Imperial Brands Will Upgrade to QAD Cloud ERP in 21 Facilities

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- QAD Inc. (Nasdaq:QADA) (Nasdaq:QADB), a leading provider of flexible, cloud-based enterprise software and services for global manufacturing companies, today announced that Imperial Brands PLC will implement QAD Cloud ERP in 21 of its facilities.

Headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, Imperial is the parent company of an international business specializing in tobacco and non-tobacco brands. Imperial employs approximately 30,000 people and sells a comprehensive range of cigarettes, fine cut and smokeless tobaccos, papers and cigars in 160 markets under a variety of brand names including Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West, JPS, Rizla and Golden Virginia. The e-vapor brand blu is also sold in a growing number of markets.

Imperial has been a QAD ERP customer since 1993, running QAD on-premise. There is a strong focus within Imperial on operational efficiencies and its core business. A key part of this strategy is outsourcing non-value added activities. Administering an ERP solution on-premise can be complex and time-consuming, so Imperial decided to implement QAD Cloud ERP, letting QAD handle the administration of its ERP while giving Imperial's IT team time to concentrate on strategic projects.

"We're a global business and we need a global ERP solution and all that entails," said Chris Broe, Imperial Brands CIO. "Local language support, scalability, uptime and security are all mission critical for us, as is the ability to adapt quickly to take advantage of the latest technology. QAD has served us well for a number of years and we feel confident heading to the future with QAD Cloud ERP."

Imperial plans to implement QAD Cloud ERP at 21 facilities in 18 countries. By implementing QAD Cloud ERP, Imperial will receive a number of benefits including:

• 24/7 global support staffed by QAD employees
• Guaranteed uptime of 99.5 percent on the QAD cloud
• QAD cloud data centers are SSAE 16 certified ? the highest global standard for data center security
• The ability to scale quickly, adding or reducing users as needed
• Multi-GAAP and tax regulator support for business transactions worldwide

"Moving mission-critical processes to the cloud is a smart strategic decision for global companies," said JC Walravens, vice president of QAD EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). "QAD Cloud ERP is available and supported around the world, and supports many local languages and requirements. Imperial joins a rapidly growing list of European companies that have made the move to QAD Cloud ERP to increase agility and speed, reduce risk and keep crucial business processes aligned with company strategy."

About QAD ? The Effective Enterprise

QAD Inc. (Nasdaq: QADA) (Nasdaq: QADB) is a leading provider of flexible, cloud-based enterprise software and services for global manufacturing companies. QAD Cloud ERP for manufacturing supports operational requirements in the areas of financials, customer management, supply chain, manufacturing, service and support, analytics, business process management and integration. QAD's portfolio includes related solutions for quality management software, supply chain management software, transportation management software and B2B interoperability. Since 1979, QAD solutions have enabled customers in the automotive, consumer products, food and beverage, high tech, industrial manufacturing and life sciences industries to better align operations with their strategic goals to become Effective Enterprises.

To learn more, visit www.qad.com or call +1 805-566-6000.

"QAD" is a registered trademark of QAD Inc. All other products or company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts:

QAD Inc.

Scott Matulis

Public Relations

818-451-8918

[email protected]

or

Evan Quinn

Analyst Relations

617-869-7335

[email protected]

Note to Investors: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding projections of revenue, income and loss, capital expenditures, plans and objectives of management regarding the company's business, future economic performance or any of the assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing. Forward-looking statements are based on the company's current expectations. Words such as "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "could," "will likely result," "estimates," "intends," "may," "projects," "should," "would," "might," "plan" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: risks associated with our cloud service offerings, such as defects and disruptions in our services, our ability to properly manage our cloud service offerings, our reliance on third-party hosting and other service providers, and our exposure to liability and loss from security breaches; demand for the company's products, including cloud service, licenses, services and maintenance; pressure to make concessions on our pricing and changes in our pricing models; protection of our intellectual property; dependence on third-party suppliers and other third-party relationships, such as sales, services and marketing channels; changes in our revenue, earnings, operating expenses and margins; the reliability of our financial forecasts and estimates of the costs and benefits of transactions; the ability to leverage changes in technology; defects in our software products and services; third-party opinions about the company; competition in our industry; the ability to recruit and retain key personnel; delays in sales; timely and effective integration of newly acquired businesses; economic conditions in our vertical markets and worldwide; exchange rate fluctuations; and the global political environment. For a more detailed description of the risk factors associated with the company and factors that may affect our forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and, in particular, the section entitled "Risk Factors" therein, and in other periodic reports the company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission thereafter. Management does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law.

SOURCE QAD Inc.