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Reprinted from Newsday Business & Technology Section Pg C7Smoothing the Wrinkles In Furniture Retail
Danny LanzettaOctober 22, 2001Innovation looks at one emerging company each Monday. Most are closely held and have devised a unique technology, a new level of service or an unusual way of doing business.
A designer, developer and supplier of software packages for the retail
furniture industry, specializing in bar-coded systems and electronic data
interface (EDI) systems. The company is a start-over company that was
established in 1970 and bought by MAI Basic Four Computer Systems, a
developer of an interactive multi-user computer system. After the original owner, Frank J. Kavanagh, pictured, reacquired Valid Data, the company began to focus on the development of bar-coding and EDI systems for the retail furniture industry. The bar-coding system, mainly seen in use at supermarkets and retail stores, has the ability to scan products at a point-of-sale (POS) workstation within a store in order to print out an invoice for a customer and store the information in a computer. In addition, the company has developed a POS system that works in conjunction with the bar-coding system for the retail furniture industry. The company's EDI system, which has been outsourced to companies such as Bassett Furniture Inc., sends a purchase order directly to the manufacturer's computer after it is scanned. The EDI sends the information electronically and alleviates the need for a second person to enter the order information into the system. Manufacturers would acknowledge most service orders with the old system, but with the EDI system they acknowledge all orders because the manufacturer's computer can send an electronic acknowledgment to the client who ordered the item.
Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc. |