Pep Boys Speeds Checkout and Reduces Costs With 360Commerce Rollout

Rapid Implementation Exceeds Expectations, Delivering Large Dividends

As part of a technology overhaul designed to get their business running on all cylinders, Pep Boys completed a successful chain-wide rollout of the 360Commerce product suite, including their market-leading Point-of-Sale application. The entire project was completed in twelve months and was rolled out this summer. Since the completion of the project, Pep Boys is reporting a lower total cost of ownership, increased flexibility and scalability to address their rapidly changing business requirements, and the ability to provide an enhanced customer experience inside the store.

To maintain its market leadership, Pep Boys wanted to expand its business and bring its customer service to the next level. "We knew going into this project that we had chosen a strong, proven partner in 360Commerce and they have delivered. In fact, they have exceeded our expectations," said John Mitchell, CIO for Pep Boys. "360Commerce has worked diligently and their professional integrity shows in the final product."

Pep Boys has seen noticeable benefits since completion of the chain-wide rollout of 360Commerce's Point-of-Sale and Back Office applications, including the ability to provide a superior customer experience by allowing employees to serve customers from a single workstation, whether the customer is in the retail store or at the service center. Pep Boys is better able to track returns by scanning receipts, preventing the return of products that weren't purchased at one of its stores. An intuitive and consistent POS interface enables employees to quickly learn the new systems and be more productive and efficient when serving customers. "With the added stability and efficiency of this new solution from IBM and 360Commerce, we have improved our daily operations, employee productivity, and our customer service, as well as our ability to develop systems and grow our company," says Mitchell.

The point-of-sale implementation is part of a larger technology effort to revitalize Pep Boys' IT efforts and leverage the right technology at the right point of contact to provide a superior shopping experience inside the store. Key components of this major IT initiative included a chain-wide implementation of Point-of-Sale and Back Office applications from 360Commerce and point-of-sale hardware, in-store servers and an e-business integration platform from IBM.

About Pep Boys

Pep Boys has 593 stores and over 6,000 service bays in 36 states and Puerto Rico. Along with its vehicle repair and maintenance capabilities, the company also serves the commercial auto parts delivery market and is one of the leading sellers of replacement tires in the United States. Customers can find the nearest location by calling 1-800-PEP-BOYS or by visiting pepboys.com.

About 360Commerce

360Commerce's proven and flexible store and workforce management applications are running in more of the world's leading retailers than any comparable Java solution. 360Commerce empowers retailers to achieve profitable differentiation by enabling a superior shopping experience and providing a lower total cost of ownership and rapid time to ROI. 360Commerce's applications embody the best-practices functionality of customers such as Apple, Circuit City, FedEx Kinko's, Gap Inc., and The Home Depot. Their applications include Point-of-Sale, Back Office, Inventory Management, Central Office, Returns Management, and Workforce Management.

On the Net: 360Commerce site: http://www.360Commerce.com

Pep Boys site: http://www.pepboys.com

Distributed by Market Wire