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Pairing Up to Empower Merchants

A fully integrated retail fulfillment suite, including point-of-sale, e- commerce, catalogue, store and head-office functionality, is the latest offering from two of the payment-processing industry's prominent players.

Informix Software, the wholly owned subsidiary of Informix Corp., and Apropos Retail Management Systems, a leading provider of fully integrated software systems for midsize chain retailers and e-tailers, recently announced the release and rollout of the Apropos Ascent suite of products.

Powered by Informix Software's Informix Dynamic Server (IDS), Apropos Ascent provides a comprehensive suite of services for retailers wanting a single, integrated fulfillment solution. In the past, retailers have built independent fulfillment systems for store POS, catalogue and e-commerce solutions that have functioned separately from one another, creating silos of retail functionality rather than a fully integrated retail system. The lack of integration created inconsistencies in pricing and inventory tracking.

"Apropos has been able to leverage the customizable and extensible features of Informix Dynamic Server to give their customers a distinct advantage over the competition," said Brian Staff, Vice President of Marketing at Informix Software. "With the help of Informix Software, Apropos Ascent unifies what traditionally has been a three-pronged approach to retail fulfillment."

With the extensibility and scalability of IDS, Ascent is able to provide services in credit card billing, shipping, receiving, purchasing and order tracking.

"The power of Apropos technology coupled with Informix Software's powerful database technology gives a competitive advantage to all of our customers," said Kent McNall, President of Apropos. "Informix Software and Apropos are able to streamline the needs of retailers, giving them options that were not available before."

Founded in 1989, Apropos Retail Management Systems has become a leading supplier of advanced technology retail software and system solutions to the growing market of small to midsize chains, from five to 250 store locations. Apropos provides complete software systems for growing chain retailers who want to be more profitable and productive.

Apropos is a suite of retail applications built on the advanced SQL database environment. Apropos provides a complete, one-stop solution from POS to back office to e-commerce to accounting and data warehousing.

Informix Software is a provider of database-management systems for data warehousing, transaction processing and e-business applications. With more than 100,000 customers worldwide, Informix Software delivers high- performance database systems in markets including retail, financial services, government, health care, manufacturing, media and publishing, and telecommunications.

For more information, visit their Web sites, www.aproposretail.com and www.informix.com.