Tampa, Florida, USA – Applied Data Corporation (ADC), a leading provider of fresh item, recipe management, and scales management software to the grocery retail and food service industries held its 10th annual ReFresh Conference two weeks ago at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach, Florida. ReFresh attendees represented fourteen grocery/supermarket chains from across the United States, as they gathered to discuss and share strategies on implementing ADC's InterStore.Net FIM software suite throughout their stores.
Prior to ReFresh sessions beginning on Wednesday, ADC held the 3rd annual ReFresh meeting for their Retail Advisory Board (RAB) at their headquarters in Tampa, Florida. ADC's RAB is a group of ADC's clients who meet monthly and offer advice to ADC in regards to the direction of the company's strategies, product development and priorities. The annual meeting is an opportunity for the board to receive product and departmental updates from ADC, as well as to assess objectives and goals for the upcoming year.
Based on feedback from last year's conference, the agenda for 2011 was adjusted to include retailer presentations, a panel discussion and a presentation on new technologies from ADC.
On Wednesday, October 26th, ReFresh 2011 kicked off with a presentation by Steve Loveridge, President of ADC. Steve discussed the highlights of the conference agenda and unveiled ADC's new product and suite logos to the attendees.
"We consider ReFresh our annual user group, but have expanded the event to also include prospective clients. This is an ideal time to brainstorm and strategize new ways to implement FIM," Steve stated in his opening presentation. "No one at ReFresh is a stranger. We want you to ask each attendee how his or her company is handling FIM in their stores."
Following Steve's introductory presentation, Robert Appell, ADC's Vice President of Development and Delivery, and Mark Molter, ADC's Director of Channel Development, conducted a product presentation and demonstration of ADC's latest InterStore.Net version 6.4 software suite. Rob and Mark highlighted new features which enhance the user experience, including easier-to-navigate screens and enhanced reporting for both corporate and in-store users.
The retailer presentations were a highlight of this year's conference. Three of ADC's current customers presented on how each is using FIM in their stores:
– Brookshire Grocery Company – www.brookshires.com (Based in Tyler, Texas with over 150 stores) – Brookshire's FIM Coordinator, Jonathan Key, shared his company's successes and challenges when implementing FIM, including the need for a FIM Coordinator. Jonathan discussed his role within the company and the daily tasks he is responsible for to ensure FIM continues to be successful in their stores.
– Associated Food Stores – www.afstores.com (Wholesaler based in Salt Lake City, Utah that distributes to over 600 independently owned retailers) – Lon Herget, InterScale Pricing Specialist at Associated Food Stores, spoke on how they are using FIM, specifically InterScale Scales Manager and NutriGen Recipe Manager, as a wholesaler. He described his company's unique challenges and the benefits Associated Food Stores is seeing because of ADC's FIM solutions.
– A Tier One Grocery Chain with over 2,500 stores – The grocer's Manager of Fresh Item Management spoke on how his company is using ADC's P-Cubed Shrink Management Module to receive eight-digit tax credits through its record-keeping and reporting of food donations they make to charities.
"ReFresh 2011, another great year! The conference had well organized and insightful presentations. The panel session was great – I loved the back and forth dialogue between the panelists and Harold Lloyd." – ReFresh 2011 Attendee
Partner Interaction – Each year ADC's vendor partners showcase their latest solutions at ReFresh and this year was no exception. ReFresh 2011 had a record number of vendor partners supporting the event and attendees were able to interact and network with the following organizations:
– Bizerba
– BRdata
– Hobart
– Ishida Rice Lake Retail Solutions
– Mettler Toledo
– OKI Data
– Specialty Printing
– Zebra Technologies
"I thoroughly enjoyed the 2011 ADC ReFresh event. The speakers were very insightful and provided a good foundation for understanding and implementing Fresh Item Management. I was very pleased with the level of engagement of both the attendees and ADC staff. The conference location events were well prepared and offered a great environment for networking. Thanks again, and see you at the 2012 event!" – Daniel Barber, Ishida
Dates and location for next year's ReFresh in Q4 2012 will be announced by the end of 2011. For additional information, please contact:
Jamie Dedel
ADC
+1.813.849.1818 Ext. 221
www.AppliedDataCorp.com and www.InterStore.Net
About ADC
Since 1989, Applied Data Corporation (ADC) has specialized in the development of data-management solutions for the supermarket, grocery and fresh-food industries. The InterScale scales management software developed by ADC is a global technology leader for host management of supermarket barcode-printing scales. The InterScale system is a member of ADC's InterStore.NET suite of fresh applications which includes: InterScale scales management, NutriGen recipe management and P-Cubed shrink management, fresh inventory management, perishable production planning and ordering. InterStore.NET consolidates ADC's lead in the Fresh Item Management (FIM) software market with an integrated fresh software suite to provide greater efficiencies and optimize production in the grocer's fresh-food departments. For more information on ADC visit www.AppliedDataCorp.com or www.InterStore.Net.
Source: Applied Data Corporation