IBM SUPERCOMPUTER TO POWER INFO WAREHOUSE FOR STAPLES; HEIR TO `DEEP BLUE' WILL HELP RETAILER ANALYZE OPERATIONS MORE EFFICIENTLY.

IBM has announced that Staples Inc., (NASDAQ: SPLS), a pioneer of the office superstore industry, will deploy a powerful IBM SP supercomputer in a new enterprise data warehouse.

The solution helps integrate merchandising information across Staples' business channels, which will strengthen the retailer's ability to identify emerging retail trends, manage business operations more effectively and maximize revenue generation.

The $9 billion company decided to extend its data warehouse to merge information from several databases and make it available from a single repository. The system will contain all the information generated by the company's various online and offline businesses. With the information consolidated, Staples will be able to run sophisticated data analyses, giving the company unprecedented insight into its enterprise data.

The heart of the solution is 64-processor IBM SP supercomputer, which is similar to the "Deep Blue" machine that defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The SP -- a parallel computing system comprised of up to 512 separate computers, or "nodes" -- provides the extreme scalability necessary for large data warehouses.

Staples' SP supercomputer runs proprietary decision support applications that sit atop IBM's DB2 Universal Database Enterprise Extended Edition. Data is stored on four terabytes of IBM SSA disk and is backed up daily by Tivoli Storage Manager onto IBM 3590 tape drives.

"The IBM SP supercomputer and DB2 Universal Database give us a solid, scalable foundation on which to build a sophisticated business tool to manage information across all Staples' channels," said David Barclay, Staples vice president of information systems. "We evaluated hardware from other vendors, but felt they could not match the performance and scalability demanded by our business users."

The data warehouse will be initially rolled out to Staples' merchandising department. Ultimately, the system will become a vital decision-support tool used throughout the company to assist supply chain, inventory management and marketing initiatives.

"IBM's supercomputing technology is used by some of the world's most prominent companies to give them the edge they need in a competitive business environment," said Mike Kerr, vice president of products, IBM eServer. "We are very proud to be working with Staples to help them meet their corporate goals."

The new data warehouse is the latest addition of IBM technology into Staples' IT infrastructure. The company also relies on IBM RS/6000, AS/400 and Netfinity servers for a variety of key business operations.