Natural Insight Unveils New “GPS Check-In” iPhone App

Verifies worker location by combining the Natural Insight SaaS platform with popular GPS-enabled iPhones

STERLING, Va. — In response to market demand, Natural Insight has announced the launch of its new iPhone application, GPS Check-In. Available for free download on the iPhone App Store beginning in April, GPS Check-In answers the question: “How do I know my workers are where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there?” The application’s advanced design leverages the Natural Insight platform and the GPS capability of the Apple iPhone to verify a worker’s location with the press of a button.
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Signature Retail Opens West Coast Division

Signature Retail has announced the formal launch of its West Coast Division based in Orange County, CA. The company has also announced the appointment of Marc Shapiro as the Vice President to head the office. As Vice President, Shapiro, will be responsible for managing the company’s activities in the fourteen western states. Shapiro brings over 20 years of home improvement channel retail service experience to the company. Marc is a member of the MSO committee of The National Association for Retail Marketing Services (NARMS) and has been featured on CNN discussing retail service.
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Store Opening Solutions Concludes Successful 9th Annual Best Practices Symposium

The 9th Annual Best Practices Symposium in Marco Island, Florida, co-sponsored by Store Opening Solutions and Koch Logistics, brought national retailers together to discuss best practices for the store opening and remodel process. Discussions among retail leaders included LEED for Retail, presented by Ken Buschle and Judah Rubin with the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and the State of the Retail Supply Chain study results, presented by Dr. Brian Gibson from Auburn University.
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Footprint Retail Services Completes Acquisition of Prism Retail Services

Combination creates national, full-service retail merchandising platform

We are pleased to announce that Footprint Retail Services has completed the strategic acquisition of Prism Retail Services. Prism provides in-store merchandising services to leading retailers and consumer brands throughout the U.S. Its services are complementary to Footprint’s current offering and include new store set-up, store remodels, category resets and item cut-ins, among others. Prism has a 17-year track record of providing high-quality in-store services to its clients.

For more information, please contact:
Kevin Lee, Vice President
Footprint Retail Services

Phone: 630 324 3555
klee@footprintretailservices.com
www.footprintretailservices.com

Store Opening Solutions Provides Retailers Information On Doing More With Less

Store Opening Solutions and Koch Logistics co-sponsor the 9th Annual Best Practices Symposium.

Store Opening Solutions will co-sponsor the 9th Annual Best Practices Symposium in Marco Island, Florida. The Symposium explores best practices in store openings, remodels, rollouts, fixtures, store closings, relocations and reverse logistics. Together with Koch Logistics, Store Opening Solutions will co-host discussions among retail leaders regarding industry challenges and the most recent technologies and practices available to help retailers achieve more results with less.
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ICC/Decision Services Launches Second of its iPhone Applications – ConversionCalc

The latest in iPhone applications shows retailers the dollar value resulting from increasing their conversion rates.

New York, NY — ICC/Decison Services’ latest in iPhone applications shows retailers the dollar value resulting from increasing their conversion rates. ConversionCalc™ is the second of its iPhone applications available for free download on iTunes. ICC’s existing application, the UpSellCall™, was the first of its kind in the industry when it was launched this past summer. ICC/Decison Services is an international customer experience management company based in New York City.
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Hy-Vee CEO Ric Jurgens Honored as Retailer of Year by Iowa Grocers. Mueller-Yurgae Associates, Blue Bunny’s George Tracy also recognized at IGIA annual dinner

DES MOINES, Iowa – More than 400 grocery industry leaders attended the 16th Annual Iowa Grocery Industry Association Hall of Fame Dinner Tuesday, November 3, at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel, where the IGIA honored its Retailer of the Year, Supplier of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award winners.

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TeamHaven & FSS Receive Top Honors at Marketing Channel’s Annual Awards Banquet: Most Effective Use of Technology and Data

November 2009 - United Kingdom – After going up against the best companies in the Field Marketing industry, TeamHaven and FSS’s case study on Cadbury UK was selected as the winner of the Most Effective Use of Technology and Data. Partnering up with TDRIVEN, a creative agency in Orange County, California, FSS and TDRIVEN prepared a winning product that truly displayed the power of TeamHaven’s technology.

Field Sales Solutions (FSS) have been working with Cadburys for over 17 years, offering a number of field marketing disciplines from sales and distribution drives through to merchandising and auditing activities.

With a cutting-edge, industry leading IT system, TeamHaven, FSS has created a bespoke platform for Cadbury – enabling them to provide a greener, paperless means of briefing the field team, collecting data (via PDA) and providing online reports back to Cadburys. This use of IT, coupled with FSS’ use of CACI’s Journey Planning system to ensure the Ambassadors spend the minimum number of hours possible on the road (and a significant reduction of vehicle emissions) has earned them the Field Marketing and Brand Experience “Green Award for Effective Use of Data and IT”.
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The Beam Team Acquires Ready Set Management

Atlanta, GA (October 2, 2009) – The Beam Team has recently acquired the merchandising division of Ready Set Companies (RSM) retail services. Ready Set is headquartered in Schaumburg, IL with approximately 250 employees. RSM provides retail services specializing in in-store merchandising installation including product assembly. With a strong business presence in the Midwest market, RSM will improve the Beam Team market coverage, enhance their service offering and generate new efficiencies.

According to Beam Team President, Rick Hall, “This deal is a smart move for both companies on many levels. It will improve our ability to offer our existing customers better coverage and make us more competitive for future growth opportunities. Ready Set provides many of the same services as we do and they have an experienced work force. Adding them to our team builds our commitment to employ full-time (W-2) workers who consistently out-perform companies who rely on a temporary work force. Ready Set also has strong management that we will leverage to grow our business. Leading this group is Ed Martin, a former director at The Home Depot, who will bring great insight into the industry.
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Lawrence Merchandising Announces New President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Birke

MINNEAPOLIS, September 15, 2009 – Lawrence Merchandising, a Minneapolis-based Merchandising Service Organization, today announced the appointment of Stephen (Steve) Birke as the president and chief executive officer effective October 5, 2009. Birke succeeds Don Koller who resigned on August 7, 2009 to pursue other interests.
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