OATSystems Announces Real-Time Promotion Execution Solution

OAT’s Standards-Based Solution Uses Real-Time Alerts to Revolutionize Promotion Execution, Significantly Improving Retailer, Manufacturer Results

DALLAS – March 27, 2007—OATSystems Inc. today announced here at RFID World 2007 its Real-Time Promotion Execution Solution (RPE), which boosts the results of in-store promotions dramatically, benefiting both retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. It does so by providing visibility where previously none existed, thus enabling both retailers and manufacturers to determine if promotional displays are reaching stores and the sales floor on time.

CPG firms typically invest significantly in in-store product promotions, using as a primary vehicle a manufactured display that features the promoted product. These displays are typically shipped from contracted manufacturers directly to retailers’ stores. All too frequently, operational challenges prevent these displays from reaching the sales floor at the beginning of the promotional period. In fact, industry statistics show that between 15% to 40% of stores fail to move displays to the sales floor on time, missing critical promotional windows and the opportunity to increase sales.

Using OAT’s RFID Mobile Tag solution, manufacturers apply tags to promotional displays. In-store RFID readers read the displays’ tags to record when they reach the backroom of the store and again when the displays reach the sales floor. When a display’s tag is read, data is sent to CPG firms and retailers showing whether the display has reached the sales floor on time. With this innovation, CPG companies and their retail customers can intervene promptly when displays fail to reach the sales floor on time. This benefits the CPG company, the retailer and the consumer by ensuring promoted products are where customers expect them to be.

RPE is the first promotion execution solution to use standard electronic product codes enabling CPG companies to manage and carry out RFID promotions at the facilities of contract manufacturers, distribution centers and multiple retailers. The new solution supports the entire promotion process, tracking displays from manufacturers to distribution centers to the store’s sales floor.

The company said that Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) has begun using the new RFID application as part of a pilot program with one of its retail customers to monitor in-store product promotions processes more efficiently and, thus, manage more closely. In addition, OAT announced that Kimberly-Clark has also licensed and rolled out OAT’s just-announced mobile tagging solution (See today’s Kimberly-Clark Deploys First Mobile RFID Tagging Solution; Uses OATSystems' Mobile Tag to Improve In-Store Product Promotions).

“Consumer product companies spend billions of dollars each year on promotions, but until now, have had no visibility into how well they execute their promotions,” said Paul Cataldo, vice president of Marketing, OATSystems. “Enabling real-time intervention to improve promotional execution is critical to maximizing the return on investment and increasing the bottom line results. Kimberly-Clark continues to be a strong proponent of RFID and the RPE solution, and all of us at OAT are looking forward to continuing this very successful collaboration.”

RPE is available immediately.

About OAT (www.oatsystems.com)
OATSystems Inc. is the recognized radio-frequency identification (RFID) solution leader with software applications that empower businesses to achieve a competitive advantage and increase ROI. It provides solutions supporting the entire RFID process from tagging to data capture and filtering to analysis. As a pioneer in developing RFID technology, OAT has been setting the standards for more than half a decade and is responsible for industry firsts that include the largest scale and scope of deployments, as well as the most innovative approaches to providing enterprise-wide RFID solutions. OAT’s multinational client base consists of more than 80 customers in the retail, consumer packaged goods, industrial and other markets. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, OAT has offices in Austin, Chicago, London and Bangalore. To learn more about the company’s latest developments, visit the website at www.oatsystems.com.

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