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| Subject: Now that it has corrected in share price--in the speculative sense Geoffo likes it | |
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Author: 2000 Thin technologies |
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Date Posted: 17:32:44 01/28/03 Tue KJ's point--actually I don't know whether it was Thin KJ was rapping on about----company's like it--KJ was saying great business concepts---it is the margin on profits though--which are pretty slim--KJ was writing this in the year 2000 when the share price was very much higher than it is today---on company's such as this. Now that we have had this correction--Geoffo reckons--who likes other stuff as well such as HRV's POT (he follows these company's) maybe worth investigating for speculative potential. geoffo (ID#: 41968) Flavour of the month.. 29/1/03 9:57:51 AM 5975063 « Previous Message Next Message » not exactly. If it can stay in there it might indeed have a future. "Retailers explore Java POS systems "By CAROL SLIWA JANUARY 27, 2003 Source: Computerworld Growing numbers of retailers are scoping out Java-based point-of-sale (POS) systems as one option to replace their aging cash registers. Several retailers that are either deploying or piloting Java POS systems said they like the fact that the software can run on any hardware or operating system and also noted that they're finding the code easy to modify as their needs expand. Some also reported decreases in implementation and support costs, depending on the additional systems choices they have made. "We want something that won't lock us into any particular platform and will give us the flexibility to deploy it in whatever way we'd like in the future," said Mike Prince, CIO at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. in Burlington, N.J. Prince said his company has committed to a Java POS system on Linux and is rolling out the Linux operating system but has postponed the Java POS portion because of competing projects. Robin Lynas, CIO at Mark's Work Wearhouse Ltd., a Calgary, Alberta-based chain that was acquired last year by Canadian Tire Corp., found himself peppered with questions from fellow retailers at the National Retail Federation Conference & Expo earlier this month in New York. The Canadian retailer has rolled out its Java POS system from Retek Inc. to new Linux-based IBM terminals at 70 stores. Plans call for the rollout at the remaining 240 stores to be completed by the end of June. "My guys said, 'Do we really want to pay Microsoft licensing fees? Why don't you go open systems?' " Lynas recalled. Once they proved that the POS system would run on Linux, he was sold. Mark's Work Wearhouse claims to have lowered store opening costs by 30% and maintenance costs by 50%, in part because it no longer needs in-store servers. The registers will connect directly via frame relay to central servers at the home office, thanks in part to Java's networking class libraries, according to Retek Chief Technology Officer John Gray. Another advantage that Mark's Work Wearhouse has found is the ease with which developers can bolt on new applications that connect to the POS system. Those include Web site, time sheet, business account and Web reporting applications, Lynas said. "Retek gives you the Java source code for their POS application," Lynas said. "You just take the objects they've got and extend them and write your new functionality." Java at Home Depot Atlanta-based The Home Depot Inc., whose IT shop is heavily invested in Java, settled on a Java POS system from 360Commerce Inc. in Austin, Texas, so it would be able to migrate code between clients and servers running disparate operating systems, said Ray Allen, director of IT. The POS terminals run Windows 2000, and the servers run different flavors of Unix from Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM, Allen noted. "POS applications typically live for 10 to 12 years, and they're very tightly integrated with whatever the retailer chooses to provide," he said. "So you're trying to make the best guesses for what might be going on five to six years down the road." Allen said changes can be made "much easier and faster with a component-based solution, [distributed] architecture and object-oriented language like Java." Jerry Rightmer, CTO at 360Commerce, said building a POS system in Java was "a fairly risky decision" in 1997 when his company began developing products. But he said the list of Java POS vendors is growing and now includes PCMS Datafit Inc., JDA Software Group Inc. and Triversity Inc., among others. "The language is easier to work with than previous generations of languages, it's more productive than C or C++, and it has all the benefits of object-oriented languages without some of the traps and pitfalls of C++ in particular," he said. "Plus, it has an extremely rich set of APIs that has made it easy for us to integrate with third-party middleware and databases." Urs Karrer, an analyst at McLean, Va.-based BearingPoint Inc., which was formerly KPMG Consulting, said he thinks more vendors ultimately will opt for Java for portability reasons. But he's not so sure how much that will matter to customers. "Retailers don't care that much unless they have a custom development shop," Karrer said. James Crawford, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., said the retail trend toward new POS systems has nothing to do with Java, Microsoft Corp.'s .Net or any other development platform. He said retailers simply want an open POS system that can be used with any hardware or software, as opposed to old POS systems that often had integrated and proprietary hardware, software and data platforms. But Paula Rosenblum, an analyst at AMR Research Inc. in Boston, said the Java POS story has become interesting because of some very high-profile pilots, and she expects rollouts to escalate this year." « Previous Message Next Message » This message has been viewed times Report a BullBoards Violation Ignore geoffo Post Reply View Threads [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |