News

Microsoft touts customer case study at retail show

March 1, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- Today at the Food Marketing Institute's MARKETECHNICS 2004 show, Microsoft Corp. Inc. said Smart & Final Inc., operator of warehouse stores for food and culinary supplies, is deploying the next phase of its real-time retailing solution designed to improve connectivity and integration of data between the stores, vendors, business customers and corporate headquarters.

Smart & Final's point-of-sale (POS) real-time data repository leverages Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server, and industry-standard HP ProLiant server technology to improve scalability and fault tolerance across its 230 stores, according to a news release.

The Microsoft SQL Server-based data repository, built around the Association of Retail Technology Standards data model, supports online real-time transactional data from Smart & Final's NCR Advanced Checkout Solution-based platform, which also leverages Microsoft technologies.

The data repository and in-store platform are based on open standards and use the Microsoft .NET Framework, which will allow the addition of appliances such as kiosks and handheld devices.