Bianco Footwear invests US$91,000 with Geac

European shoe designer and retailer purchases end-to-end PLM solution to support expansion strategy

STUDLEY, UK, Oct. 17 /CNW/ - Bianco Footwear, the European designer and retailer of men's and women's shoes, has invested US$91,000 in an end-to-end Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software suite from Geac(R) (TSX: GAC, NASDAQ: GEAC) to help support its rapidly growing retail business and more effectively handle complex collections. Bianco Footwear has a three year plan to grow its number of European stores by 160%, to 300 outlets.

Bianco currently is implementing a PLM solution from RunTime, Geac's specialist division serving the apparel and footwear industry; it is expected to go live in 2005. Core to the solution is Geac's QuestACP (Advanced Collection Planning), QuestPDM (Product Data Management), Quest Workflow and Quest Integration Engine. Geac's suite of design software will integrate with Bianco's existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from Microsoft Axapta.

Thomas Schultz Petersen, International Product Manager for Bianco Footwear, said: "Our new Geac PLM software will help us particularly in our pre-production activities to generate and adhere to new footwear collections in line with precise and diverse customer needs. The process of managing collections used to be conducted 'in our heads' and supported by a manual spreadsheet system. But with every new market we enter, the complexity of collections grows exponentially. So now that we're in nine markets and we have 12 collections a year - together with a number of small express drops - we're now looking forward to visualising and automating this difficult process with QuestACP."

He continued: "This overall investment will support a critical part of our philosophy: To create a unique franchise concept within the field of fashion and shoes. Our shops are designed to be progressive and forward- thinking - from financial control to the planning of marketing activities, the management of product ranges, logistics and shop support. Our software investment is vital to this end."

Based in Kolding, Denmark, the Bianco Footwear chain was established in 1987 in Denmark. Ten years later it opened its first shop outside Denmark. In recent years it has doubled in size every three years. Now the group has 124 shops in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Poland, Russia and Germany. The company was winner of "The Franchise Company of the Year" in 2004 by Dansk Franchisegiver Forening and the Danish newspaper "Borsen".

Steen W. Poulsen, International Sales & International Business Development Manager for Geac RunTime Nordics, said:

"Currently more than 400 of the world's leading apparel and footwear companies use Geac software to manage their global operations. Footwear brand companies like Bianco have a huge need to co-ordinate their complex global design, manufacturing and supply chain operations and Geac is proving time and time again that it can deliver a compelling end-to-end solution."

About Geac

Geac (TSX: GAC, NASDAQ: GEAC) is a global enterprise software company that provides best-in-class technology products and services to help organizations do more with less in an increasingly competitive environment, amidst growing regulatory pressure, and in response to other business issues confronting the CFO. Geac RunTime, which has hundreds of customers in the fashion and apparel industry, develops and sells software for the design and pre-production phases of the manufacturing process, product data management, customer relationship management and sales force automation www.runtime.geac.com Corporate information is available at http://www.geac.com or through e-mail at info(at)geac.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements of Geac's
intentions, beliefs, expectations and predictions for the future. These
forward-looking statements often include use of the future tense with words
such as "will," "may," "intends," "anticipates," "expects" and similar
conditional or forward-looking words and phrases. These forward-looking
statements are neither promises nor guarantees. They are only predictions that
are subject to risks and uncertainties, and they may differ materially from
actual future events or results. Geac undertakes no obligation to update or
revise the information contained herein. Important factors that could cause a
material difference between these forward-looking statements and actual events
include, among other things: our ability to increase revenues from new license
sales, cross-sell into our existing customer base and reduce customer
attrition; whether we can identify and acquire synergistic businesses and, if
so, whether we can successfully integrate them into our existing operations;
whether we are able to deliver products and services within required time
frames and budgets to meet increasingly competitive customer demands and
performance guaranties; risks inherent in fluctuating international currency
exchange rates in light of our global operations and the unpredictable effect
of geopolitical world and local events; whether we are successful in our
continued efforts to manage expenses effectively and maintain profitability;
our ability to achieve revenue from products and services that are under
development; the uncertain effect of the competitive environment in which we
operate and resulting pricing pressures; and whether the anticipated effects
and results of our new product offerings and successful product implementation
will be realized. These and other potential risks and uncertainties that
relate to Geac's business and operations are summarized in more detail from
time to time in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission and with the Canadian Securities Administrators. Please refer to
Geac's most recent quarterly reports available through the website maintained
by the SEC at www.sec.gov and through the website maintained by the Canadian
Securities Administrators and the Canadian Depository for Securities Limited
at www.sedar.com for more information on risk factors that could cause actual
results to differ. Geac is a registered trademark of Geac Computer Corporation
Limited. All other marks are trademarks of their respective owners.

For further information

Media Contacts: Alex Bell, Citigate Dewe Rogerson, +44 (0)1604 232223, alexandra.bell@citigatedr.co.uk
Richard Moore, Geac, +44 (0) 1527 496189, Richard.moore@geac.com

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Source: Geac Computer Corporation Limited

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