OAK BROOK, Ill. Several leading technology companies have come out with new offerings in recent days.
Here is a roundup of some of those announcements:
AIMS
AIMS Inc., Monroe, La., has introduced a cardlock software module for its COMPAS Commander series of marketer enterprise-level software. Commander's Card Lock module is an option that users of the core Commander product can add.
Card Lock completely integrates with the main Commander system, meaning there are [image-nocss] no workarounds and no disconnects between the core accounting function and the cardlock operation. For example, unbilled cardlock invoices, when created, instantly update customers' available credit lines, helping manage accounts receivable credit limits in real time.
As with all Commander-series software, Card Lock is a true, native Windows application, being written using Microsoft's .NET Framework. Card Lock shares the Microsoft SQL Server database with the rest of Commander.
Commander's Card Lock can handle both direct-polled proprietary cardlock sites and network sites, and even a combination of both. The Card Lock module supports a variety of customer pricing options, even margins based on percentages.
Other features include instant invoicing and support for two-card systems.
All of the Card Lock and other Commander reports are created with Crystal Reports, so information that both the marketer and the marketer's customers need can be found and viewed easily. A variety of other data-mining tools can be used with Commander-series products, the company said.
Dresser Wayne
Dresser Wayne, Austin, Texas, is launching a digital merchandising tool that allows fuel retailers to customize promotions of forecourt and in-store products at the fuel dispenser. Using an integrated and interactive VGA screen built into a fuel dispenser, the new technology, iX Media Enterprise, allows retailers to show customized, full-motion video promotions and specials to fuel customers while they fill up their gasoline tanks.
Developed with London, Ontario-based EK3 Technologies Inc., Dresser Wayne's iX Media Enterprise was developed to help retailers drive customers off pay-at-the-pump islands and back into stores, the company said. The new technology runs on Dresser Wayne's iX Technology Platform and offers features including the ability to let consumers print coupons at the dispenser.
The iX Media Enterprise features include:
Custom dayparting technology to allow fuel retailers to offer specific discounts or product promotions depending on the time of day. For instance, iX Media Enterprise could advertise a coffee or breakfast-to-go special during morning drive time hours, then automatically switch to a fountain drink or snack food promotion during lunchtime. Dispenser-specific content distribution to provide greater flexibility in reaching specific target audiences. A fuel retailer might customize a marketing message to diesel pump customers, for example. A video image library that allows retailers to create more visually compelling promotions. EK3 Technologies' media services division, Channel 3 Media, can also provide customized creative and production services.
While iX Media Enterprise is designed to market to customers at the pump, a complimentary technology, C-Store Media, broadcasts coordinated product promotions on in-store screens. Both iX Media and C-Store Media offer plug-and-play functionality, providing retailers with a user-friendly, web-based tool that guides them step-by-step through the process of choosing images, writing promotional text, adding pricing information and selecting animation effects.
Because Dresser Wayne's entire iX Technology Platform is built on an open architecture model that uses the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, iX Media Enterprise can be managed using any POS system and a CAT 5 Ethernet cable connection. Upgrades and add-ons can be cost-effectively installed.
iX Media Enterprise will be on display at the Dresser Wayne booth at the NACS Show in Las Vegas next week.
Excentus
Excentus Corp., Irving, Texas, a provider of fuel site marketing programs, technology and integration services, has announced the availability of Reward Link for Verifone, a new application to enable cross-marketing programs between grocery stores and fuel outlets.
The solution allows grocers to use Verifone's Ruby SuperSystem in their convenience stores and fuel sites or to partner with c-stores and gas stations that use Verifone's Ruby SuperSystem with Sapphire to give consumers discounts on gasoline for making purchases in the supermarket. Reward Link has been certified by Verifone to integrate and automate retail and fuel operations using the Verifone Loyalty Protocol (VLP).
With Reward Link for Verifone, fuel site operators can use the standard features of their Verifone POS system to link to grocers equipped with the Excentus Reward Marketing Engine.
Reward Link for Verifone automates the redemption of gas discounts, incorporating the transactions seamlessly into point-of-sale operations. At the station, Reward Link for Verifone creates an information gateway from the operator's existing POS system to the loyalty host. The Reward Marketing Engine, in turn, provides a suite of accounting and reconciliation tools that allow retailers to manage cross-marketing partnerships that produce incremental traffic and sales for all parties involved.
PDI
Professional Datasolutions Inc.(PDI), Temple, Texas, has announced PDI/Enterprise, a complete network-centric software system that enables convenience, foodservice and wholesale petroleum operators to do business electronically.
Leveraging the input and feedback from more than 250 customers and the latest Microsoft.Net technology, PDI/Enterprise is an enterprise management system that spans all areas of operation including the home office, the warehouse and critical site-level backoffice and mobile applications. From integration with Microsoft Office to industry-standard business-data interfaces, PDI/Enterprise integrates systems, automates processes, streamlines operations, boosts productivity and improves decision-making.
PDI/Enterprise streamlines business in three ways, by facilitating electronic business with banks, business partners and vendors to reduce labor hours and eliminate errors; by offering extensive labor-saving automated reconciliation features; and by automating business rule exception reports for management review and action.
PDI will demonstrate the new solution at the NACS Show in Las Vegas next week.
Radiant Systems
Radiant Systems Inc., Atlanta, said it has contracted to provide up to 1,000 servers for Additech Inc., supplier of automated fuel additive systems in the petroleum retail industry. Additech has selected the Radiant S4500 server.
Houston-based Additech builds and operates an at-the-pump automotive care system that enables consumers to perform routine auto maintenance while they refuel. Its tuneup at the pump engine care service dispenses and blends specialty fuel additives into gasoline while consumers are filling their tanks.
The S4500 server uses Intel processors, the fastest networking available, locked-down front panel access for maximum security and advanced power and cooling systems for long-term reliable operation.
Veeder-Root
Veeder-Root, Simsbury, Conn., has announced its new On-Board Refueling Vapor Recovery (ORVR) Hanging Hardware System to help station owners comply with impending ORVR compliance deadlines.
Because today's assist stage-II vapor recovery systems are incompatible with the increasing number of new vehicles equipped with ORVR systems, when these vehicles fuel at service stations, vapors are contained at the vehicle in an onboard canister instead of being pushed out the vehicle tank where they would traditionally have been captured by the stage-II system vacuum. As a result, air is ingested into the storage tank, which leads to vaporized product loss.
The ORVR Hanging Hardware System is designed to detect ORVR vehicles that are incompatible with today's assist Stage-II vapor recovery systems and limit this air ingestion that leads to vaporized product.
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