CSRE
Wednesday February 10, 8:06 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Vista Eyecare Sees Comshare as the
Clear Choice for Financial Planning
Comshare BudgetPLUS Chosen Over Competitors for Completeness of
Solution
ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 1999--Based in Lawrenceville, Ga., Vista
Eyecare operates over 900 retail vision centers nationwide. During the last few years, the company
has pursued an aggressive growth strategy by acquiring hundreds of new units in the Midwest and
California. Vista Eyecare's managers needed to demonstrate that their strategy was sound and would
improve the company's financial position. In order to do that, the managers required timely
information to perform up-to-the-minute financial analysis, budgeting, and planning. Vista Eyecare
purchased Comshare BudgetPLUS(TM) Comshare® Inc.'s (Nasdaq:CRSE - news) planning and
budgeting application to fulfill that need.
BudgetPLUS Keeps the Vista Eyecare's Business Strategy on Track.
''It was imperative that our users have the ability to integrate the acquisitions into our financial
structure and do reporting very quickly, in a timely, effective manner,'' says Karla Lowry, Vista
Eyecare's database administrator. ''We needed the information so our shareholders and investment
analysts could clearly recognize the value these acquisitions were bringing to our company.''
Gathering and analyzing such information was very difficult before Vista Eyecare implemented
Comshare BudgetPLUS. Consolidating and integrating the volume of financial data the company
generated was beyond the capabilities of common spreadsheet programs. ''Our budgeting process
had become very cumbersome and time-consuming,'' explains Lowry. ''When financial users wanted
to change entries, they had no way to save the budget iterations. That caused much confusion. Our
users needed a system that could help us develop budgets for all our current units and for our
acquisitions more efficiently and effectively.''
BudgetPLUS Delivers True Analytic Support to Decision-Makers.
Comshare BudgetPLUS was exactly the budgeting system Vista Eyecare sought. The company's
financial planners now have the ability to create and retain several different versions of their budgets
at the same time. Managers have timely access to critical information directly on their desktops,
allowing them to react to market changes quickly. Moreover, Comshare BudgetPLUS enables Vista
Eyecare managers to do ''what-if'' analyses. ''The 'what-if' capability of Comshare software was
one of the main reasons we selected it,'' says Lowry. ''For a company in an active acquisition mode,
it is important for our users to be able to ask 'What would happen if we bought this company or we
changed our product pricing?' We always want to maximize our profits while making sure we are
taking full advantage of positive market trends. Without 'what-if' analysis, we really couldn't do that.''
Application Plans include Companywide Performance Measurement.
As with most Comshare customers, Vista Eyecare has plans to expand upon their use of Comshare's
products. ''Comshare is our financial analytical system for the present and the future,'' Lowry says.
In addition to Comshare BudgetPLUS, Vista Eyecare has purchased Comshare Decision(TM), an
open analytic application building environment for custom financial analytic applications.
''We will use Comshare to ensure that our budgeting and other financial planning processes are
properly aligned and moving in the right direction,'' continues Lowry. ''Our long-range plan is to
provide more analytic support to our financial analysts whose jobs will be made much easier once
this dynamic analytic application is in place.
Ultimately, Vista Eyecare's goal is simple: improve the bottom line. ''The optical industry is highly
competitive,'' says Lowry. ''Comshare will allow Vista Eyecare to react to sales trends quickly and
be able to answer the kinds of financial questions that will help our management team set goals and
directions that will maximize our profits.''
About Vista Eyecare, Inc.
Vista Eyecare, Inc. is the nation's second largest optical company in terms of locations, and third in
terms of (pro forma) revenues. The company operates a total of 919 retail optical units. The
company's retail operations offer a full line of optical goods including spectacles, contact lenses,
prescription and non-prescription sunglasses and a full line of optical accessories. In addition,
independent Doctors of Optometry are available within the store locations.
About Comshare, Inc.
Comshare is a leading provider of financial analytic applications for management planning and
control. Comshare solutions include financial consolidation and reporting, enterprise budgeting, and
an open building environment for financial analytic applications. Comshare is one of the top
independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500
and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider. For
more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, e-mail info@comshare.com, or visit
Comshare's Web site at comshare.com.
Comshare is a registered trademark; Comshare BudgetPLUS and Comshare Decision are
trademarks of Comshare, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
Contact:
Comshare, Inc.
Sandy Ellinger, 734/769-6194
sellinger@comshare.com
comshare.com
or
Eiler Communications
Erika Hoeft, 734/761-3399
erika@eilerpr.com
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