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HMS begins shipping Open Plan 2.5

Highly-advanced entreprise-wide project management solution incorporates SAP, MicrosoftProject, and Primavera P3 integration

September 20, 1999 - Welcom, a global leader in project and cost management software solutions, today announced Open Plan 2.5, the next generation of its sophisticated project management software. Available in Professional, Desktop and Enterprise editions, Open Plan 2.5 is a highly-integrated, comprehensive software system that features a new SAP interface and seamless integration with Microsoft Project 98 and Primavera P3.

"Open Plan 2.5 makes it easy for customers who are using other project management software packages to adopt Open Plan and experience the benefits of high-level management capabilities," said Tony Welsh, Welcom president and co-founder. "Now that users can integrate Open Plan with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other management packages, there's no reason for project managers not to use Open Plan with their existing system - or switch to Open Plan entirely."

Designed to make the most of ERP systems, the Open Plan 2.5 Enterprise edition delivers the ability to easily communicate with SAP R/3 v3.1 and later versions. Open Plan takes advantage of SAP's External Project Software (EPS) interface, which transfers project data-including SAP network data as well as network activity, relationship, and calendar data-between SAP and Open Plan Enterprise. As a result, SAP users can take advantage of Open Plan's powerful management features and open architecture, allowing managers to streamline processes significantly. Open Plan Enterprise is also fully integrated with Baan IV and BaanERP enterprise applications from Baan Company.

Featuring native integration with Microsoft Project 98 data, the latest release of Open Plan provides a more cohesive interface with Microsoft's current standard data formats and takes advantage of new and emerging data formats. This ability to seamlessly share information alleviates many training issues, since managers can access data and conduct high-level analysis using Open Plan's advanced project management features, while team members continue to use the familiar Microsoft Project Environment.

In addition, Open Plan 2.5 includes an improved Primavera P3 import utility which is now a standard option, eliminating the need for user customization. This user-friendly utility reads P3 Btrieve files and imports the data directly into an Open Plan project.

Other new features include an Email Advisor utility, which allows email messages to be sent automatically with predefined notification conditions and filters, and a New Project Wizard to streamline the process of creating new projects. In addition, Open Plan 2.5 includes a new license administrator tool that helps administrators track users, closely manage team members, and monitor those logged on the system. This version also features calendar and import/export improvements; increased functionality for sorts, filters, and calculated fields; OLE enhancements; a spell check utility; and support for the Visual FoxPro data and Informix formats.

Availability

Available in English, French, German, Italian, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Russian versions, Open Plan 2.5 will be released in November 1999. More information can be obtained by visiting Welcom at www.welcom.com or calling 281.558.0514.

More About Open Plan

Open Plan substantially improves a company's ability to manage and complete multiple projects on time and within budget. Unlike less sophisticated products, Open Plan is a highly integrated, comprehensive software system that can be customized to fit specific corporate requirements. Open Plan comes in three editions - Professional, Desktop, and Enterprise - to serve the different needs and responsibilities of executives, managers, other project members, and related subcontractors. The editions communicate smoothly with each other and with popular databases, making it easy to access and use information. Used by over 5,500 customers in 300 corporations worldwide, Open Plan is the most technically advanced project management system on the market.

About TimeControl

TimeControl was originally released in 1994. It was immediately successful in the project management sector and today is recognized not only as a project management solution, but also as an enterprise timesheet solution in use by companies worldwide. TimeControl is designed as a multipurpose timesheet able to serve the needs of both Finance and Project Management simultaneously. It includes features such as a multi-browser, multi-device interface, a PC and mobile interface, vacation approvals, executive dashboards, extensive approval functionality, flexible reporting and links to project management and corporate systems which makes the timesheet product ideally suited for integration with existing systems in any organization. TimeControl's flexibility allows it to be deployed for use as a time and attendance, time and billing, project tracking and flex-time system. TimeControl is available both for purchase for an on-premises installation or as an on-line subscription in the Cloud.

To access the free Hosted TimeControl Trial site, visit our free trial page.

For more information about TimeControl, monitor the TimeControl blog at http://blog.timecontrol.org/ or the TimeControl website at www.timecontrol.com.

For information about TimeControlOnline, our hosted timesheet subscription service in the cloud, go to www.timecontrol.com/features/timecontrol-online.

For any other questions, please contact HMS Software at info@hms.ca.

TimeControl is represented around the world by our distributors in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, the UK, and the U.S.

About HMS Software

Based in Montreal, Canada with offices in Toronto, HMS Software has been a leading provider of project management and enterprise timesheet systems and services since 1984. HMS Software's first customized timesheet application was written in 1984. With the launch of TimeControl as a commercial application in 1994, HMS Software began servicing clients worldwide.

HMS Software's client list reads like a who's who of business. It includes Acergy, Aecon, Rio Tinto, the Atlanta Airport, the City of Montreal, the County of San Mateo, Electromotive Diesel, EXFO, FT Services, Kelly Services, Koch, Merck Frosst, the Government of Quebec, Georgia Pacific, Parker Hannifin, Rolls Royce, Sobeys, Volvo Novabus, Zimmer Inc. and hundreds of others.

For further information about HMS Software, please visit the HMS website at: www.hms.ca or contact us at info@hms.ca.