ISS Retail Launches .NET Center of Excellence; Accelerating Retail Migration to Microsoft .NET Technologies

Business Wire, May 21, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. -- ISS Retail, dedicated to providing superior architecture and solutions to Retailers, announced its Microsoft .NET Center of Excellence designed to help Retailers drive increased business performance and customer satisfaction through the integration advantages and flexibility provided by solutions built on the Microsoft .NET Framework. Leveraging Microsoft Smarter Retailing, an initiative designed to help Retailers improve how they sell and operate through better access to customer and product information, the center has been created to assist Retailers' migration to next generation in-store solutions that provide superior customer service and increases product availability while reducing operating costs.

"ISS Retail's .NET Center for Excellence brings significant value to the Retail industry with experts focused on helping Retailers achieve competitive advantage through technology," said Brian Scott, vice president for Microsoft's Retail & Hospitality Industry Unit. "ISS Retail's commitment to Microsoft Smarter Retailing and .NET technologies will help more Retailers cost effectively connect information, processes, systems and people to drive increased business performance and customer satisfaction."

The Center of Excellence, established in 2004 in Gurgaon, (New Delhi) India, is comprised of Microsoft certified solution professionals. These retail domain experts are leveraging their expertise in Microsoft .NET technologies, Windows operating systems and SQL Server 2005 in assisting all segments of Retail with their quest to migrate to a more dynamic enterprise, in-store solution.

"The Center of Excellence is the front runner in bringing the business value of Microsoft .NET technologies to the retail industry and narrowing the widening gap between fast moving technology and constantly changing retail demands," said Swetank Shekhar, CSO and interim CEO, ISS Retail. "With expertise in the retail domain, the Center of Excellence in India is providing new generation technology services to the retail industry," continued Shekhar.

At present, the Center of Excellence has exceeded customer expectations in its operations and assistance with two large U.S.-based Retailers. The Center of Excellence was selected to re-architect and migrate The UPS Stores TouchPointPOS (in-store POS) and SmartOffice (back office) systems supplied by ISS Retail to the Microsoft .NET platform. The migration and successful rollout to over 3,000 UPS Store locations in the United Sates and Canada was completed in less than 12 months.

Tarun Anand, who heads the Center of Excellence, said, "ISS Retail is a pioneer in retail solutions and products, building on the Microsoft .NET platform and the "Smarter Retailing" initiative. It is the first .NET center of excellence in India dedicated solely to Retail. The center focuses on people, processes and technology to provide best practices, frameworks, and a world-class delivery model."

A second major U. S. retailer selected ISS Retail and the Center of Excellence to define architecture for their next generation in-store system. The center also assisted in platform evaluation and selection of a solution that would meet and adapt to their growing business needs over the next decade. ISS Retail, assisted by the Center of Excellence, provided in-depth research and analysis of business and technical requirements using existing store business processes to aid in the selection of the "best of breed" platform for building a retail foundation that will best allow growth and future changes. As a follow on, the Center of Excellence was selected to assist in migrating many of the current in-store applications to the Microsoft .NET Framework and technologies within Microsoft Smarter Retailing.

About ISS Retail

ISS Retail, founded in 1993 as Integrated Software Solutions, Inc., is a privately held company with offices in Raleigh, North Carolina, San Diego, California and New Delhi, India. ISS Retail delivers innovative retail solutions to the entire enterprise with emphasis on migration and ROI. ISS Retail uses the latest technologies and cross-platform industry standards helping Retailers solve new or expanding business problems. For more information, visit www.issretail.com or contact Phyllis Mickschutz at (919) 846-5431.