Geac Wins C$2.1 Million Supply Chain Integration Contract With Fuji Xerox Australia

Business Wire, Nov 18, 2002

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

SYDNEY, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2002

Integration project set to enhance forecasting, stock

utilisation and standardise processes throughout Asia-Pacific

Geac Enterprise Solutions, a division of Geac Computer Corporation Limited (TSX:GAC), has won an integration services contract from Fuji Xerox Australia worth A$1.2M (C$1.0M), together with A$1.3M (C$1.1M ) for the associated hardware upgrade to support a new supply chain initiative across Asia-Pacific. The integration project, which is scheduled to go live in the first calendar quarter of 2003, will provide full visibility of stock held in the company's multiple operations throughout Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. This will help enhance forecasting, stock utilisation and standardise processes across the Asia-Pacific region.

A team of Geac consultants will integrate Fuji Xerox's Sydney-based operations, where there is a distribution hub supported by Geac System21, with the Oracle-based supply chain management system used by the parent company in Singapore. In Sydney there are over 900 users with access to System21 enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which is used for managing its distribution, manufacturing and service management operations.

"The supply chain integration project will effectively provide us with an Asia-Pacific view of our business, instead of trying to balance local demand and supply. Having access to a larger supply chain, by linking systems together, will vastly enhance stock visibility. This in turn will enable stock movement planning between hubs rather than ad-hoc ordering. By early next year we'll have a fully automated system which will eliminate any non value-added components and tasks, improve our asset management and process productivity," said Rohan Higgins, Australia and New Zealand Hub Project Manager, Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd.

"Fuji Xerox Australia has been using System21 for over three years and during this time we've worked closely with them to streamline and wherever possible automate our key business processes. Projects have included the linking of over 450 service engineers to System21, the development of equipment meter-billing processes, and the integration of CRM, dealer-management and other service solutions to the core System21 product offering," said Dominic O'Hanlon, Geac General Manager ERP Australia. "Our latest challenge is to build upon the solid foundation we have in Australia and extend key functionality throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. This project is a clear demonstration of our commitment to provide open, flexible business solutions that deliver maximum return on investment for our customers. The project will not only draw upon the key technical benefits of System21, but will benefit from having a team of highly-skilled and dedicated people from both Geac and from Fuji Xerox."

Geac and Fuji Xerox worked closely together to install this application and hardware solution resulting in a hardware upgrade to an IBM(R) iSeries(tm) 820, in order to help increase user performance and to offer extra transaction processing power. The new server also provides dynamic logical partitioning (LPAR) technology and has the capacity to accommodate the existing operations' requirements as well as incremental business growth and potential future projects. Furthermore LPAR will enable Fuji Xerox to divide up the processing power of the server to provide managed availability, whereby one partition can be used as a back-up and brought on-line if the other fails, or is down for scheduled maintenance.

"Having attended a recent Geac customer conference I was impressed at the level of R&D being invested into System21 by Geac. The current release and the launch next year of the latest development, code-name 'Aurora', will deliver business and process improvements for organisations through the use of its web enabled applications. Over the next few months we will undertake a feasibility study to determine the benefits of upgrading to this release in the future," said Alex Pantazis, Information Services Manager, Business Services, Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Limited.

About Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Limited

With over 50 per cent market share in the critical digital and colour markets, more than 12 billion pages are produced on Xerox technology in Australia annually. The company markets the broadest range of electronic printers, digital production publishers, copiers, facsimile products and scanners in the industry. Its range now includes everything from a $500 multi-function office printer/fax/scanner to a $1 million digital colour press. It also sells software in areas including optical character recognition, document management, web viewing and one to one marketing. Its specialist staff tailor solutions to suit a range of industries, including Graphic Arts, Government, Financial Services, Professional Services and Education.

About Geac Enterprise Solutions - Asia-Pacific:

Geac Enterprise Solutions offers a wide variety of feature-rich, Web-enabled ERP software applications that allow users to not only maximize their existing technologies but to also take advantage of today's e-business opportunities. The Company's client/server (SmartStream(R)), S/390 (E Series and M series) and AS/400 (System21 and GeacStyle) product suites, along with our specialized Local Government product Pathway, are quick to implement with a depth of functionality that is unmatched within the industry. With almost 40 years of experience as a software developer, Geac Enterprise Solutions product suites enable organizations within key vertical markets to streamline business processes throughout their enterprises, and across multiple platforms. More importantly, Geac adds value to its core software applications by surrounding them with complementary solutions and people who understand the industry - both its business-critical and e-commerce requirements. Operating in Asia Pacific since 1978, Geac has offices in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and Thailand. Further information is available at www.geac.com/asiapacific