RIS Executive News Brief - October 25, 2005

10/25/2005
Weather Events Force Retailers to Account for Mother Nature
Acknowledging that "Mother Nature plays a role in the retail marketplace," retailers are using tools at their disposal to better understand the relationship between weather and sales, notes Bud Wagner, analyst with the CSC Consulting Group. "This type of information can help a retailer's demand planning process that attempts to predict when consumers will shop and what types of products they will buy."
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Danier Leather Contracts with Fujitsu
Danier Leather contracts with Fujitsu for customer transaction and relationship software applications, point-of-sale hardware, mobile technology and complete project management, deployment, integration and maintenance services.
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Bath & Body Works Chooses GSI Commerce
Bath & Body Works, a division of Limited Brands, chooses GSI Commerce for core technology and fulfillment services for its new online retail store, www.bathandbodyworks.com.
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Kronos Introduces Workforce Operations Planner
Kronos offers Workforce Operations Planner, a sales and labor planning solution, which is available in Kronos for Retail.
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Unicru Unveils Frontline Reliability Assessment
Unicru introduces Frontline Reliability Assessment, a tool designed to reduce employee delinquency and early quits.
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IHL Introduces Sophia Research Service
IHL Consulting Group offers Sophia, a new research service that provides Web access to research on technology opportunities in north American retail.
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Bulletin Board

Industry Events

The Total Cost of Ownership for Point-of-Sale and PC Cash Drawer, presented by IDC. Point-of-Sale solution or a PC Cash Drawer: Which will cost you more? IBM presents: "The Total Cost of Ownership for Point-of-Sale and PC Cash Drawer." This Webcast is designed to help retailers understand the differences in total costs between POS and PC Cash Drawer systems. Attend the Webcast at your convenience, available on demand by visiting: https://whiteglove.on.raindance.com/confmgr/view_stored_doc.jsp?docId=9144209385010401351370854540&docType=recording Sponsored by IBM. Click here to register.

October 27, 2005 - TRUTH IN TECHNOLOGIES 2005: Supply Chain RFID
The goal of the forum, hosted by the AIDC 100 at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, is to help people understand the difference between the lofty expectations and the reality of broad scale use of RFID in the supply chain.
For more information and to register visit: www.aidc100.org.

Vendor Viewpoint
2-Day Fast Track RFID Academy. The Alien RFID Academy is a hands-on tagging, application, use case exercises, site-survey workgroups and more. We turn students into RFID experts. Topics include: Physics & Protocols; Tag Placement & Packaging; Configuration & Optimization; System Architecture & Integration; and Site-surveys & Interference. Click here: http://www.alientechnology.com/da Sponsored by Alien Technology.

There's A Revolution Going On. The billion people online have evolved into a powerful cultural and economical force-and this power has changed the way they shop.They're incredibly well-informed. They're harder to attract and retain. And innovative companies are tapping into their unmet needs to rocket ahead of the competition. At Blast Radius, our mission is to help our clients thrive in this new era by delivering innovative and profitable customer experiences. For practical advice on customer experience innovation, download our free practitioner's guide at: www.blastradius.com/ERISguide. Sponsored by Blast Radius


Instinctively Easy. Amazingly Functional. As the leading wireless messaging solution for enterprises, GoodLink 4.5, by Good Technology Inc., has the look and feel of Microsoft Outlook optimized for mobile handhelds. Plus, it provides real-time wireless push synchronization of e-mail, rich attachments, and PIM data. Click to request your free information kit: http://www.good.com/freekit. Sponsored by Good Technology.

The Science of Site Selection - Advanced Predictive Analytics modeling technology combines real-world customer transaction and sales data, demographics/psychographics, competitive intelligence, and spatial analytics to provide a strategic blueprint for expansion—identifying the most profitable sites and markets for development, with detailed site-specific sales forecasts for optimized deployments. Click here to learn more. Sponsored by MapInfo.

Customer Service Becomes Competitive Edge: The Transformation to Point of Service

In a marketplace under increasing pressure from mega-retailers, in-store differentiation is becoming the primary focus for many retailers today. Click here to download this case study to learn how real-time delivery of information and services to the consumer and to store associates can help improve customer service, create operational efficiencies and enhance employee productivity. Sponsored by Intel and IBM.

Ecometry and Blue Martini offer the key to sharing customer information throughout your entire enterprise and offer unparalleled product functionality in a single-source provider. The combined solution enables retailers, catalogers and e-commerce companies to: *Maintain a central view of the customer across every purchasing channel.*Streamline and fully integrate the entire sales, order and delivery process. We empower: Nordstrom, Time-Life, Nine West, Urban Outfitters, Brookstone, Coach, Hickory Farms Ross-Simons, Gymboree, Levi's, Mens Wearhouse and Saks Fifth Avenue. To learn more visit www.ecometrysystems.com or contact Charlene Smith, inside sales: 561-454-4233. Sponsored by Ecometry.


Industry White Papers
Improving Performance via Demand-Driven Workforce Management

As competitive pricing shrinks profit margins, you need to find new ways to control costs in your stores. Click here to download this whitepaper, which explains how demand-driven workforce management can improve retail store performance by balancing the needs of your business, customers and employees. Sponsored by Kronos.


EPC Class 1 Generation 2 RFID Specification
The EPCglobal Class 1 Generation 2 protocol will help solidify the adoption of UHF RFID.
This paper provides a brief explanation of how EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 2 improves on previous protocols and the expected impact of these benefits, including faster, more flexible read and write speed, higher reliability in tag counting, more robust performance of many readers in close proximity, enhanced security, and extensibility to higher-function tags and systems. Click here to download. Sponsored by Alien Technology.

Utility Computing: The IT Infrastructure for Retail

The utility model provides a limitless infrastructure of IT resources and helps retailers to reduce costs, scales to meet the changing needs of business, and ensures security and data integrity. Click here to download this white paper to help understand how utility computing works and why it should be on the list of things for every CIO to evaluate. Sponsored by Savvis.

Enabling Mobile Sales: Putting CRM in Your Pocket
The development and maintenance of strong customer relationships are critical to the growth and profitability of all enterprises. Click here to download this whitepaper and learn how a scalable, secure wireless system can help increase sales productivity, customer responsiveness and the ability to capitalize on immediate sales opportunities. Sponsored by Good Technology.

Optimizing Profits through Supplier Performance Management

Vendor performance management (VPM) is the foundation of collaborative planning, allowing retailers to strike better, smarter deals with vendors, as well as allowing those retailers to take steps to ensure in-stocks even during volatile seasonal and promotional activity. Click here to download this white paper and learn how VPM can help reduce stock levels and increase profitability. Sponsored by Business Objects.



Executive Intelligence

Justify Your Loyalty Card Investment

Intelligent marketing and promotionalm campaigns positively influence customer behavior
By Michelle Schooff, director of industry marketing -- retail, Lawson Software

In the last decade, retailers have invested heavily in loyalty card programs and data warehouses to store the resulting streams of customer information. Yet, few have extracted real value from these initiatives in terms of insights that help them retain and grow customer wallet share.


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Liz Claiborne Cuts Time-to-Market with PLM Standard
In an effort to reduce time-to-market and product costs while improving product quality and information exchange, Liz Claiborne standardizes on PTC Retail, Footwear and Apparel Solution for enterprise product lifecycle management.
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Hormel Improves Trade Promotion Management
Hormel Foods leverages Siebel Business Analytics and Siebel Consumer Goods to improve its customer relations, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of marketing investments.
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Datalogic Acquires PSC
Datalogic signs a binding agreement for the acquisition of privately held, Oregon-based PSC, a provider of barcode scanners and mobile computers.
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TallyGenicom Joins With Rosetta
TallyGenicom, a privately held provider of printing solutions, signed a multi-year agreement with Rosetta Technologies, a provider of document and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) check printing products.
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Pay By Touch Purchases CardSystems
Pay By Touch Solutions, a provider of biometric authentication, payment, loyalty, and membership solutions, acquires CardSystems Solution, a merchant payment processing provider with approximately 120,000 merchants.
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Big Lots Names Marketing SVP
Big Lots, a closeout retailer, names Robert Claxton senior vice president of marketing. Claxton will report to CEO Steve Fishman and will oversee all areas of marketing, advertising, brand development and merchandise presentation.
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J. Jill Appoints EVP/CMO
The J. Jill Group appoints Lisa Bayne to the position of executive vice president/chief marketing officer. Bayne, who will be responsible for marketing, creating and production services, will report to Gordon Cooke, president and chief executive officer.
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