Ace Hardware Selects MicroStrategy Over Cognos; Eventual Use in Over 5,200 Stores
McLean, Va., (July 08, 2002) –
MicroStrategy® Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), a leading worldwide provider of business intelligence software, today announced that Ace Hardware is using the MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform(TM) with the goal of enhancing sales and increasing profit margins. Approximately 1,000 Ace Hardware stores currently use the MicroStrategy platform to generate business reports against a one-terabyte sized NCR Teradata data warehouse. Ace Hardware has indicated that it has future plans to upgrade to MicroStrategy 7i(TM) and deploy its business intelligence applications to more than 5,200 stores worldwide.
“One of the reasons we chose MicroStrategy over Cognos is the remarkable ease with which we can deploy reports via the Web to thousands of end users across our company,” said Brian Smetana, senior business analyst at Ace Hardware. “We have also noticed how quickly we are changing corporate culture to rely on point-of-sale data and make more informed business decisions. MicroStrategy software derives insight from our data warehouse that allows Ace to fine-tune store operations and sales across the board.”
Ace Hardware is using the MicroStrategy platform to anchor numerous business intelligence applications, including its marketing analysis, customer loyalty, retail pricing, category management, merchandising, inventory, wholesale pricing and stores applications. A variety of Ace Hardware employees use the technology to perform targeted promotions to loyal customers, determine optimal product mixes for different types of stores, and suggest best-of-retail pricing to Ace Hardware stores that are designed to increase profit margins.
“Our company is always looking for new opportunities to enhance sales and increase profit margins, and MicroStrategy provides us with the technology to do just that,” added Smetana.
About Ace Hardware Corporation
Founded in 1924, Ace Hardware Corporation is headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., and is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the industry. Ace has 5,000 independently owned and operated stores located in all 50 states and in 72 countries on six continents, with annual retail sales exceeding $13 billion. More information on Ace can be found at www.acehardware.com.
About MicroStrategy
Leadership in a Critical Market: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a worldwide leader in the increasingly critical business intelligence software market. Large and small companies alike are harnessing MicroStrategy’s business intelligence software to gain vital insights from their data to help them proactively enhance cost-efficiency, productivity and customer relations and optimize revenue-generating strategies. MicroStrategy’s business intelligence platform offers exceptional capabilities that provide organizations — in virtually all facets of their operations — with user- friendly solutions to their data query, reporting, and advanced analytical needs, and distributes valuable insight on this data to users via Web, wireless, and voice. PC Magazine selected MicroStrategy 7(TM) as the 2001 “Editors’ Choice” for business intelligence software.
Enterprise-Class Business Intelligence: MicroStrategy 7i(TM) is a truly integrated, enterprise-class, Web-based business intelligence platform. With MicroStrategy 7i, enterprises can now standardize on one business intelligence platform and deploy high-value business intelligence enterprise-wide. MicroStrategy 7i’s configurable query, reporting, and OLAP Web interface is designed to support all users, from casual report viewers to power analysts.
Diverse Customer Base: MicroStrategy’s customer base cuts across industry and sector lines, with over 1,500 enterprise-class customers, including Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, AT&T Wireless Group, Wachovia and GlaxoSmithKline. MicroStrategy also has relationships with over 400 systems integrators and application development and platform partners, including IBM, PeopleSoft, Compaq, and JD Edwards.
MicroStrategy is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MSTR. For more information on the company, or to purchase or demo MicroStrategy’s software, please visit MicroStrategy’s Web site at http://www.microstrategy.com.
This press release may include statements that may constitute “forward-looking statements,” including its estimates of future business prospects or financial results and statements containing the words “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “expect” or similar expressions and the plans of Ace Hardware to upgrade and deploy additional MicroStrategy software applications to more than 5,200 stores. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results of MicroStrategy Incorporated and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company”) to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to such differences include: future budget and software procurement decisions by Ace Hardware, which may differ from its current expectations for its future needs for the Company’s software products; the Company’s ability to secure financing for its current operations and long-term plans on acceptable terms; the ability of the Company to implement and achieve widespread customer acceptance of its MicroStrategy 7i software on a timely basis; the Company’s ability to recognize deferred revenue through delivery of products or satisfactory performance of services; continued acceptance of the Company’s products in the marketplace; the timing of significant orders; delays in the Company’s ability to develop or ship new products; market acceptance of new products; competitive factors; general economic conditions; currency fluctuations and other risks detailed in the Company’s registration statements and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release.
MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform, MicroStrategy 7, MicroStrategy 7i are either trademarks or registered trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated in the United States and certain other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Alka Nayyar
MicroStrategy Incorporated
(703) 847-4897
anayyar@microstrategy.com
Source: MicroStrategy