Consumer Goods Technology for the week of April 20, 2004

ScanSource Partners with HP and Microsoft for POS Solution

ScanSource partners with HP and Microsoft Business Solutions to provide a total retail point-of-sale (POS) solution that includes the HP rp5000 point-of-sale device and Microsoft Business Solutions Retail Management System.

Available exclusively through ScanSource, the hardware and software solution enables resellers' end-user customers to upgrade their POS systems at a low cost and with some of the industry's best-of-breed technology. The retail solution is available with a standard monitor or a touch screen, as well as with other ScanSource peripheral POS products. Through this relationship, HP, Microsoft and ScanSource are providing resellers with the tools they need to help their customers harness the power of desktop automation in the retail market, allowing them to significantly reduce their IT budgets and provide better service to their customers.

The overall pricing, features and services available through the combined solution help resellers to be more competitive, as they assist their end-user customers in choosing a reliable, user-friendly, easy-to-maintain solution. The feature-filled hardware and software solution is purpose-built for the retail environment, providing resellers with a flexible, proven POS offering.

Sprint Selects MicroStrategy as Its Business Intelligence Platform

Sprint expands its deployment of MicroStrategy's platform, adopting MicroStrategy Report Services, and making MicroStrategy its enterprise-wide business intelligence platform.

Sprint's deployment of the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platformis extensive, encompassing multiple critical projects, anchoring 27 applications, and supporting more than 16,000 employees. Sprint is harnessing MicroStrategy for such areas as call-traffic analysis, marketing analysis, financial performance assessments, and Web-traffic analysis.

Ross Stores and Applied Predictive Technologies Improve Management Training

Ross Stores engages Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) to help them build Test & Learn capabilities. Ross executives will use APT's retail optimization software, aptRetailer, to develop optimized operating, merchandising and marketing strategies. The Test & Learn approach identifies management actions that are most successful in improving performance, evaluates their impact and helps executives make better, more accurate decisions about whether and how to move forward with new concepts.

"When we set out to revitalize Ross's IT infrastructure, we knew that a retail optimization capability would be a key component," said Rich White, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Office of Ross Stores. "APT's aptRetailer software combines the analytical sophistication we were looking for with the user-friendly interface we need."

Pacific Sunwear Boosts Application Performance and Security with NetScaler

Pacific Sunwear deploys NetScaler 9000 Series products to improve the performance and security of its key applications. Pacific Sunwear selected the NetScaler 9000 Series primarily for its application performance acceleration capabilities, thus enabling faster page loads and transactions. By deploying NetScaler systems, Pacific Sunwear has also strengthened attack defense and cut bandwidth utilization in half by compressing both the dynamic and static content of its site.

"Young people who buy our fashions are savvy online shoppers. We know that our site must deliver a speedy and secure shopping experience to win their business and trust," says Dwayne Russell, director of technical services, Pacific Sunwear. "The NetScaler systems have contributed to increased sales and improved customer satisfaction by dramatically improving site performance and delivering superior security, while virtually eliminating the biggest culprit for lost revenue - dropped connections."

Radioshack.com Online Sales Driven by iPhrase

RadioShack chooses iPhrase Technologies' One Step to power the search, navigation and customer interaction functions across RadioShack Corporation's online retail site, www.radioshack.com. One Step will automate the sire's sales, service and support operations and decrease support costs. One Step was integrated into RadioShack's site by iPhrase's SI partner Acquity Group, a leading provider of content management, enterprise portal and next generation e-commerce solutions to global clients.

"RadioShack's online product and component selection is too extensive for the capabilities of most search solutions," said David Goyne, senior vice president of Web operations for RadioShack. "During the evaluation process, we found that One Step could create an accurate and user-friendly online shopping experience by taking advantage of all of our rich product and technical support content."

LG Mart Teams with Accenture and Retek to Support Rapid Growth

LG Mart selects Accenture and Retek to provide the technology infrastructure to support the retailer's growing operations. With more than 1,600 convenience, supermarket, hypermarket and department stores across Korea, LG Mart requires an integrated system that can support multiple retail formats. Accenture will lead the implementation of the Retek Merchandising System, Retek Price Management and Retek Store Inventory Management solutions across LG Mart's operations. These solutions will help LG Mart more effectively create, fulfill and manage customer demand.

The Retek Merchandising System records and controls virtually all data in a retail enterprise and provides data integrity across integrated systems. The solution includes foundation and item management, purchasing, costing, price execution, inventory management and replenishment functions, helping users improve merchandising activities and better achieve sales and profit targets. Retek Price Management provides a well-defined and efficient price change process that allows for aggregated permanent and clearance price change execution. Retek Store Inventory Management provides real-time data communications between stores and the corporate office, including store level activities such as item look-up, stock counts and transfers.

Sonic Software Releases SonicMQ 6.0

Sonic Software releases SonicMQ 6.0, a continuously available enterprise messaging system. Leveraging Sonic Continuous Availability Architecture (CAA), SonicMQ 6.0 reduces the time required for an enterprise messaging system to resume operations after hardware, software or network failures, effectively eliminating costly transaction rollbacks.

Minutes of system downtime can translate to millions of dollars in lost revenue and lost productivity, especially for high-volume systems such as those found in the financial services and telecommunications industries. SonicMQ provides the most advanced fault tolerant messaging architecture, reducing failover time from minutes to seconds. Most fault tolerant architectures rely entirely on custom coded solutions and expensive hardware-based mechanisms to ensure failover. SonicMQ 6.0 provides a software-based solution out-of-the-box that uses stateful replication between a pair of servers, eliminating the need for dedicated hardware, specialized fault sensing software, and mirrored/redundant disks. SonicMQ 6.0 also significantly eases administrative load, resulting in a significantly simpler and more cost -effective approach to enterprise messaging availability.

RFID and Biometrics Combined in One Reader/Writer

Secura Key's latest reader/writer in the e*Tag Quasar line combines 13.56 MHz RFID technology with fingerprint verification. This new product will provide a secure platform for access control, computer security and other applications that require positive personnel identification.

Fingerprint templates are encoded and encrypted in the memory of the RFID card or token. This eliminates problems with many existing biometric systems where template storage, upload and enrollment create a cumbersome and insecure infrastructure. Verification of the fingerprint occurs in the e*Tag reader/writer before tag data is sent to the host system, making the biometric transaction transparent to the host. Since no biometric data resides in the reader/writer, an unlimited number of users can access the system.

Hypercom Introduces Countertop and Wireless Card Payment Terminals

Hypercom introduces the Optimum T4100 and Optimum M2100, two compact, high speed and high performance Optimum card payment terminals designed to speed transactions and boost profits for retail stores and mobile merchants throughout the US. The countertop Optimum T4100 packs an Intel processor based on Intel Xscale technology to deliver intelligently integrated multi-application performance and fast transaction speeds.

The handheld, wireless Optimum M2100 based on 32-bit technology delivers performance and price-efficiency for mobile merchants such as restaurants, delivery services, car rental companies, stadiums, medical facilities and others who want to bring the payment system directly to the consumer.

QRS Catalogue 4.0 Supports Global Standards

QRS announces the general availability of QRS Catalogue Release 4.0. QRS Catalogue is a product data synchronization application with over 100 million items. Its new functionality includes expanded support for the latest global standards to help retailers and suppliers improve communications with their global trading communities.

QRS Catalogue 4.0 is the first generally available release of the product that is fully compliant with UCCnet services. As announced in February 2004, QRS Catalogue received UCC Solution Partner Program UCCnet Synchronization Suite 2.2.1 certification. The release features a new product module, QRS GDSNconnector, which enables communications with the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN). Using QRS GDSNconnector, customers can register items with the UCCnet registry and publish items to retailers with UCCnet synchronization services.

Qsent Introduces Web Services Offering for Identity Validation Solutions

Qsent announces the availability of an industry-standard Web Service used in first-level screens of identity and risk assessment applications designed to build trusted relationships with customers. Qsent's iQ411 Integrated Service is employed by value-added partners in customer-focused financial solutions for banks, credit extenders, collection agencies, and insurance companies. This new capability allows direct system-to-system access to nightly-updated, real-time contact information and can be rapidly deployed leveraging Microsoft's Web Services technology.

Identity Validation Builds Better, Trusted Relationships. As part of a credit authorization or fraud prevention process, first-level screens on identity provide compelling returns in building trusted relationships with customers by having high confidence about contact accuracy, avoiding fraud and identity theft, identifying the best prospects and vastly increasing operational efficiencies and ROI.

C & H Sugar Sweetens Warehouse Management

C & H Sugar Company takes on a comprehensive wireless data collection solution from Catalyst that includes library of native R/3 data collection transactions, custom data collection transactions developed to meet C & H's requirements and custom label printing. The native SAP data collection system was installed to improve inventory control and accuracy in the warehouse portion of C & H's 1.4 million square-foot refinery and distribution center in Crockett, California. This facility was built in the early 20th century and accounts for roughly 10 percent of the country's annual production of refined sugar. "Our deadlines were extremely tight and our building's age and unusual configuration presented unique challenges," says Gary Walden, project manager for C & H Sugar. "The consultants from Catalyst were knowledgeable professionals who met all our deadlines and delivered a solution that enabled us to gain control of the open warehouse portion of our facility."

IBM Acquires Business Continuity Service

In an effort to keep technology running during disasters and other unplanned events, IBM has bought a services division of Schlumberger Ltd. Business continuity services, which involve helping businesses recover from manmade and natural disasters as well as any other outage, have gained importance as companies try and comply with government regulation. Approximatley 260 Schlumberger employees will join IBM as part of the business continuity services division. Moving away from its ill-fated investments in information technology, Schlumberger is currently focused on its oilfield services operations. It recently sold its Infodata business unit and its SchlumbergerSema business.

Sportif Goes Live with Sourcing Management

Sportswear manufacturer Sportif USA hopes to extend visibility into the production of goods when it goes live with Vision Sourcing and Demand Management version 7.2 from Jesta I.S . The latest development for Vision Sourcing and Demand Management focuses on manufacturing issues such as allocation and inventory in addition to the exporting of data outside the ERP system. "We have worked closely with the Jesta team and understand that they continue to develop and support the unique needs of apparel manufacturers," says John Kirsch, President of Sportif USA. "Our goal was to take advantage of these best practices and the state-of-the-art technologies that make our company more productive and efficient.   Ultimately, it will improve our bottom line."