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total product revenues in fiscal 1999. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis
of Financial Condition and Results of Operations -- Future Financial
Performance."
TECHNOLOGY
We maintain advanced management information systems and have automated most
key business functions using on-line, real time systems. These systems enable us
to provide our clients with information concerning sales, inventory levels,
customer payments and other operations that are essential for our clients to
efficiently manage their electronic commerce business programs. Our systems are
designed to scale rapidly to handle the transaction processing demands of our
clients.
We employ technology from a selected group of partners. For example, we use
IBM AS/400 and Netfinity servers to run both Web site functions as well as order
management and distribution functions, and we use Lucent Technologies for
telephone switch and call center management functions. We also use Lucent
Technologies for our Web enabled customer care center to interact with customers
with voice, e-mail or chat and to communicate with the customer by sharing Web
pages between the customer and our customer service representative. The ability
to process voice, data and video synchronously on the same line is becoming very
effective. We have just begun to implement these technologies in our call
centers. We have seen our clients interested in using this technology to allow
shoppers the ability to consult with known experts prior to purchasing. Our
sophisticated computer-telephony integration has been accomplished by combining
systems software from IBM and Lucent Technologies together with our own
application development. We use AT&T for our private enterprise network and long
distance carrier. We use J.D. Edwards as the software provider for the primary
applications that we use in our operational areas and financial areas. We use
Rapistan/Demag for our warehouse management, automated conveyor and "pick-to-
light" (inventory retrieval) systems and Telxor for our warehouse radio
frequency (RF) applications.
We have developed proprietary technology that is specifically targeted at
quickly integrating and synchronizing our systems with those of our clients with
a high degree of accuracy and reliability. We can track information sent to us
by the client as it moves through our systems in the same manner a package would
be tracked by a carrier throughout the delivery process. Our systems enable us
to trace at a detailed level what information was received, when it was
received, any errors or special handling that had to take place to process it
and what was sent back to the client. We have also developed proprietary
electronic interfaces that we provide to the client or their selected Web
developer to easily integrate their Web site with our systems. These tools allow
for efficient customized integration with our client and powerful real-time Web
site transaction processing. The implementation of these systems allows us to
offer an advanced suite of electronic commerce tools to our clients so that we
can communicate with their computer systems and automatically process, send and
receive orders, customer data and other information. We have not applied for
copyright or patent protection for our proprietary technology, although we may
do so in the future.
We have also invested in advanced telecommunications, computer telephony,
electronic mail and messaging, automated fax technology, barcode scanning,
wireless technology, fiber optic network communications and automated inventory
management systems. We have also developed and utilize telecommunications
technology that provides for automatic customer call recognition and customer
profile recall for inbound customer service representatives.
Our systems development team consists of over 35 information technology
professionals whose primary responsibility is directed at implementing custom
solutions for new clients and maintaining existing client relationships. Our
development team can also produce proprietary systems infrastructure to expand
our capabilities in circumstances where we cannot purchase standard solutions
from commercial providers. We also utilize temporary resources when needed for
additional capacity.
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