Datastream Extends Enterprise Asset Management with Asset Performance Management Strategy

CHICAGO (from booth #1232 at National Manufacturing Week) – Mar. 3, 2003 – Datastream Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTM) today announced its Asset Performance Management strategy at National Manufacturing Week. Building on Datastream’s core competency in enterprise asset management (EAM), this strategy is based on a foundation of asset transaction and operations data, best practices and key performance indicators, and advanced user-defined analytics.

In the coming months Datastream will announce product enhancements to its flagship EAM solution, Datastream 7i, that deliver new capabilities for forecasting and modeling “what if” scenarios, so customers can take action to optimize asset performance and make better forward-looking business decisions.

With these enhancements, enterprises will be able to extract asset history information to develop projections on equipment uptime and maintenance costs. This information can be used for strategic business planning and for taking corrective action. Customers can compare costs and performance across multiple plants and identify specific asset anomalies within single plants that are impairing performance. And they can develop key performance indicators to give executives “at a glance” information on asset performance.

Datastream 7i customers accumulate enormous amounts of cross-enterprise asset data through their daily maintenance and management routines. By extending EAM to include Asset Performance Management, customers can use asset analytics to derive a wealth of strategic business information from the Datastream 7i solution.

“Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation has used Datastream 7i to consolidate inter-mill business processes and share information, thus promoting greater efficiency across our sites,” said Rod Jackson, director of information technology for the Consumer Packaging Division at Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation. “We are excited about Datastream’s Asset Performance Management strategy, because it means we can do more with our large volume of asset data. We can identify trends and irregularities and develop forecasts to drive our business decisions. Datastream’s Asset Performance Management strategy extends the value of Datastream 7i so it becomes a truly strategic enterprise performance management tool, as well as a powerful EAM solution.”

“We have heard our customers loud and clear: they don’t want to just ‘count’ their assets; they want to use their asset data in new ways so they can make accurate forecasts that drive better business decisions,” said Datastream President and CEO Larry Blackwell. “Datastream’s Asset Performance Management strategy is a company-wide commitment to provide our customers with the technology and services they need to gain true business insight from their EAM operations, so they can make sound forward-looking decisions that optimize performance across the enterprise.”

About Datastream Systems, Inc.
Datastream Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTM) provides Asset Performance Management software and services to enterprises worldwide, including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500. Datastream’s solutions combine world-class asset management functionality with advanced analytics to deliver a powerful platform for optimizing enterprise asset performance.

By using Datastream’s solutions, customers can maintain and manage capital assets – such as manufacturing equipment, vehicle fleets and buildings – and create analyses and forecasts so they can take action to improve future performance. Datastream’s flagship product, Datastream 7i, delivers a complete Asset Performance Management infrastructure by combining an Internet architecture with broad enterprise asset management functionality, integrated procurement, advanced analytics and multi-site capability.

Datastream was founded in 1986 and has customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, visit www.datastream.net.