"Building materials retailers will be able to provide a new level of interaction with their customers by providing them with automated price information, and the ability to order materials after-hours," said Russell Santoro, vice president of marketing at Add-Vantage Software. "Getting prices has historically been difficult for contractors, who often estimate in the evening. Now they can get the information they need from their favorite supplier and insert it automatically into estimates at any time, day or night. Using this system the contractor gets the benefit of up-to-date prices to complete the estimate, and the ability to order materials without delay. The lumberyard will benefit because contractors who depend on their price data to estimate faster will become loyal customers. These contractors will be more satisfied customers because they've saved the time, money, and the aggravation of telephone tag and morning ordering at the counter. Both lumberyards and contractors win because the increased timeliness, accuracy and professional appearance of the automated estimates leads to more bids won by the contractor and therefore more materials needed."

The Estimator's Add-Vantage System is a template-based estimating program that combines an enhanced version of the critically acclaimed Estimator's Add-Vantage estimating software with an online contractor resource center and a product price database. Templates for all major types of residential construction projects speed the estimating process, allowing the contractor to respond more quickly, more accurately and more professionally to requests for proposals. The product price database can be updated with information from the contractor's local lumberyard using Add-Vantage's Lumberyard Database Toolkit, allowing lumberyards to participate in streamlining the time consuming estimating process for their customers, and to receive orders from the programs estimate stock list via fax or email. The Contractor Resource Center will contain a Building Products Database with the first of its kind system for organizing, finding and retrieving relevant product information for contractors and the construction process.

Available for Windows(R) 95, 98 and NT, Estimator's Add-Vantage System Lumberyard Database Toolkit provides a simple and straightforward way for building materials retailers to become a part of their customers' estimating workflow. The system allows lumberyard users to:

• Create, edit and save price information for a variety of commonly used building materials with a simple, familiar, easy to use interface.
• Create disks to give to contractor customers that will automatically update the contractor's price database with your prices for key items saving them time, and place the lumberyard's name at the top of the contractor's faxable stock list.
• Search, sort, filter and print records for easy updating of stock prices.
• Create a "Specials" advertising page with information about monthly specials. This page will be accessible to contractors at a click of a button, right from within the Estimator's Add-Vantage System.
• Take a proactive step towards helping customers improve their businesses; making them better, more profitable customers for the lumberyard.
• Increase the completeness of orders received. The automatic stock lists will be more complete than ad hoc stock lists placed at the counter, so lumberyards will lose less sales to competitors whose location may be more convenient for "forgotten" items.

The Lumberyard Database Toolkit will include the software for creating "plug-in" price diskettes for EAS users, 20 CD-ROM copies of the Estimator's Add-Vantage System for key customers and related promotional materials. The  Lumberyard Database Toolkit will be available at an introductory price of  $395 per lumberyard.

With Estimator's Add-Vantage System, even novice computer users will be able to estimate in less than an hour, and will have simplified access to a variety of valuable construction related resources on the Internet. Customers are invited to reserve a copy of the program now at www.addvantage.com or at www.contractorfind.com. The program will be available for download in September 1999.

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Add-Vantage Software Inc. is an innovative provider of software to enable people and companies to exchange information and conduct commerce over the Internet. Founded in May 1994, Add-Vantage Software Inc. is a privately held company based in Medway, Massachusetts.

Add-Vantage Software Inc., the Add-Vantage Software logo, Estimator's Add-Vantage, Estimator's Add-Vantage System, and EAS are trademarks of Add-Vantage Software Inc. All other product names are trademarks of their respective companies.