Avantos Ships Review Writer 2.0 For Windows, New Version of Award-Winning
Performance Appraisal Software

New version delivers highly requested networking and transfer features and
greater appraisal form design capability.

April 18, 1995 -- EMERYVILLE, CA--Avantos Performance Systems, The
Management Software Company, today announced the shipment of Review Writer
2.0 for Windows. Review Writer is a content-intensive software program
that provides managers and HR departments with a quicker, easier way to
write high quality performance appraisals. Review Writer 1.0 shipped in
July, 1994. This latest version of Review Writer allows managers to use
this award-winning program over a network. It also provides an easy way to
transfer data for use away from the office computer, greater appraisal
form design features, and more.

"We want to show our customers that we're very responsive to their needs.
So we took some of the most requested features from our customer research
and quickly integrated them into this release," said Norm Wu, President
and CEO of Avantos. "Even though a second upgrade is planned for later
this year, we decided to quickly and inexpensively provide customers the
opportunity to utilize some new functionality."

Wu also discussed the company' s new Corporate and Government Solutions
Group (CGS Group). "We recently formed the CGS Group to help our customers
make company-wide implementation of Avantos products easy and effective."
said Wu. "Bringing together expertise in implementation, technical
support, consulting, and training, the CGS Group represents our strong
commitment to providing complete solutions for our corporate and
government accounts."

As pioneers in the emerging "MBA-ware" software category, Avantos products
(Review Writer and ManagePro, Avantos' flagship product that helps manage
goals and people) provide a complete solution for goal and performance
management. ManagePro enables business managers and work teams to easily
set goals and deadlines, organize work and manage people more effectively
throughout the year. Review Writer then imports all relevant employee data
from ManagePro and incorporates it into the appraisal. Or, users can enter
performance notes directly into the Performance Log throughout the year,
so Review Writer works equally well on a stand-alone basis.

Key new features in Review Writer 2.0:

* Review Writer is now networkable. It can be installed on the network for
convenience and ease in installation, maintenance, and upgrading. The
executable resides on the network and each manager's database of reviews
resides on his or her own machine. The manager's database is password
protected and encrypted.

* The Transfer Utility, an easy new menu option, allows managers to
transfer work between office and home or laptop machines. "Many managers
like to work on performance reviews away from their desks, where it is
more private," said Norm Wu. "We make this very easy in 2.0." All data
(employees, reviews, and performance data) is transferred, so that
managers won't suffer by working away from the machine where Review Writer
is installed. This was the most requested feature from Review Writer
customers.

* New form design features make it easier for users to match company forms.
Managers or Human Resource departments can now add borders around sections
of the review document. The borders option is in the format dialog, so
each style may have them. Managers can also add bitmaps of company or
project logos to the review document, which improves its appearance and
helps in matching company standards.

* Greater report-customization features answer needs of many Review Writer
customers. These include the ability to: customize reviewer titles, save
default layouts, hide/show all employee fields in the review, and delete
and re-name templates and categories.

* Avantos also incorporates features that enhance Review Writer's
usability. These include enhancements to language and features that were
confusing to some people. Avantos commissioned several usability tests
through third-party firms to obtain valuable unbiased feedback on Review
Writer's ease of use. Many of their findings were incorporated into Review
Writer 2.0.

Avantos products are used by over 90,000 managers in both large
organizations and small independent businesses. The success of ManagePro
and Review Writer and Avantos' involvement have also helped establish The
Management Software Association (TMSA) in Brookline, MA. TMSA's mandate is
to make the MBA-ware category as broadly identifiable as word processors
and electronic spreadsheets, offering an extensive range of products which
provide expert business advice for managers at all levels.

Pricing, Availability and Services

Review Writer 2.0 is available immediately. It has a suggested retail price
of $129 and an approximate street price of $99. Registered users of Review
Writer 1.0 will be able to upgrade directly from Avantos for $29.95. In
addition to providing training and implementation services, the CGS Group
can customize Review Writer content and format for specific needs.
Interested companies should call Avantos for volume pricing and CGS
services.

System Requirements

Review Writer 2.0 for Windows requires Windows 3.1 or later, a 386SX
IBM-compatible PC with at least 4MB of RAM and at least 9 MB of free hard
disk space, a VGA monitor, and a mouse.

Avantos Performance Systems was founded in early 1991 by Norman Wu,
President and CEO, and Gerald Huff, Vice President of Product Development.
The venture capital backed company's charter is to develop and publish
software tools for management excellence. In addition to Review Writer,
Avantos offers ManagePro - an award winning software tool designed to help
managers meet goals, manage people, save time and succeed. Avantos is
based in Emeryville, CA. Sales inquiries should be directed to: Avantos
Performance Systems, Inc., 5900 Hollis Street, Suite A, Emeryville, CA,
94608; 1-800AVANTOS (1-800-282-6867) or 510/654-4600; fax 510/654-1725.

 ============================================================
 From the  'New Product News'  Electronic News Service on....
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) & Delphi (GO COMPUTING PRODUCT)
 ============================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the 
 company or author mentioned. For additional details, please 
 contact them directly at the address/phone number indicated.
 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 ============================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  U.S.A.
 Email: RBakerPC (AOL/Delphi), rbakerpc@delphi.com (Internet)
 ============================================================
