Business Intelligence (BI)

Denver -- Junction Solutions announced today that it completed the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at 122 stores of Fanzz, a leading sports apparel and team gear retailer.  

Las Vegas -- VeriFone Systems announced RubyCi, an integrated site controller and point-of-sale (POS) solution designed to enable average-sized convenience stores and petroleum retailers to more efficiently manage their POS, payment and fueling systems and prepare their payments infrastructure for EMV. The new solution combines features of VeriFone’s Ruby2 POS system and Commander Site Controller.   

Emeryville, Calif. – E-commerce technology provider Sellpoints has developed "Natural Selection," a natural language product selector. The solution uses the IBM Watson artificial intelligence platform to understand a shopper's intent, so instead of guiding shoppers through a series of complicated questions and checkboxes, Natural Selection allows them to type in phrases or questions in natural language.    

While merchants have spent the past nine months developing plans to drive holiday sales, another group of retail executives has been preparing to deal with the dark side of Christmas.

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM is introducing new partners developing apps based on its Watson artificial intelligence platform and world headquarters for its Watson Group, as well as new cognitive services that will be available on IBM Bluemix, IBM's cloud-based platform for mobile and Web app development.

Scottsdale, Ariz. -- GoDaddy and Spree Commerce announced the launch of the GoDaddy Online Store for small businesses.

With Spree technology supporting the backend, this new GoDaddy offering will make it truly simple for small businesses worldwide to start selling online using e-commerce.

The companies first announced collaboration in February of this year. The GoDaddy Online Store has been available in beta since. More than 5,000 merchants have opened stores and sold millions of dollars of products and services, all over the world.

By Jon Winsett, NPI

As we barrel towards the holiday season, few retail IT executives have as much time as they’d like to work on the challenges that will be waiting for them in first quarter 2015 — including limited funding for IT innovation. Retailers are projected to spend more in the coming year, but nearly three-quarters of that budget will be committed to maintaining the status quo. That leaves little to fund game-changing new IT initiatives that can drive competitive advantage, customer loyalty and profits.

Montreal -- Raymark said that select members of the Luxury Jewelers Resource Group (LJRG) have selected Raymark's end-to-end suite of solutions for point-of-sale (including mobile), clienteling, merchandising, replenishment, open-to-buy planning, purchasing, repairs, reporting and analytics.

The Raymark banners include Fink’s Jewelers, Hamilton Jewelers, Hyde Park Jewelers, Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry, London Jewelers, Lux Bond & Green, Tapper’s Diamond & Fine Jewelry, Tivoli and Traditional Jewelers.