News

Ask Max is the world's first electronic sales associate

May 17, 2004

TAMPA, Fla.-- Baer Media has selected the NetWolves' Managed Services Offering (MSO) to support its kiosk-based Shopping Information System (SIS) "Ask Max" according to a NetWolves Corp. press release.

NetWolves is currently delivering a MSO featuring satellite and land-based broadband connectivity, and managed security services including an ICSA-certified firewall, IPSec VPN and file sharing.

Ask Max enables customers to scan the barcode of items they are interested in throughout the store and view a short informational video about the products' features and benefits or skip directly to pricing information.

Customers unable to locate a specific item can also use the Ask Max kiosks to receive instant directions to the item within the store. The SIS is not designed to eliminate interaction between retail sales associates and customers, however. Ask Max simply provides customers with consistent, reliable product information in an easy-to-use format.

"Ask Max might not be a reality today if it weren't for NetWolves, who helped us overcome our geographic coverage issues and lower our ongoing network and security management costs," said Max Baer, founder and chief executive officer for Baer.

"In order to offer our customers like Bass Pro Shops a high-quality customer support solution like Ask Max, we significantly increased our bandwidth demands, which NetWolves can supply cost-effectively and dependably. We are already in discussions with several other leading retailers that are interested in offering this new service to their customers."

"Baer Media's selection of NetWolves to support their nationwide rollout of Ask Max provides an example of the shift toward broadband to support new business applications and services," said Walter Groteke, chairman and chief executive officer for NetWolves.

"In order to deliver kiosk applications like Ask Max, which are being demanded by the retail market, Baer Media required a low-cost, high-bandwidth network connectivity solution coupled with security to maximize its ROI. We look forward to continuing our support of Baer Media as they roll out Ask Max to other retailers around the country."