Novell and User Solutions Announce Add-on Products to Quattro Pro

New Templates Improve Scheduling, Quality and Management

OREM, Utah --September 19, 1995 -- Novell, Inc. and User Solutions, Inc. today announced three new add-on products for Quattro Pro™ 6.02 for Windows™, Novell's award-winning spreadsheet. These products now offer scheduling, quality, and project management capabilities for PC spreadsheet users that have traditionally been available for high-end, expensive systems. The products provide QuickTemplates designed for operation managers, purchasers, schedulers, inventory managers, quality personnel and other planning professionals including CPIMs (Certified Product Inventory Managers) and APICs (Association of Production and Inventory Control Specialists).

"Improving scheduling, quality and project management capabilities is critical for planning professionals in a variety of industries," said Dorothy Wise, vice president of marketing and development for Novell's Quattro Pro. "The add-on products from User Solutions enhance the ability of Quattro Pro to address users' planning needs, making it the clear spreadsheet choice for planning professionals."

Superior Scheduling, Quality Control, and Resource Management

Spreadsheet Scheduler™ V2.0. Contains 14 templates which simplify a variety of common scheduling tasks. Templates are provided for tasks such as critical path project management (CPM), job and task sequencing, development of calendars, Gantt charting, due-date assignments, scheduling of work according to precedence relationships, and computation of lateness and other performance measures.

Spreadsheet QC™ V1.8. Contains 15 templates and an easy-to-use set of tools to help organizations improve quality control. Spreadsheet QC helps users with control charts, data analysis (Pareto, Histogram, and Scatter charts), sampling models and probability distribution analysis.

Spreadsheet Resource Manager™ V1.5. A general purpose resource manager that can support unlimited bills of resources containing material, labor and machine requirements. This program is ideal for planning and scheduling most operations because it easily integrates with accounting and sales analysis applications. The eight integrated templates help users with finite capacity planning, master item lists, production planning, scheduling and reporting, resource utilization graphs, inventory management and more.

"Presenting crucial information about operations, such as the balance of labor, material and equipment resources, has to be quick and easy for companies to effectively compete in their markets," said Jim Convis, president of User Solutions. "Our add-on products, combined with Quattro Pro's superior graphics capabilities, are the ideal tools for users to plan and execute profitable strategies."

The templates are all pre-formatted so users simply need to input data to perform a variety of selected tasks. The templates give users the flexibility to enter a simple number, an equation, link back to another spreadsheet for desired data, or even read data from another system--all from within the familiar spreadsheet environment. Users can also access the award-winning graphics and formatting capabilities of Quattro Pro to quickly create attractive presentations. In addition, all the macros used in these templates are included so users can customize the templates.

Users Can Leverage Existing Investments

The spreadsheet add-on solutions will help customers maximize their existing investment in software, hardware, and training. They are ideally suited for small operations moving from manual methods to computerization because of their low costs and ease-of-use. They are also ideally suited for large operations to complement existing systems for flexible, ad-hoc reporting.

Pricing and Availability

Spreadsheet Scheduler is available for the suggested retail price of $199 (US), Spreadsheet QC for $249 (US) and Spreadsheet Resource Manager for $949 (US). Multi-user and network versions are also available. The products are available directly from User Solutions by calling (800) 321-USER (8737) or (810) 486-6365. Quattro Pro for Windows 95, scheduled to ship later this year, will include sample files provided by User Solutions.

Founded in 1991, privately-owned User Solutions, Inc. in South Lyon, Mich. specializes in providing spreadsheet and database templates for Project Planning, Scheduling, Quality, Inventory and more to businesses worldwide.