Craft Brew Alliance, PartyLite and Sonoco Receive the 2013 Manufacturing Leadership 100 Award from Manufacturing Executive

Leading Global Manufacturers Recognized for their Supply Chain Innovation

ATLANTA — June 13, 2013 — Logility Inc., a leading supplier of collaborative solutions to optimize the supply chain, congratulates Craft Brew Alliance, PartyLite and Sonoco on being named recipients of Manufacturing Executive’s 2013 Manufacturing Leadership 100 Award. Craft Brew Alliance and PartyLite’s winning projects in the Global Value Chain category highlight each company’s successful programs to optimize their supply chains through the use of Logility Voyager Solutions™. Sonoco was recognized in the Operational Excellence category for its use of Voyager Solutions to improve its production, supply, demand, and S&OP processes to reduce costs and enhance agility.

The Manufacturing Leadership 100 Awards (ML100), presented by Manufacturing Executive and in their ninth year, honor manufacturing companies and individual manufacturing leaders who help shape the future of global manufacturing. The ML100 judges evaluated nominations on the following four criteria: process impact, business impact, strategic impact, and use of technology. In addition, the judges based their selection on projects which have helped set each company apart from the competition, delivered a clear and compelling return on investment, and have rethought and reengineered how they source, produce, and deliver products to customers in dynamic global markets.

Craft Brew Alliance, one of America’s oldest craft breweries, had achieved tremendous growth through organic initiatives as well as mergers and acquisitions. This brought great complexity to the company’s supply chain and the award–winning brewing company was hampered by a lack of visibility into forecasts, capacity, inventory, and transportation. This drove costs up at a time when it was critical to keep costs low to support its growth goals. Craft Brew Alliance embarked on a holistic approach to the issues at hand and launched a broad spectrum supply chain transformation initiative. The company turned to Logility and during a period of 12 percent growth, Craft Brew Alliance improved customer service 10 percentage points, was able to remove 12 regional distribution centers as it moved to a direct–ship model, and avoided a 20 percent increase in freight spend associated with the move to direct–ship.

PartyLite, a global manufacturer and distributor of candles and home accessories utilizing a network of more than 48,000 consultants, set out on a supply chain initiative to transform its technology and processes with the goals to generate a worldwide demand plan that could be reconciled against a country market forecast/financial plan, support dramatically lower supply chain working capital and inventory expense, and obtain a less than one year return on investment. The highly promotion driven business selected Logility Voyager Solutions and realized this goal in under eight months while reducing air freight 30 percent, increasing active inventory turns more than 90 percent, and realizing a 47 percent reduction in excess and obsolete inventory.

Sonoco, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial and consumer packaging used by the food, consumer products, construction, and automotive industries, was recognized for its efforts to dramatically improve the company’s sales and operations planning (S&OP) process. Sonoco realized it needed better support for its S&OP process and selected Logility Voyager Solutions as the backbone. Following a short three month implementation, the company immediately began to realize significant benefits including a 90 percent reduction in the effort required to support its S&OP process. Sonoco also created a rough cut capacity plan for production analysis, reduced its forecast error rate by 50 percent, and increased its ability to drill up and down across three internal and multiple external demand streams.

“The supply chain is increasingly becoming a competitive differentiator for leading companies around the world,” said Mike Edenfield, president and CEO, Logility. “Craft Brew Alliance, PartyLite and Sonoco highlight the impact the supply chain can have on a company’s success. All of us at Logility congratulate each of these supply chain teams for their innovative thinking and we are proud to be a part of this success.”

Recognized industry–wide for its rapid implementation, quick ROI, ease–of–use, and ability to solve complex problems, Logility Voyager Solutions is a comprehensive supply chain solution suite which features performance monitoring capabilities to increase supply chain visibility and boost performance in key areas including demand, inventory and replenishment planning, sales and operations planning (S&OP), manufacturing planning and scheduling, supply and inventory optimization, transportation planning and management, and warehouse management.

About Manufacturing Leadership Awards

The ML100 Awards honor companies and individuals that are shaping the future of global manufacturing. Award nominees describe their breakthrough projects using the nomination form. Nominations for breakthrough projects are entered into specific categories and evaluated by a panel of expert judges. Seven of the ML100 categories are for outstanding projects undertaken and completed by a manufacturing company. Four of the categories recognize the achievements of individual manufacturing executives. For more information, go to https://www.ml100awards.com.

About the Manufacturing Leadership Council

The Manufacturing Leadership Council, Frost & Sullivan, is the world’s first member–driven, global business leadership network dedicated to senior executives in the manufacturing industry. The Manufacturing Leadership Council’s mission is to help senior executives define and shape a better future for themselves, their organizations, and the industry at large. The Council produces an extensive portfolio of leadership networking, information and professional development products, programs, and services –– including the Manufacturing Executive Website and an online global business network with 5,300 members around the world.  For more information, please visit www.MLCouncil.com

About Logility
With more than 1,250 customers worldwide, Logility is a leading provider of collaborative, best–of–breed supply chain solutions that help small, medium, large and Fortune 1000 companies realize substantial bottom–line results in record time. Logility Voyager Solutions is a complete supply chain management solution that features a performance monitoring architecture and provides supply chain visibility; demand, inventory and replenishment planning; Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP); supply and inventory optimization; manufacturing planning and scheduling; transportation planning and management; and warehouse management. Logility customers include Fender Musical Instruments, Hewlett–Packard, Parker Hannifin, Sigma–Aldrich, Verizon Wireless, and VF Corporation. Logility is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMSWA). For more information about Logility, call 800–762–5207 USA or visit https://logilityinc.wpengine.com.

Forward–Looking Statements

This press release contains forward–looking statements that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by statements made herein. These factors include, but are not limited to, continuing U.S. and global economic uncertainty, the timing and degree of business recovery, unpredictability and the irregular pattern of future revenues, dependence on particular market segments or customers, competitive pressures, delays, product liability and warranty claims and other risks associated with new product development, undetected software errors, market acceptance of Logility’s products, technological complexity, the challenges and risks associated with integration of acquired product lines, companies and services, as well as a number of other risk factors that could affect the Company’s future performance. For further information about risks the Company and American Software could experience as well as other information, please refer to American Software, Inc’s. current Form 10–K and other reports and documents subsequently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  For more information, contact:  Vincent C. Klinges, Chief Financial Officer, American Software, Inc., (404) 264–5477 or fax:  (404) 237–8868.

Logility is a registered trademark and Logility Voyager Solutions is a trademark of Logility, Inc. Other products mentioned in this document are registered, trademarked or service marked by their respective owners.

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