December 20, 2002

i4cast Announces Formal Launch of it’s Total Cost Management Suite for

the Enterprise Financial Supply Chain

Product suite to revolutionize cost management and enhance product profitability

 Houston, Texas - i4cast™, a leading provider of Total Cost Management solutions, announced the official launch and branding of its cost management suite, the i4cast Total Cost Management Suite.  The company was formed in January 2002 as a joint venture between Hewlett Packard and Alliance Data Corporation to continue to develop, market and sell an enterprise-wide financial supply chain application. With the recent release of version 4.3, i4cast brings a Total Cost Management view to the marketplace incorporating both indirect and direct cost types as well as improved business processes.

The i4cast Total Cost Management Suite is comprised of three complimentary solutions. iCost™ is a web-based central management console for all direct and indirect costs.  iCost provides comprehensive product costing, financial modeling, forward costing and target costing capabilities.  xCost™ is a web-based eManufacturing collaboration application designed for BOM collaboration and Co-Sourcing visibility to clients’ outsourced manufacturing environments.  iCM™ is a web-based contract and commodity cost management application enabling contract compliance, commodity cost forecasting and buyer performance.  

 The i4cast product portfolio provides a centralized global decision support tool for cost optimization within an entire enterprise.  It enhances the visibility and control of enterprise cost data from customers, OEM’s, partners and suppliers to all affected global business units.  The suite of products allows for flexible adaptation of costing structures, including standard costing, just-in-time costing, activity-based costing, target costing or a blended costing model.  Improved time to market and increased product profitability are enabled through in depth and granular views of real-time costing data including materials, logistics, labor & overhead, warranty, royalty as well as any other costs that drive revenues and lower product cost.  Extensive “What if” modeling, variance reporting and impact analysis capabilities combined with integration into many enterprise resource planning and supply chain management systems allow organizations to leverage their existing investments with enhanced capabilities.

i4cast is focused on enhancing the value of the enterprise-wide financial supply within the discrete manufacturing industry.  i4cast helps customers identify business process improvements, cost savings and improve product profitability, which benefit the business, customers and shareholders alike.   

 About i4cast

i4cast™ is a leading Total Cost Management solution focused on delivering real-time, accurate cost for the enterprise-wide supply chain.  i4cast™ has developed an Internet based Total Cost Management solution encompassing product costing, financial modeling, contract management and activity based costing. i4cast™ decision support tools allow clients to have the very best costing information to build and manage greater product profitability, reduce cost of goods sold, enhance costing collaboration and improve time to market capabilities.

For more information on i4cast, please contact us at 281-397-7029 or visit our website at www.i4cast.com.