Business Intelligence (BI)

Cleveland -- Sherwin-Williams Co. reported Tuesday that net income for its fourth quarter increased to $72.9 million, compared with $65.3 million in the prior year.

Revenue rose to just under $1.9 billion, from $1.6 billion. Wall Street expected revenue of $1.78 billion.

ATLANTA -- First Data Corp. announced that it has entered into an agreement with Kohl’s Department Stores to provide payment processing services for the company’s private brand credit card accounts.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by the Labor Department said that U.S. claims for initial jobless benefits last week posted their biggest decline in nearly a year.

The drop erased the holiday-related spike, and illustrated that a healthier labor market remains intact.

Atlanta -- First Data Corp. said Thursday that it has entered into an agreement with Kohl’s Department Stores to provide payment processing services for the company’s private brand credit-card accounts.

The multi-year agreement calls for First Data to provide Kohl’s with credit-card processing, customer analytics, risk-management services and automated customer service workflow tools.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

New York City -- Revionics said that it has been selected by Roundy’s Supermarkets as the retailer’s price optimization provider. The supermarket chain said it will leverage Revionics' analytic services, which will provide the retailer with insight into market patterns and consumer preferences to make better, fact-based decisions.

Chicago -- Jones Lang LaSalle announced Tuesday that it has launched a website to deliver strategies, tools and information regarding the upcoming changes in lease accounting treatment by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Armonk, N.Y. -- CSN Stores, the third largest online retailer of home goods in the United States, has selected IBM's Netezza TwinFin appliance to quickly mine and analyze terabytes of business data flowing through the company every day.

The new tool will power CSN's business analytics platform to monitor trends related to profitability, customer satisfaction, customer retention, order fulfillment and supply chain. The company will use the data to drive organic growth initiatives and discover new ways to better serve their customers.

New York City -- An overwhelming majority (86%) of small-business respondents (86%) say that keeping their customer card information secure and feel payment-card data security is important to their business. But 60% are unaware of the costs they could incur in the event of a breach. Those are among the results of a research study of data security and fraud-prevention strategies practiced at small- to mid-sized retailers. The study is from the National Retail Federation and First Data Corp.

New York City -- Supervalu reported a loss for its third quarter, dragged down by falling revenue and asset values, tighter margins and the cost of closing some stores. The grocer cut its full-year outlook based on the poor performance.

Supervalu, which operates Alberstons, Jewel-Osco and other supermarket chains, reported a loss of $202 million for the quarter, compared with net income of $109 million in the same quarter last year.

Concord, Calif. -- Beverages & More has launched a next-generation technology initiative based around NRF/ARTS (Association for Retail Technology Standards) standards coupled with cloud computing and high-performance technology and service providers that include NCR Corp., Verifone, Retail Anywhere, Trevarian, and Anametrix. The initiative (called “ItsMo!” internally) allows for rapid design, adoption and deployment of new technologies.