BEA showcases SOA-based retail product and RFID infrastructure software at the National Retail Conference
New York, NY — January 17, 2006 — BEA Systems announced the general availability of AquaLogic High-Performance (HiPer) Workspace for Retail, a closed-loop notification and task management product for improving store operations, built with technology from the AquaLogic User Interaction product family.
BEA said the solution is designed to allow retail store managers to execute company objectives, communicate their store performance and share best practices. Applebee's International, known as the largest casual dining concept in the world, and Groupe Casino, a large French convenience and hypermarket chain with over 9,000 stores, are two beta customers of the retail product.
In addition to manual notifications and task management, AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail delivers data through system-driven notifications triggered by events in back-end retail systems and associated tasks a store manager should perform. As a result, retailers using the product can streamline store operations, manage inventory, control costs, improve customer satisfaction, and provide a clear understanding of priorities and tasks to store and field managers.
We see AquaLogic HiPer for Retail as a potential next step in the evolution of our portal deployment, said Bruno Raybaud, applications integration manager of Casino Information Technology. He explained that his company initially deployed AquaLogic User Interaction to provide a single point of entry for store managers, suppliers and corporate headquarters to access information and collaborate on projects.
But the solution has also allowed the company to notify targeted stores of business changes and allow for two way communication. Apart from the benefit of fitting seamlessly with our portal, the product could help improve our business processes, specifically in distribution logistics, promotion execution and feedback solicitation from our store managers, Raybaud said.
Deployed along with BEA's WebLogic RFID (radio frequency identification) Edge Server and WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server, the AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail provides corporate headquarters and field and store managers with a central view of product movement throughout the supply chain, as well as notifications of critical activity occurring within that supply chain. As a result, retailers can identify bottlenecks and share information with key trading partners.
BEA said the RFID products and solutions turn raw RFID data into business relevant information to address several industry challenges such as reducing out-of-stocks for major retailers, improving public safety through targeted product recalls and reduced product counterfeiting, mobile asset tracking for high value goods, and enabling compliance for both retail and defense mandates.
For more information on the challenges of enterprise performance management in the age of real-time data, read "The Reality of Real-time Performance Management," the Net Best Thing column in the October/November 2003 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.
