Predictive Analytics

San Diego — Teradata announced Tuesday that Hallmark Cards Inc. has expanded its data warehouse environment with new enterprise data warehouse platforms, including new data warehouse appliances, as well as the latest Aprimo Relationship Manager application from Aprimo, a Teradata company.

The upgraded platforms and software tools were implemented while realizing a 30% reduction in total cost of ownership. Hallmark also added utilities for backup and recovery, as well as Teradata Viewpoint and Professional Services support.

Leawood, Kan. -- Epay, a division of electronic payments provider Euronet Worldwide, said Thursday it has forged an exclusive agreement to process prepaid mobile airtime transactions in the independent retail segment for Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile USA and Assurance Wireless.

These no-contract wireless brands are owned by Sprint.

New York City -- Innovation in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning will be driven by cost savings from more efficient energy use and pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent from Pike Research.

Covina, Calif. -- Ikea officially plugged-in the solar energy system installed at its store in Covina, Calif. The 57,000-sq.-ft. photovoltaic array consists of a 451-kW system, built with 2,002 panels.

Ikea contracted with Gloria Solar, the U.S. operating group focused on the photovoltaic business within the family of E-Ton Solar Group, for the development, design and installation of this customized solar power system

Cincinnati -- Macy’s is ramping up its adoption of RFID technology. The retailer announced that its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores are adopting the technology on an accelerated timeline to more precisely manage item-level merchandise inventories. The company expects that by the third quarter of 2012, it will begin using RFID in all stores nationwide to count size-intensive replenishment goods, which accounts for about 30% of the company’s total sales.

Atlanta -- The prepaid gift card market remained healthy in the first half of 2011, experiencing a higher rate of growth than U.S. consumer spending despite the sluggish macroeconomic environment. That’s one finding of a new analysis on the U.S. gift card market from First Data Advisors.

Target’s website was among the 50 most heavily trafficked U.S. web properties during August, according to comScore Media Metrix. The online measurement service showed Target.com with 26.5 million unique visitors for the month, which earned it the 46th position on the list.