Press Releases

CompUSA Selects Creative Channel Services to Provide Nationwide Product Training Certification

15,000 Retail Team Members Will Receive Online Product
and Sales Training

DALLAS, TX – March 17, 1999 – CompUSA Inc. (NYSE: CPU), America's Largest Computer Superstore® retailer, today announced that it has selected Creative Channel Services (CCS) to create and develop online product and sales training and certification for CompUSA's 15,000 retail Team Members. Scheduled to launch this month, CompUSA's Team Training site is being developed by CCS, producer of CyberSmart® and CyberScholar®, the leading product training programs for the retail computer products industry, and will include proprietary training and certification modules specifically developed for CompUSA.

CCS' CyberScholar training program (www.cyberscholar.com) offers a broad variety of vendor-sponsored product information and sales training from leading manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Canon, Symantec and Western Digital. In addition, CompUSA's exclusive Team Training site, accessed through a proprietary section of CyberScholar, will enable CompUSA Team Members to enhance their customer service and sales skills, increase their knowledge of CompUSA store procedures, gain general technology and product information, and achieve certification in these areas. CyberSmart, CCS' face-to-face seminars that bring product manufacturers and retail sales people together for personalized training, will also be offered.

"We believe that this advanced training will allow our Team Members to provide superior customer service," said Sam Crowley, executive vice president of operations for CompUSA. "In addition, the CCS program will allow us to track product knowledge and customer service certification levels at each store to ensure that we offer consistent quality in all of our locations."

"Our relationship with CompUSA will provide powerful training vehicles for CompUSA Team Members," said Andy Restivo, CCS' vice president of business development. "CompUSA's decision to offer CyberScholar will benefit CompUSA and CompUSA customers as well as our manufacturing partners."

To promote both CCS training programs to its Team Members, CompUSA will launch a major awareness campaign for CyberSmart and CyberScholar to store and department managers, regional directors and corporate representatives. In addition, CCS will be invited to participate in CompUSA's national general manager meetings, store grand openings and demonstration days, and to publish regular announcements in the CompNews newsletter.

CompUSA Inc. is one of the nation's leading retailers and resellers of personal computers and related products and services. The Company currently operates 208 CompUSA Computer Superstores in 79 major metropolitan markets across the United States that serve retail, corporate, government and education customers and include technical service departments and classroom training facilities. CompUSA also offers its own build-to-order personal computer series, the CompUSA PC™, and operates an Internet site located at www.compusa.com where customers can shop for over 180,000 items on-line.

About Creative Channel Services, LLC
Creative Channel Services (CCS) is a leading retail marketing agency that improves sales and profitability for our manufacturer and retailer clients. Through the company’s proprietary CyberScholar Retail Network® and exclusive retail partnerships, CCS’ unique approach to in-store marketing solutions accelerates client sales performance by connecting brands with 15,000 stores and 185,000 retail professionals who recommend and sell products to up to 3,000,000 customers each day. Established in 1995 and headquartered in Los Angeles, CCS is a part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), a leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

For more information, contact:

Chris Kelly, Marketing Manager
Creative Channel Services
310-665-9900
Email Chris Kelly