Monday, April 30, 2007

Follow up on TJX

We wrote earlier about the TJX data breach. In the aftermath, hundreds of banks have banded together in a class action lawsuit against TJX to prove that TJX was responsible for negligent misrepresentation that the company was safeguarding and disposing of cardholder data. "These representations were not true and showed a lack of reasonable care and were both unfair trade practices and negligent misrepresentation under Massachusetts law," according to Daniel Forte, CEO of the Massachusetts Banker's Association.

He went on to state, "If we're successful against TJX, the nation's major retailers will finally wake up to the fact that not protecting consumer data is an unfair trade practice and that investment in data management systems to protect consumers and shield consumers against fraud and identity theft is required."

The bank consortium is seeking damages in the tens of millions of dollars.

According to Retail Systems Alert Group, "TJX must report to the US House of Representatives later this month. The outcome of those hearings will undoubtedly add weight to the banks' (at very least) legal vantage, and indeed threatens to provide leverage to scorned entities not yet heard from - including the customer. Shoppers who are so clearly interested in deals will most likely be interested in financial compensation, as well."

Monday, April 23, 2007

Michael Stars Selects CWSerenade

Fashion retailer Michael Stars, a privately-owned, Los Angeles-based leader in the women’s contemporary apparel market, is implementing the Java-based solution CWSerenade to manage its ecommerce infrastructure and improve customer response time. Using CWSerenade, Michael Stars will replace its legacy applications that handle online order management and inventory processes, as well as integrate its call center operations.

"The Datavantage/CommercialWare solution will provide us with cross-channel integration, efficiency and more insight and control over the entire sales process," said Michael Malinowski, director of ecommerce, Michael Stars. "We are most excited about the ability to track inventory real-time, enabling us to offer our customers the clothes they want in a streamlined and timely fashion."

CWSerenade consists of seven comprehensive modules sharing a single database for handling order management, fulfillment, customer service, warehousing/inventory control, merchandising, marketing and finance.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Order Motion Adds 43 New Merchants

OrderMotion, a leading provider of on-demand direct commerce retail solutions for multi-channel merchants, has announced that it had signed on 43 new merchants in the first quarter of 2007, a 65% increase over the same period last year. Revenues also increased more than 40% over the same quarter last year. This strong performance follows OrderMotion’s record fourth quarter in 2006, when the company set all-time sales and revenue records.

New customers using OrderMotion’s on-demand order management solution include The Ultimate Game Room, Logan Outdoor Products, Go Clothing, and The Limited Edition. Each of these merchants is using the OrderMotion solution to process orders and payments, manage inventory and customer service, and analyze their business performance with real-time reports.

One area in which OrderMotion is seeing particularly strong growth is the nutritional supplements market.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Mercantile Group Selects CWSerenade

Datavantage/CommercialWare, a wholly owned subsidiary of MICROS Systems, Inc., a provider of technology for the specialty and general merchandise retail industry, has announced that its CWSerenade solution is providing The Mercantile Group with integrated cross-channel order management, as well as improved customer service and fulfillment functionality.

The Mercantile Group consists of three companies: Pure Hockey, specialty retail hockey stores; Sport Warehouse, discount sports apparel stores; and North Atlantic Distribution.

"Implementing CWSerenade has automated many of our processes, further improved our order fulfillment times and therefore had a positive impact on overall customer service," says William Craig, president, The Mercantile Group.

CWSerenade is a Java-based solution with seven comprehensive modules designed to flexibly address the cross-channel retailer's need for order management, fulfillment, customer service, warehousing/inventory control, merchandising, marketing and finance. These modules share a common database that provides real-time visibility to all customer and inventory information through the entire transaction lifecycle.

Monday, April 16, 2007

DoubleClick DoubleTake: Plus ca change...

Back in 1999 when DoubleClick bought Abacus for $1.7 billion, privacy groups hotly opposed the merger on grounds that it could increase the likelihood of corporate abuse of customer data, combining Web surfing habits obtained from 5 billion ads DoubleClick served per week in those days and the 2 billion personally identifiable consumer catalog transactions recorded by Abacus.

Fast forward to today, when Internet and media rivals to Google, fearing an unprecedented consolidation of power in the online advertising market, are expected to urge regulators to closely scrutinize the Web search leader's $3.1 billion deal to buy DoubleClick, which would be the largest acquisition in Google's history, coming just six months after Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire video-sharing site YouTube. Terms of the deal call for Google to pay cash to DoubleClick investors, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which bought DoubleClick in 2005 for $1.1 billion in a deal that took the company private.

Microsoft, for one, said the deal would allow Google to corner the online advertising market and provide them access to a huge amount of information on consumer behavior on the Internet.

AT&T senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs Jim Cicconi said on Sunday that Google would be in a position to pick winners and losers in the industry. "If Google becomes the dominant force in terms of Web advertising and becomes the broker, that would be clear evidence of market power and dominant position," Cicconi said.

Off-line Ventures

According to Reuters, "Industry analysts said the deal would let Google focus more attention on extending its advertising forces offline -- into the print, television and radio advertising arena.

"Google said on Sunday it landed a deal to sell a portion of the advertising inventory for top U.S. radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications's radio division.

"Earlier, it landed a similar deal to sell TV ads for No. 2 U.S. satellite television provider EchoStar Communications."

ProfitCenter, Inktel Alliance

ProfitCenter Software has just formed a strategic alliance with service provider Inktel Direct, which will use ProfitCenter’s comprehensive Profitability Software Suite to manage all warehouse, fulfillment and call center operations and customer relationships for its clients as a single service provider with a completely hosted and outsourced business model.

Inktel Direct was founded in 1997 and services Fortune 500 companies and leading brands, providing Fulfillment, Call Center, Direct Mail and eCommerce solutions. Inktel Direct is headquartered in Miami, FL, with additional operations in Chicago, IL, and Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Monday, April 09, 2007

CommercialWare Adds 30 Users

Datavantage/CommercialWare, a wholly owned subsidiary of MICROS Systems, Inc. and a leading provider of retail technology for the specialty and general merchandise retail industry, has announced that the company has added more than thirty new clients and upgraded or extended many existing clients over the last six months, both domestically and internationally across multiple retail categories including apparel, beauty, housewares, sporting goods, games, music, hospitality, and jewelry.

These new and established clients extended their capabilities and implemented additional components from Datavantage/CommercialWare's extensive retail software offerings to improve operational efficiency, support the growth of their businesses, and provide their customers increased flexibility and an enhanced shopping experience.

Clients implemented or extended their investment in several solutions including Xstore Java POS, XBR Store Analytics, Balance Sales Audit, CWDirect, CWSerenade, CWStore, CWValueCard, Relate Retail CRM, Store21(R) Specialty Retail POS, and Tradewind Retail POS.

Among the new or additional Datavantage/CommercialWare clients are: 99 Cents Only Stores, Aren't We Naughty, Athleta, Bare Escentuals, Birks & Mayors Inc., Gamestop, Christopher & Banks Corp., The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Competitive Cyclist, Darice Inc. (Pat Catan's), Garnet Hill, Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin, Guitar Center, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, King Arthur Flour, Kress Stores, Lululemon Athletica, NBA Properties, Pet Supermarket, Princess Auto Ltd, Rogers Video, Sundance Catalog, Tilly's Inc., Tween Brands Inc. and Vera Bradley.
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