, 2003 — FRx Software Corp., a Microsoft company and a part of Microsoft Business Solutions, today announced the availability of Microsoft®
Business Solutions for Analytics–Forecaster 6.7. Forecaster 6.7 is a budgeting and planning application designed to help give midmarket and corporate businesses the ability to gain immediate control over their budgeting process in a fully integrated, Web-based environment.
Significant new functionality in Forecaster 6.7 includes a full range of valuable human resource (HR) budgeting and planning offerings, accelerated and simplified installation, and enhancements to the ExpressLink feature, which allows customers to more easily map general ledger accounts to Forecaster.
“Effective budgeting tools are the secret weapon against inefficiency and ill-informed planning,”
said Chris Scherpenseel, president of FRx Software.
“Our newest Forecaster release is extremely valuable because it gives businesses more insight into their HR and staffing environment, helping them create more viable and flexible budgets and plans.”
With expanded HR features, Forecaster 6.7 gives users the ability to more effectively plan for, manage and make more-informed decisions related to staffing requirements and costs.
“Labor is one of our largest budget items,”
said Todd Richardson, senior manager for Mercy Health Partners.
“If we can get greater visibility into labor costs and the way we handle issues like flex staffing, we can make better staffing decisions. FRx Software has really delivered terrific functionality to address our needs in this area. Forecaster 6.7 has great flexibility built into it that allows us to achieve more realistic plans.”
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Simplified installation. As part of Microsoft Corp.’s Trustworthy Computing initiative, deployment and application connectivity changes were made. Two steps have been eliminated from the installation routine, and the connectivity between Microsoft Internet Information Services and Microsoft SQL Server (TM) has been redesigned to simplify installation; new installations now take a fraction of the time they used to take. In addition, password encryption has been implemented through the application.
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Pay Type support. Forecaster 6.7 allows organizations to define and customize the pay types that are important to them — second shift, nonproductive time or personal time off, for example — enabling them to budget additional HR planning details and better understand staffing needs and associated costs.
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ExpressLink. ExpressLink — an application designed to help customers build their baseline budgets using data from select general ledger systems — has been updated to allow organizations to flexibly map general ledger accounts to Forecaster account segments in any order desired. For example, users that have a four-segment chart of accounts in their general ledger system can use ExpressLink to rearrange the segments to match how they budget.
Availability and Pricing
Forecaster 6.7 is available immediately in the United States and Canada through FRx Software’s extensive distribution channel. Pricing begins at $7,500 (estimated retail price) and is based on the size of the implementation and the number of named users. Implementation and training services are available at an additional cost.
About FRx Software
FRx Software Corp., a Microsoft company and a part of Microsoft Business Solutions, is the leading provider of advanced financial analytic applications to midmarket and corporate businesses seeking to bring more control to their financial analysis and reporting processes. Its flagship product, Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics(FRx®
, is used by more than 115,000 sites worldwide to help bring control to the financial reporting process. FRx is considered a financial reporting standard for midmarket companies and corporate businesses, with interfaces to more than 50 industry-leading financial accounting systems. Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics(Forecaster is a browser-based budgeting and planning application that makes it easy for organizations to immediately realize the benefits of budgeting. Additional information about FRx Software can be obtained by calling (800) 379-8733 or by visiting the company Web site at http://www.frxsoftware.com/ .
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft and FRx are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp., FRx Software Corp. or their affiliates in the United States and/or other countries.
FRx Software Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp.
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