Data Management

Arby's identifies more than $5.5 million in potential savings for energy program

Arby's Restaurant Group has taken an aggressive stance with regard to its third largest and most controllable expense: energy. Faced with rising costs, the chain developed a strategic energy management plan that identified more than $5.5 million in potential annual savings.

Roanoke, Va. -- Advance Auto Parts has promoted Donna Justiss to the position of senior VP and chief information officer. Justiss will be responsible for the strategic leadership of all aspects of Advance’s information technology area, including application development and support, infrastructure and information security.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s is easing the continuous integration (CI) process for its omni-channel initiatives with the implementation of the Qubell Adaptive PaaS solution. Available as a hosted platform, Adaptive PaaS provides Kohl’s with continuous application deployment, continuous testing and environment management. Specific tasks Kohl’s has executed using Adaptive PaaS include automating the front end of its development process, integrating with various technology stacks and providing developers with near-real-time feedback on their work.

Conshohocken, Pa. -- Ikea said Tuesday it plans to increase the solar array atop its two-year-old Centennial, Colo. store, with panel installation slated to begin in July.

Completion of what is already Colorado’s largest single-use rooftop array on a commercial building is slated for this fall, and will elevate the project to the state’s largest rooftop array of any use.

By Peter Witham, [email protected]

CHICAGO, Ill. — Mercent, a leading technology company that enables retailers to reach and convert more shoppers online, has signed a strategic partnership with Shop.com, the e-commerce arm of Market America. 

This latest partnership expands Mercent’s portfolio of online shopping destinations supported by its SaaS platform and offers leading retailers the ability to market and sell to millions of consumers on the Shop.com third-party marketplace.

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM on Tuesday strengthened its position in the fast-growing market for cloud-computing services with the news that it has entered into an agreement to acquire SoftLayer Technologies Inc. The Dallas-based firm is the world's largest privately held cloud computing infrastructure provider, according to IBM.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. But reports, including one by the New York Times, valued it at approximately $2 billion,

Chicago -- ShopperTrak announced Monday the acquisition of interior analytics provider RapidBlue Solutions Oy, based in Helsinki.

RapidBlue uses radio frequency technology to collect shopper movement information, then transforms the anonymous data into information and insights that retailers can use to manage the marketing, merchandising and operations of their businesses.

Matthews, N.C. – Family Dollar presented its annual Strategic IT Partner of the Year award to Trade Area Systems at its IT Strategic Partner last month. In September 2012, Family Dollar implemented the Trade Area Systems TAS Unity solution to give real estate managers mobile access to a database of real estate photos, comments and other relevant data.

INDIANAPOLIS — Kohl’s plans to leverage cloud technology so it can focus on core business and meet peak seasonal demands. To that end, the company has entered into a long-term, multi-year contract to migrate its contact center to the Interactive Intelligence Communications-as-a-Service solution.