Family Dollar honors IT partner at annual summit

MATTHEWS, N.C. — Family Dollar has named Trade Area Systems, a supplier of enterprise market knowledge systems for retail, its IT Strategic Partner of the Year. The award was presented during the company’s fifth annual IT Strategic Partner Summit.

Family Dollar worked with Trade Area Systems in September 2012 to implement TAS Unity, an editable, data-collection software system that allows real estate managers to input photos and comments about stores, competitors and opportunities directly into the system from their mobile devices.

“In retail real estate, having visibility to the latest data and information is critical for our management teams. Through the implementation of TAS Unity, we have been able to improve visibility for the real estate management team and enhance collaboration between internal teams,” said Brian Strickland, divisional VP of portfolio management at Family Dollar.

“The relationship with Family Dollar on the rollout of this new technology has been a case study for vendor–customer collaboration. We have jointly implemented a solution that is exactly what Family Dollar needs to stay ahead of its competition and we are committed to building in even more functionality,” said Joe Rando, president of Trade Area Systems.

The IT Strategic Partner of the Year award is designed to recognize exceptional partnerships in the categories of Vendor Commitment, Innovative Excellence, Outstanding Achievement and Benefits Realization. Trade Area Systems was one of four finalists for Partner of the Year along with Staley Technologies, Cognizant and Dematic.

Family Dollar operates more than 7,800 stores in rural and urban settings across 45 states.