Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

Island Pacific ushered in 2003 with a torrent of announcements at the National Retail Federation convention held in New York City last week. The application vendor, which writes an OS/400-based merchandise management system used by more than 100 retailers, has named a new chief executive officer and launched six new partnerships that will deliver new business intelligence, point of sale, and business process management software, as well as new weather-related forecasting capabilities, to its customers.

The Irvine, California, company has been developing merchandising applications on IBM's midrange platform for the past 25 years. The organization survived a brief name change stemming from its 1999 acquisition by SVI Solutions, based in Carlsbad, California. Before last April, the company was doing business as SVI's Merchandise Management System group. SVI then renamed the organization Island Pacific, as part of its "back to the future" strategy to regain market share. Its product line name remained InFocus Merchandise Management System.

Among the company's new alliances is one with Planalytics, which calls for integrating InFocus with Impact LR, Planalytics' Internet-based offering that measures how weather can affect consumer demand, by product, location, and time. The Wayne, Pennsylvania, company specializes in providing historical weather-related information and showing companies how weather can impact their business. By getting a jump on the weather (up to a year in advance), Planalytics says, companies can plan their product distribution, advertising, and promotion timing more effectively.

Island Pacific also formed a new partnership with KMG Solutions, a Sarasota, Florida, company that writes business process management and legacy integration software specifically for retailers. Island Pacific will market and support KMG Solutions' BPM application, called TRAXION, a suite of Java-based software that runs on IBM's WebSphere application server and allows companies to map existing business processes, model new applications, and bring the different components together.

Island Pacific also announced a new partnership with VisionCompass, a Seattle developer of Windows-based business intelligence software. Under the terms of the agreement, Island Pacific will market the company's software, which is also called VisionCompass, to its installed base.

While Island Pacific has been a proponent of the iSeries platform and its predecessors for a quarter of a century, the Windows platform seems to be favored in the retail industry when it comes to analytical workloads. And Island Pacific's new president, Steven Beck, has a solid background in analytical tools for the retail business. Beck, a 30-year industry veteran hired as the company's president in October, developed ARTHUR, a Windows-based analytical solution owned by JDA Software, an Island Pacific competitor and the largest developer of OS/400-based enterprise software for retailers.

Another industry veteran, Harvey Braun, was appointed to lead the company as its new chief executive. Braun recently retired from Deloitte Consulting, one of the most respected management consulting firms, where he recently held the title of senior partner of DC's consumer business practice. Braun worked with many of DC's retail and consumer goods clients, and he was instrumental in developing the company's consulting, audit, and tax business into a $2 billion enterprise.

Braun left little doubt that he has big plans for Island Pacific. In his opening statement, he said it's time for a "revolution in the evolution of our industry," and he indicated that the company would participate in a version of IBM's vision of "on-demand" computing. "We will not simply introduce products with updated report writing capability or faster data access; that's the way the industry evolved in the past," he said. "We will bring retailers solutions that will change the way they look at their business. We are building the most complete network of expertise available to build these solutions and to be 'on-call' for retailers. Keep your eye on Island Pacific; we are here to start a revolution."

It would appear that partnerships are the key to Braun's "revolution," as the company has also formed an OEM agreement with Raymark, a Montreal, Quebec, company that develops Windows-based point of sale (POS) software. As part of the agreement Island Pacific will integrate, market, and support Raymark's Xpert Store POS software under the Island Pacific brand name.

Yet another Island Pacific partnership was formed with Wazagua. This effort brings Wazugua's Loss Prevention Case Management software, delivered via application service provider (ASP), to Island Pacific's customer base. Wazugua is a Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, company that develops loss-management software.

Two customer sales were also being celebrated by the company. A new contract with The Walking Company calls for augmenting the footwear retailer's Merchandise Management System with Trends, Island Pacific's OS/400-based replenishment system. The Walking Company, which has experienced significant growth since first becoming an Island Pacific customer in 1994, hopes to use the analytical and forecasting capabilities of Trends to further reduce instances where incorrect inventory results in lost sales. Group USA, a women's clothes retailer with 22 stores, is another new Island Pacific customer. The company will be implementing the core Merchandise Management application and surrounding it with additional modules, including Merchandising, The Eye, Financials, Sales Audit, Warehouse, Ticketing, and Events--all running on a new iSeries.

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