BEDIN Shop Systems Delivers Advanced ‘Connected Retail’ Solutions Up in the Cloud

WPC 2010/WASHINGTON, DC – July 13, 2010 – BEDIN Shop Systems today announced at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 in Washington, D.C. vers. 2.0 of aKite®, www.akite.net, the software services suite for retail stores developed on Microsoft’s Windows Azure and SQL Azure. Vers. 1.0 was announced at PDC 2009 and was delivered to customers when the Windows Azure platform became generally available.

“An excellent example of Microsoft cloud momentum in the retail industry ecosystem, BEDIN’s SOA solutions for retailers and the Windows Azure platform complement well and together deliver the benefits of the cloud and optimize the connected customer experience. Through alliances with industry leaders such as BEDIN, we are able to empower retailers to become ‘Connected Retailers’ by providing capabilities that enhance the connection between retailers and their customers, provide the critical connection needed between retailers and their suppliers, while greatly improving internal collaboration from the desktop to the datacenter, and into the cloud,” said Bill Gonzalez, general manager, Worldwide Distribution and Services Sector, Microsoft.

BEDIN Shop Systems smart clients are light Internet-centric desktop applications, deployed from a web page and automatically updated from Retail Web Services®, the intelligent ”hub in the cloud” designed as a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for straightforward cooperation inside and outside a retail store chain. Retail Web Services® fully leverages SQL Azure, the relational store that is a database offered as a service as part of the Windows Azure platform. POS.net® is the front-store smart client that allows connected and disconnected operations, while back-store SHOP.net® vers. 2.0 includes stock and suppliers management when this activity is not performed by headquarters but instead by store managers, as in the case of franchises.

Another important new feature of BEDIN’s cloud-based retail stores services suite is aDI , aKite® Document Interchange, a software service based on the Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus that greatly simplifies integration with legacy ERPs and other on-premises systems such as aKite® DWH, a Microsoft SQL Server for custom business intelligency (BI) updated in near-real-time from all stores. One of the unique features of the AppFabric Service Bus is lack of any system activity or firewall parameterization, without any compromise on security, ensuring simple and fast deployment.

The advantages of SaaS delivered from PaaS.

As distinguished from Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), an advanced Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) such as the Windows Azure platform, performs automatically a wide range of complex system tasks including instant scalability, load balancing, fault tolerance, disaster recovery and software upgrades without any service interruption.

“The Windows Azure platform allows us to deliver a very high SLA and at the same time concentrate our efforts on what we have done best from more than 20 years: design software tools that help retailers to manage and optimize their business,” said Davide Bedin, BEDIN Shop Systems CTO.

“aKite from BEDIN Shop Systems is a best case of how a Partner can generate value for the end customers leveraging the Windows Azure platform to create innovative solutions which enable fast time-to-market, simplicity to deploy, flexibility, expected SLA and instant integration with the existing on-premises assets an organization has invested in the past,” said Anders Nilsson, Director Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Italy.

“The aKite® reduction of store servers, the energy efficiency of Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, coupled with our capability to use always the right level of resources, is our contribution to Greentailing,” said Giorgio Betti, BEDIN Shop Systems Sales&Marketing Manager.

The aKite® simplicity

Bottega Veneta is a brand of the Gucci Group, international leader in the luxury segment. Adriano Voglino the MIS Manager said, “For our first PopUpStore, opened in Milano last April 13-18, we wanted a POS solution lighter and faster to deploy. We chose the aKite® Software-as-a-Service developed by BEDIN Shop Systems and delivered from the Windows Azure platform. Not only did deployment take only a few minutes, but sales assistant training also has been very fast. As a result, our sales and marketing organization now can monitor the temporary store sales in real time, while sell-out data goes automatically to our ERP and CRM. aKite and the Windows Azure platform will be our standard system for this store format from now on.”

About BEDIN Shop Systems – The company has more than 20 years of experience in software development for retail stores and an internationally recognized innovation track record, including the first POS designed on .NET, the first intelligent hub between headquarters and stores based on Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA) and delivered in SaaS mode, as well the first POS and In-Store Management system designed for Cloud Computing. Web www.akite.net , email wladimiro.bedin@akite.net , phone +39 0423 839834.