The Sports Authority sports 18,000-employee license from Kronos

Business Wire, Dec 6, 2004

CHELMSFORD, Mass. -- Kronos(R) Incorporated (Nasdaq: KRON) today announced that the nation's preeminent full-line sporting goods chain, The Sports Authority, Inc., has standardized all 18,000 employees in 400 locations -- including all stores and distribution centers operating under The Sports Authority(R), Gart Sports(R), Sportmart(R), and Oshman's(R) names -- on a Kronos workforce management solution.

After the merger of the largest- and second-largest U.S. sporting goods retailers -- The Sports Authority and Gart Sports Company -- was complete a year ago, the newly created sports retailing powerhouse decided to roll out the Kronos iSeries Central suite to all employees. After conducting a detailed business assessment and looking at other vendors in the market, Sports Authority determined that Kronos' iSeries Central suite was best suited to accommodate their complex enterprise needs. Sports Authority is now taking advantage of the scalability, security, and stability of the Kronos iSeries platform across its entire retail enterprise.

"Gart Sports had experienced more than a decade of stability and reliability with Kronos on the iSeries platform," said Scott Schilz, manager of financial systems at Sports Authority. "That positive experience -- plus the fact that Kronos iSeries Central enables us to obtain accurate staffing levels, which translates into superior customer service -- made it a home run for us."

Going beyond time and labor

Sports Authority also recently made the decision to upgrade to the latest version of the Kronos iSeries Central suite, which includes enhanced scheduling functionality. "Kronos' addition of scheduling enhancements to the iSeries application was a major motivator to implement Kronos iSeries Central company-wide," continued Schilz.

"Large organizations can leverage Kronos' intuitive scheduling functionality, which allows them to quickly schedule large groups of employees and automate routine patterns," said Barry Moore, vice president of Kronos' iSeries division. "Advanced reporting technology in the latest version of the Kronos iSeries Central suite gives managers the ability to generate custom reports as well as post and download templates that other users have developed, eliminating the need for standard system reports."

Concurrent with the time and labor upgrade, Sports Authority is evaluating Kronos' labor analytics and labor activity tracking applications to provide job-costing functionality and productivity measurement in distribution centers across the U.S.

"The Kronos iSeries Central suite is a popular solution for large enterprises such as Sports Authority who are committed to the IBM platform," continued Moore. "The unparalleled scalability, reliability, and low cost of ownership from iSeries make it a platform we are proud to support and provide to our customers to meet their wide-ranging workforce management needs."

About The Sports Authority

The Sports Authority, headquartered in Englewood, Colo., is one of the nation's largest full-line sporting goods retailers offering a comprehensive high-quality assortment of brand name sporting apparel and equipment at competitive prices. As of May 1, 2004, The Sports Authority operated 385 stores in 45 states under The Sports Authority(R), Gart Sports(R), Sportmart(R), and Oshman's(R) names. The company's e-tailing websites, located at thesportsauthority.com, gartsports.com, sportmart.com, and oshmans.com, are operated by GSI Commerce, Inc. under license and e-commerce agreements. In addition, the company maintains a joint venture partnership with AEON, Ltd., which operates "The Sports Authority" stores in Japan under a licensing agreement.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos Incorporated is the most trusted name in workforce management. Kronos helps organizations staff, develop, deploy, track, and reward their workforce, resulting in reduced costs, increased productivity, better decision-making, improved employee satisfaction, and alignment with organizational objectives. More than 20 million people use a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos' high-impact enterprise solutions at www.kronos.com.

(C) 2004 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. iSeries is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.