Creative Media Group Bundles Internet and Franchising Expertise, Bringing Intranet Solution to Franchisors

Tucson, Arizona (February 15, 2000) – Creative Media Group, Inc. (CMG), a wholly owned subsidiary of AlphaGraphics, Inc., announced that it has begun offering a cross-platform Intranet solution to franchisors who need to provide customized support and training to multiple franchise locations. Creative Media Group, an Internet consulting firm, will be demonstrating its Intranet product at the International Franchise Association conference on February 18-23 in San Diego.

An Intranet offers a single place for franchisees and employees to access technical support, interactive training, and a suite of application tools, to more efficiently operate a franchise organization. The franchisor can further utilize the Intranet to electronically collect financial reports from franchise locations, conduct online surveys, distribute company news, recruit employees, and provide centralized e-commerce capabilities for online ordering.

"We have created an interactive Intranet application that is tailored to the franchising industry. It eliminates costs that are associated with supporting multiple franchise operations especially printing, shipping and communications costs," said Robert Stoeber, president of Creative Media Group. "Sharing tools that utilize existing information in databases and other applications allows a franchisor to leverage the vast knowledge and best practices that are inherent throughout their franchise organization."

Stoeber commented, "The combination of AlphaGraphics' franchising and printing expertise and CMG's experience with Internet technology and e-commerce makes this service unique to franchisors. Many companies have the ability to design Web sites, but they lack the experience in building a franchise business model that integrates the complex logistics that a franchisor needs to support multiple locations and deploy key business applications."