June 9, 2003

i4cast Announces New Partnership With

Focused Management, Inc.

Partnership will bring additional focus to cost management

 Houston, Texas, June 9, 2003 – i4cast™, the leader in Total Cost Management software providing product costing, financial modeling, contract management and supplier cost forecasting & collaboration has partnered with Focused Management, Inc. (FMI), a pioneer in activity based costing and performance measurement training, facilitation and consulting. The partnership with Focused Management brings added focus to cost management for i4cast™.

Focused Management will interoperate with i4cast's ™ product suite to enhance and extend its customers' support infrastructures.  This partnership allows customers the unique capability to access leading cost analytics in a dynamic fashion to answer serious cost and profitability questions.  Through an unprecedented blend of industry-leading expertise and state-of-the-art technology, this partnership will enable i4cast™ customers to gain complete control of their financial supply chain.

Clients stand to gain in several ways from this partnership.  First, it will enable clients to experience identifiable bottom-line impact by managing supplier costs and gaining visibility into the deepest levels of cost information.  Also, in the area of profitability modeling, clients will be able to measure true customer and product profitability.  They can validate strategy by focusing on the right customers, products or mix of both.  Overall, this partnership will bring leading edge practices to Corporate Performance Financial Management.

Paul Sharman, President of Focused Management explains, “i4cast™ provides state-of-the-art cost modeling and was formed from its ability to assist the needs of HP, one of the world’s most sophisticated companies.  Focused Management brings into the relationship the ability to support implementation with such sophisticated clients.” 

i4cast’s partnership with a company of such caliber displays i4cast’s™ commitment to drive their tradition of excellence and growth. Chris Kelso, VP of Marketing and Sales for i4cast explains, “The experience in cost management that Focused Management brings to this relationship will allow us to collaborate on best practices and continue to provide excellence in both our software and cost management strategy implementation.”

About i4cast

i4cast™ is a leading Total Cost Management solution focused on delivering real-time, accurate cost for the enterprise-wide supply chain. The company was formed in January 2002 as a joint venture between Hewlett-Packard and Alliance Data Corporation.  i4cast™ has developed an Internet-based Total Cost Management solution encompassing product costing, financial modeling, contract & commodity cost management and supplier cost forecasting and collaboration.  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.

 About Focused Management, Inc.

Focused Management, Inc. (www.FocusedManagement.com) is one of the pioneers in activity based costing and performance measurement training, facilitation and consulting.  Staffed by a group of specialists, its primary interests lie in helping clients develop cost management and performance measurement solutions, in order to drive productivity.  Focused Management was founded in 1988, at a time when ABC was in its infancy.  Working with the leading academics, Focused Management developed practical implementation approaches that have consequently been applied in hundreds of organizations.