Timera and Breakaway International Partner to Deliver Restaurant Operations Management Solutions

Business Wire, Oct 23, 2002

Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2002

New partnership will leverage leading providers' labor scheduling and

Point-Of-Sale expertise for restaurant industry solutions

Timera, Inc., a workforce management application solutions provider for the retail market, today announced an alliance with Breakaway International, Inc. Through this alliance, Breakaway will integrate Timera's comprehensive workforce management product capabilities into its restaurant operations management applications, bringing customers savings by streamlining and automating the labor scheduling process.

Breakaway International is a leading supplier of Point-Of-Sale (POS) operational and management reporting solutions for the food service industry. More than 300 companies in 43 countries and over 3,300 locations currently use the company's software products. Breakaway has extended the capabilities of its Breakaway VISION product, a Windows(R)-based POS system, by integrating the Timera EWM(TM) Forecasting and Scheduling modules into the software.

The enhanced product capabilities resulting from this partner alliance will benefit restaurant operators plagued by the often tedious, time consuming and error ridden process of manually building work schedules to meet business and customer requirements. Customers reap additional benefits through the elimination of the costs, time and concerns associated with integration requirements for other third-party labor scheduling applications. Within one seamless POS framework, restaurant operators now have a complete system for managing POS merchandising activities, order processing, sales transactions, and optimally deploying workers for all positions and tasks based on customer traffic and business needs.

"Workforce management is becoming a very necessary and important feature in any comprehensive restaurant POS system," said Tom Patty, president of Breakaway International. "Because we can integrate Timera's tried and tested workforce management technology easily into Breakaway VISION, we can now provide our customers advanced capabilities for forecasting and scheduling labor resources."

Based on data provided by the POS system, Timera's EWM Forecasting and Scheduling modules accurately determine the jobs, tasks and workload necessary for optimally running each restaurant, then dynamically match worker status, skill sets and availability to the labor forecast to build shifts and schedule the correct workers per company-wide standards, policies and budgets, when and where they are needed most.

"The integration of our workforce management software into Breakaway's restaurant management system illustrates the flexibility we've engineered into Timera solutions," said Purna Mishra, senior vice president for Timera. "We're pleased to have earned the opportunity to provide additional value to Breakaway and their customers, and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial alliance."

The Timera and Breakaway partnership is part of the Timera Alliance Program. Through participation in the Alliance Program, partnering companies align complementary services and solutions with those of Timera to provide customers a broad array of benefits, including: advanced workforce management solutions, enhanced capabilities, increased efficiency, reduced operating costs, and greater return on their IT investment.

About Breakaway International, Inc.

Founded in 1990, Breakaway International, Inc., designs, develops, and markets innovative software to meet the specific operational and management reporting needs of the food service industry. Breakaway VISION, the company's flagship POS system, provides extensive capabilities, from order taking and store operations to management and customer marketing. Breakaway provides two additional restaurant solutions, Breakaway ProHost for table seating management, and Breakaway RSViP for reservations management. Breakaway software products are currently being used by more than 300 different companies in more than 3,300 locations in the United States and 42 other countries. More information about Breakaway can be obtained at http://www.breakawaynet.com or by calling 800-677-2986 (817-788-8888 for international).

About Timera, Inc.

For more than 14 years, Timera has been a leader in developing and integrating workforce management solutions. Through its EWM (Enterprise Workforce Management) for Retail, Timera delivers a pure web-based solution giving large retailers a complete picture of the workflow process for proactive labor management.

Timera solutions are used in a variety of markets including rail, retail, pharmacy, transit, convention centers and event venues. Timera currently serves clients across North America including SuperValu, Union Pacific Railroad, Cub Foods, Norfolk Southern Railway, H.E. Butt Grocery Company, CSX Transportation, Seattle Mariners, Terminal Railroad Association (TRRA), Golub Corporation (Price Chopper), Canadian Pacific Railway and Metro North Railroad. Timera is a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP).