Clients Rate JDS 92 out of 100!

March 22, 2006

WIN-2006 Annual WinRetailT Users Conference Update

Carlsbad, CA - WIN-2006, this year's annual JDS Solutions Corporation Users Conference, was held at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort, overlooking the ocean in Carlsbad, CA. This year's conference theme, "Expanding Your Retail World", set the stage for two and one half days packed with information focused on increasing the value users obtained from WinRetailT and Tradewind®.

With delegate count nearly triple that of last year, and attendance at over 80% of its client base, JDS and its clients enjoyed an open exchange of ideas that, as has been the case in the past, will ensure the ongoing vitality of the JDS suite of products.

“The Conferences get better each year.  Thanks for all your support!”
John Daub – President, Irresistibles

The Conference featured by-industry breakout sessions where clients could discuss in an open forum, the ways that they use WinRetail™ and Tradewind® to better manage their businesses.  The forum also provided the users with an opportunity to communicate with each other and subsequently with the JDS development team, the added features and functions that they would like to see incorporated into future releases of the product.

“For me, the best part of the Conference was hearing others and their implementation experiences; learning how they wrapped their heads around the retail concepts and operational concerns”
Grant Christy – Project Coordinator, Reserve America

A portion of the conference was devoted to an “Open House” format, where various members of the JDS development, implementation, training and technical team were available to answer individual questions posed by users.  In those sessions, attendees had the opportunity to obtain guidance on a one on one basis.

As always, focused user training on new feature/functions in the Enterprise System was an integral part of the Conference. With several sessions focused on specific topics such as the newly released WinRetail™ Advanced Planning System and the recently released Order Entry/Web Sales modules, attendees learned not only what was newly available, but in addition how those new releases could impact their business.

“The conference was very good! Thank you so much for the preparation and efforts JDS made to make this
successful!”
Lee Cathey – Project Director - The National Gallery of Art (NGA)

New Product Releases

The conference also served as the formal announcement of the general release of several new modules available as add-ons to the WinRetail™ Enterprise Management System:

WinRetail™ Advanced Merchandise Planning: Designed for the merchandiser that wants more than a basic Open to Buy system (basic Open to Buy is included in the base WinRetail™ system), the Advanced Merchandise Planning Module includes the sophisticated planning and reporting capability found in Planning specific products offered by other companies at significantly higher price points. 

WinRetail™ Replenishment:  An auto replenishment system that operates in conjunction with the purchasing and suggested reorder capabilities of WinRetail™ to provide retailers with logic based merchandise re-stocking tools. 

WinRetail™ Web: To provide its clients with access to web and catalog sales, JDS developed and unveiled a new suite of products aimed at the growing trend for retailers of all sizes to have an active web presence.  Included in the new add on module is a full featured Order Entry capability, an Order Entry Import capability that allows sales generated on the web to be seamlessly imported into WinRetail™ for fulfillment, and a web export capability to allow the easy export of items created in WinRetail™ to the web store.  A full compliment of data warehouse reporting is also included.

Portable POS™: JDS introduced Portable POS™ developed by Datavantage, Inc to its users.  A hand held sales entry device, Portable POS is equipped with a wireless scanner and receipt printer, to allow entry of sales by cashiers that “go to the customer”. 

Client Satisfaction Survey

As is the case at every Users Conference, JDS asks its clients to complete a “blind” survey covering various topics that range from opinions related to the conference itself, to the products, staffing and services of JDS as a company.  JDS received an overall rating of 92 out of 100!
The overall averaged results of this year’s survey are shown below: