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Standex International Manages Growth in Diverse Product Lines With Geac(R) Performance Management Software

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

ATLANTA, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Geac(R) (TSX: GAC), a global enterprise software company for Business Performance Management, announced today that Standex International Corp. , a diversified, global manufacturer and marketer of industrial, food service, and consumer products and services, will leverage its existing investment in the Microsoft business intelligence (BI) platform with Geac Performance Management software. Standex will implement the application to strengthen financial controls, increase accountability, and improve its budgeting, financial consolidation, and reporting processes.

Standex companies market more than 48,000 products in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico and China. Standex International has worked with a diverse array of products since its founding almost 50 years ago. Providing value-added engineered products and customer solutions have emerged in recent years as core competencies that have driven Standex's greatest successes. The company's new Focused Diversity growth strategy aims at leveraging these competencies internally and through complementary acquisitions.

Standex purchased Geac Performance Management (formerly Comshare MPC(TM)) from Comshare, Inc. prior to Geac's acquisition of Comshare.

Standex has long been associated with the Comshare family of products. Prior to deploying Geac Performance Management, Standex used Comshare System W in combination with Excel for its financial consolidation and reporting, and watched the evolution of technology and Geac's integrated Business Performance Management application during that time. When Standex decided to upgrade its performance management capabilities, the company turned to a trusted partner.

"We have had a long-standing relationship with Comshare," said Don DeSantis, Manager of Business Systems, Standex International Corp. "Although we reviewed several products to move us to a new level of business performance management, none were as flexible, easy to use, and integrated for our needs as the Geac offering. Another important benefit to us is that Geac Performance Management meets our CIO's requirement of working with Microsoft SQL server and the Microsoft BI platform, thereby capitalizing on our investment in that technology base."

Early on in the development of the Geac Performance Management software, Microsoft technology was adopted because it afforded many benefits to the customer: Excel functionality to increase the productivity of financial users; .NET architecture to deliver timely information over the Internet and across the enterprise; the Pocket PC platform to meet the needs of mobile users; and Microsoft Analysis Services as a calculation engine for optimum scalability and processing performance. The strategic alliance between Microsoft and Geac allows the two companies to work together to mutually support marketing programs and the sale of their solutions to customers. Geac's status as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner ensures that customers like Standex benefit from the technical support, advanced functionality, and latest developments that can help give their organizations an edge in the marketplace.

Geac Performance Management provides a single, centralized application that integrates seamlessly not only with Standex's Microsoft infrastructure, but with its general ledger and enterprise resource planning systems as well. The company will use the application to handle its budgeting and financial consolidation needs, as well as its statutory, variance, and management reporting requirements. And because the application is web-based and automated, administration and maintenance of the system will be reduced while the ultimate goal - to gain better financial controls and accountability - will be achieved.

"It's my challenge to continually improve how we use our financial information systems," said DeSantis. "With Geac Performance Management, we are taking the next logical step to remain agile by providing more and better ways to manage our business while the company grows and prospers."

About Standex International Corporation

Standex International Corporation, based in Salem, New Hampshire, is a global, multi-industry manufacturer whose industrial, food service, and consumer products are marketed throughout the world. For more information, go to http://www.standex.com/.

About Geac

Geac (TSX: GAC) is a global enterprise software company for Business Performance Management, providing customers worldwide with the core financial and operational solutions and services to improve their business performance in real time. Further information is available at http://www.comshare.geac.com/ or through e-mail at info@comshare.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Important factors that could cause a material difference between these forward-looking statements and actual events include those set forth under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in Geac's Management Discussion and Analysis for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2003 contained in its Report of Foreign Issuer on Form 6-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on July 2, 2003, copies of which are available through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov/, and in Geac's Management Discussion and Analysis for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2003 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators on June 25, 2003 and available through the website maintained by the Canadian Depository for Securities Limited at http://www.sedar.com/. Geac is a registered trademark of Geac Computer Corporation Limited. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners.

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