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Retailers converge on Chicago

Retail Systems 2006 Convention & Expo, scheduled for May 21-24 at McCormick Place in Chicago, will include an array of self-service leaders.

May 7, 2006

Thousands of retailers are set to descend on Chicago's McCormick Place, May 21-24, for the annual Retail Systems Conference & Exposition. The show includes 212 exhibitors, a special customer-facing section for the self-service and kiosk industry, guest speakers from top retailers and social networking events.

Among the workshops and demonstrations, IBM and NCR will host the third annual RFID Technology Symposium to examine retailers' growing use of RFID technology, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 21. MIT Auto ID Center chief technology officer Sanjay Sarma will give the session's keynote lecture, "Leverage RFID to Achieve Operational Excellence." Lee Schramm, senior vice president of NCR's retail solutions division, will present the third annual RFID benchmark study "How far, how fast?" And a systems provider panel will discuss accelerating RFID adoption.

The convention will include educational sessions from several major retailers. Among them, Best Buy International chief executive officer Bob Willett will discuss Best Buy's RFID strategy. AutoZone chief information officer Ken Brame will discuss the company's perpetual inventory system, allowing stores to increase in-stock levels without adding inventory. IKEA North America Services vice president of information technology George Puchta and Payless ShoeSource store operations director Larry Leibach will participate in Wednesday's Workforce Management Panel. The Procter & Gamble Company's director of global customer eBusiness Milan Turk will discuss data synchronization.

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Self-service innovators Retaligent Systems will show the latest upgrades to their Clarience 1:1 self-service retail systems. The scalable system currently offers 20 different modules, applications that can be used in a variety of combinations, across a variety of platforms, including PDA and EDA software for remote management, smart phone applications that can scan bar codes and kiosks that customers can use to have different sizes and colors of clothes delivered to them in the changing rooms.

"What we've basically done is taken the Retaligent Platform and used it as pervasive-interaction architecture," Retaligent chief executive officer Bryan Amaral said. "And any one of our solutions can be used within that store. The associate-facing tools are leveraging the same technologies a consumer can on the smart phone."

Netkey, one of the original creators of dedicated Web-based kiosk commerce software, will show an array of automated multi-channel marketing solutions that it has regularly deployed at major retailers including Home Depot and Border's Books and Music.

"The Netkey platform allows retailers to generate ROI by getting to market faster with self-service kiosk and digital signage applications that help sell, while at the same time reducing the cost of operating these store technologies," Netkey director of marketing Bob Ventresca said.

Other key self-service exhibitors include:

Diebold-ISS, the national IT and computer maintenance network, showcasing its new Call Forward technology, designed to improve customer checkout time.

Epson America, Inc., a leader in printer technology, will showcase their POS peripherals.

Hand Held Products, a leader in transaction terminals and POS peripherals, will show the Image Kiosk 8560 mini-kiosk with customizable multifunction user interface.

HP, the veteran computer hardware firm, will show myriad applications including middleware, multichannel marketing tools and RFID technology.

IBM, the business-to-business computing and logistics giant, will display several retail technologies including gift registries, consulting services and data mining solutions.

La Garde will show its award-winning multichannel CISP-compliant online storefront shopping cart solution, StoreFront.

Microsoft Corporation will exhibit a variety of retail solutions including its popular .NET commerce platform.

New Edge Networks will showcase their commercial networking capabilities for connecting a variety of POS, financial and data networks.

Nippon Primex Inc., a Japanese printer manufacturer, will proffer its line of POS and kiosk printers.

The Self-Service & Kiosk Association, (owned by this site's publisher, Networld Alliance) discussing its numerous sales and networking benefits with potential members.

Star Micronics America, a leader in the printer industry, will show its line of commercial and self-service printers.

NCR/Teradata, a firm dedicated to data warehousing and analytics, will demonstrate its solutions for e-commerce and self-service.

VeriFone, Inc., a recent entrant into the self-service/kiosk space, will display its numerous POS applications, and its new multimedia mini-kiosks.