CommercialWare, IBM Business Partner to Deliver Complete Cross-Channel, Hardware/Software Retail Solution; New Offering Ideal for Small Businesses and Provides Flexible Growth Path for Mature Retailers.

NATICK, Mass. -- CommercialWare Inc., the leading provider of cross-channel commerce solutions for retailers, today announced that IBM eServer iSeries will now offer a Solution Edition for CommercialWare's Cross-Channel Retail Suite that delivers a flexible and affordable software and hardware solution for retailers, providing a seamless experience for their customers on the IBM i520 system.

Part of IBM's Solution Edition program, the offering drops the price for an end-to-end retail solution while delivering cross-channel retailers hardware and software that is both flexible and expandable. With pricing starting at $39,500, the offering represents a tremendous value for smaller retailers and offers a seamless upgrade path for enterprises running multiple operating systems with huge data processing requirements.

This new offering delivers a powerful cross-channel retail solution for the industry, continuing a 22-year relationship between IBM and CommercialWare to help retailers optimize operational efficiency. CommercialWare combines the extensive industry functionality of its suite of software offerings with the power and reliability of the IBM eServer i520 system.

CommercialWare's Cross-Channel Retail Suite, featuring the newly released CWDirect 9.0, delivers cross-channel order management and fulfillment solutions specifically for retailers and direct marketers. By integrating customer-facing activities in the transaction lifecycle, such as marketing, ordering, and customer service, with operational activities across the store, the Internet, and other channels, CommercialWare software gives merchants an enterprise-wide view of mission critical customer information across all channels.

"With this offering, we are able to extend the market reach of the CommercialWare Cross Channel Retail Solution, bringing value, expandability, and leveraging platform investment protection to retailers and direct marketers, ranging from emerging companies to enterprises up to $1 billion in revenue," said Donny Askin, founder and CEO of CommercialWare. "The 520 Solutions Edition combined with the CommercialWare Cross-Channel Retail Solution provides retailers peace of mind that they can invest in a hardware/software solution that will accommodate long-term business growth."

"CommercialWare provides industry leading business applications for retailers leveraging the integration and power of the iSeries system," said Joyce Bordash, director, IBM iSeries channel marketing. "CWDirect provides mission critical enterprise order processing functionality that supports the IBM iSeries system and has proven itself to be a secure, durable, and scalable infrastructure providing real business value in the retail market."

Geared for the constantly changing requirements of small and midsized businesses, the IBM eServer i5 520 system delivers the power and capacity to run core business applications coupled with the ability to add new e-business applications on the same server. iSeries servers are designed to run i5/OS (the next generation of OS/400), AIX 5L, Linux, and Microsoft Windows via an integrated xSeries adaptor. eServer i5 520 servers can help companies reduce complexity, simplify IT infrastructures and reduce total cost of ownership. The Model 520 is a compact 1-way or 2-way server and is available either desk-side or rack-mounted.

"The flexibility afforded by the IBM i520 system was central to our decision to use CommercialWare software," said Brendan Quirk, founder of Competitive Cyclist, a professional-quality bicycle merchant based in Little Rock, AR. "For today, it is part of an affordable solution and represents a first-class hardware and software infrastructure that will give us the room and flexibility to handle our expected future growth."

About CommercialWare, Inc.

Headquartered in Natick, MA, with offices in Toronto and New York, CommercialWare Inc. develops multi-channel commerce infrastructure solutions that allow retailers and direct marketers to optimize transactions from all customer touch points. CommercialWare's comprehensive portfolio of products seamlessly links all aspects of the transaction lifecycle through point-of-sale, back-office, order management, fulfillment, customer service, collaboration, and analytics applications. CommercialWare offers a confluence of multi-channel solutions that power many of the leading retail brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Party Land, Chico's, J.Jill, Ritz Camera, Jos. A. Bank, and Patagonia.