TradeStone Customer Deutsche Woolworth Wins ''User of the Year'' Award from Computerwoche and Gartner; Company Also Recognized by Retail Systems' for Global Retail Achievement Awards.

GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- TradeStone Software, the leader in enabling domestic and international sourcing through a Unified Buying Process, is proud to announce that Deutsche Woolworth GmbH, a leading retail customer operating more than 340 outlets in Germany and Austria, has won Computerwoche and Gartner's prestigious "User of the Year 2005" award in the "mid-sized enterprises" category. The award, which recognizes the best German IT projects each year, was presented to Deutsche Woolworth in a ceremony held at Munich's Hotel Bayerischer Hof on November 16.

In addition, Deutsche Woolworth has been named a finalist by Retail Systems for the Global Retail Achievement awards, which will be announced in Dusseldorf, Germany on February 13.

Beating out 77 other contenders in the Computerwoche awards, Deutsche Woolworth was recognized for its bold and strategic IT infrastructure project unifying domestic and international sourcing and streamlining global order management and logistics. This major initiative delivered immediate and significant ROI and was powered, in part, by TradeStone's Software's TradeStone Suite.

The jury lauded Woolworth's "Herculean" task, which consisted of over 200 separate projects that touched upon many of its core IT systems, such as merchandise management, EDI, purchasing planning, the e-mail system and in-house Middleware.

"We are immensely proud of Woolworth's recognition with this prestigious award," said Sue Welch, founder and CEO of TradeStone Software. "As our first European customer, it is especially gratifying to see how quickly the TradeStone Suite helped establish more efficient supply chain practices, unify international and domestic sourcing and enable Deutsche Woolworth to see a return on their technology investment."

Deutsche Woolworth & TradeStone: A Bold IT Restructuring

Since 2002, Deutsche Woolworth has undertaken a bold restructuring to better meet the demands of today's competitive retail market. A key part of the restructuring has been to leverage IT to streamline the company's purchasing processes. On this front, there was much work to do: there was no purchase planning in place, no reconciliation between what collections were planned and what was actually purchased, and no visibility into shipments en route from suppliers. To make matters worse, Deutsche Woolworth's offices in Asia (where roughly 50 percent of their product range is sourced) were using different systems and data from those in the central purchasing office in Germany.

As part of its overall project, Woolworth recognized that it needed a new purchasing and order management application and the ability to streamline supply chain practices between its global offices by unifying international and domestic sourcing.

"We found what we were looking for in global sourcing in the TradeStone Suite. Through its intuitive, Web-based application, our purchasing groups in Asia and Germany were finally united with one process for product planning refinement, procurement and track and trace," said Hartwig Hopfenzitz, CIO, Deutsche Woolworth. "Since implementation, we've been able to better understand profitable product mixes, and focus our Buyers and Merchandisers on what they do best: putting together collections and product portfolios that will drive store traffic and, ultimately, revenues."

According to Heinrich Richter, Head of the Purchasing Department at Deutsche Woolworth: "Within one week of production, the TradeStone Suite delivered significant ROI, by eliminating thousands of faxes and uncovering a freight discrepancy that was leading to excessive shipping costs. Moreover, working directly with suppliers to cut lead times has slashed inventory from our supply chain, representing millions of dollars in additional savings."

Just as Deutsche Woolworth is benefiting from more streamlined, transparent supply chain operations, its customers are also benefiting. The implementation has enabled the retailer to provide customers with better merchandise, better selection and more on-trend and in-season items.

About Deutsche Woolworth GmbH & Co. OHG 

Deutsche Woolworth GmbH & Co. OHG is seen as a veritable retail institution in its home country, where it has been established for more than 75 years and has over 340 outlets with sales floors varying between 400 and 4,000 meters in size. With its 16,000 employees, the company has successfully adapted to changes in consumer expectations. Deutsche Woolworth generated sales of approximately 1 billion Euro in FY2003. 56% of goods offered fall into the non-food and drugstore goods category and 44% in textiles. Six private label brands and approximately 50,000 separate items are offered.

About TradeStone Software, Inc.

TradeStone Software enables retailers and manufacturers to plan, design, collaborate on and purchase goods from across the world as easily as from across the street. TradeStone's Unified Buying Engine uses Web services technology to layer across an organization's existing infrastructure while its modular software fills in buying process gaps to provide a single view, access and interaction across the entire procurement process. The first and only complete solution for global sourcing and unified order management, TradeStone's intuitive, "No Training" technology helps people throughout the supply chain to collaborate globally, enabling users to focus on speeding innovative products to market. Marquee customers include American Eagle Outfitters, The Children's Place, Deutsche Woolworth, Ocean State Job Lot, Pacific Alliance and Federated Department Stores. TradeStone Software is based in Gloucester, Mass. and can be found on the Web at www.TradeStoneSoftware.com.