Wild cards?

Hi

I am using the following formula to count how many times "AEMS" appears in Col A during the month of Jan 12. This works fine if "AEMS" is the only Text in the Cell.

=SUMPRODUCT(--('Page1'!$A$8:$A$1001="AEMS"),--('Page1'!$B$8:$B$1001>=--"2012-01-01"),--('Page1'!$B$8:$B$1001<=--"2012-01-31"))

However Sometimes Col A may include more than "AEMS", E.G. "AEMS-12-02" I still want to count the times AEMS occurs ignoring everything else.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks, but I did try that and does not work.