ETD: 833 Check 21-Office Teller / Remote Deposit; Wal-Mart: RFID Collaboration is Critical; Microsoft To Pay $536 Million To Settle Novell Suit

E-Tailer's Digest etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Nov 9 12:28:40 GMT 2004


  E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the  Retailer
  Issue #0833            November 9, 2004
  George Matyjewicz, Moderator         mailto:georgem at gapent.com
  Published by:  GAP Enterprises, Ltd.  http://www.etailersdigest.com
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  CONTENTS

  [1]  Greetings
  [2]  Check 21-Office Teller / Remote Deposit
  [3]  Wal-Mart: RFID Collaboration is Critical
  [4]  Microsoft To Pay $536 Million To Settle Novell Suit

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  [1]  Greetings.
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Hi All:

Today we have an update on Check 21 from list member and check processing 
guru Jules Kaplan.

RFID is still a hot topic in retailing with Wal-Mart dominating that world 
like they do everything they touch.  Are you getting on board?

Microsoft is paying $536 million to settle a suit in EU with Novell.  IMHO, 
Novell missed the boat, as they were the leader in the industry for so 
long.  And now they are losing again with WordPerfect.  Next in that line 
of missed opportunities is IBM with their Lotus Notes product.  What a pity.

46 days until Christmas - 6 1/2 weeks!  What are you doing this year to 
increase business?

Tell us about your business which will remain  for posterity at 
our  "Members: Who Are You?" 
site.   http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a 
form there for you to tell us about you.  As I said when I first proposed 
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't 
know anything about each other.   So, tell us who you are and what you do.

Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.

Sincerely


George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com

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  [2]  Check 21-Office Teller / Remote Deposit
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Since the new Check 21 law went into effect on October 28th, many of our 
users have called asking what they had to do to get this great new system 
so they can use it.

Ez Payment Solutions recently announced the latest addition to our suite of 
Automated Clearing House (ACH) products, Accounts Receivable Conversion 
(ARC).  ARC is one of the first payment strategies to redefine how 
paper-based remittance payments are handled.

ARC is the process of converting a consumer check into an ACH debit.  In an 
ARC application the check is used as a source document to initiate a 
one-time ACH debit against the consumer's bank account. ARC can be used for 
payment items remitted by the consumer through the US mail or via a drop box.

BENEFITS:
o Funds are Transferred Electronically.
o Client or Bank Does Not Need to Process a Single Piece of Paper.
o Centralized Bank Deposits for Multiple Location Companies.
o Low Transaction Fees.
o Low NSF Fees.
o Files Can be Exported to Update Your In-House Accounts Receivable 
System.  (a great time saver when it comes to data entry.)
o No Lost or Stolen Checks to Worry About.
o No Bank Runs to Make.
o No Bank Deposit Fees.
o Never an NSF Processing Fee From the Bank to the Client.
o NSF Checks Will be Reported Within Three (3) Business Days.  Client can 
Redeposit Immediately and Keep All Fees.
o 24/7 Monitoring of Your Account via our Secure Website.
o Software can be Customized to Supply Additional Information, Reports, etc.
o Less Risk of Identity Theft.

Our ARC product includes both web and PC based solutions. The consumer's 
check is imaged and the MICR information is captured by the software.  The 
data and image are transferred to our processing center  for processing 
through the ACH.  The consumer's account is debited, and cleared funds are 
deposited into the merchant's account.  Files are then made available on 
our secure website for export into an in-house accounts receivable system.

Any company that is handling at least 100 to 200 checks a month can save 
time and effort in processing your checks.  This back office procedure can 
be a boon to your office by decreasing the handling cost.  There is a cost 
factor to get started in using ARC, but the equipment cost runs 
approximately $750.00 for the reader and of course the cost of processing 
each transaction.  But what you save is your bank charge will be eliminated 
for depositing checks to your checking account plus the biggest cost the 
labor of handling of the checks to be process.  Now even small businesses 
can have the advantage of Fortune 500 company.

Yours truly

Jules Kaplan

Ez Payment Solutions INC (EZP)
Email:  info at ezpaymentsolutions.com
480-991-7025  OR 800-220-0468  - FAX 310-362-8746
www.ezpaymentservices.com

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  [3]  Wal-Mart: RFID Collaboration is Critical
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According to global management consulting and market research firm, Retail 
Forward, Wal-Mart represents more than 10 percent of sales for a growing 
number of suppliers. In five years, that number could climb to as high as 
30 percent. The bottom line: Suppliers need to conduct business the 
'Wal-Mart Way' or risk being left behind.

"Suppliers unwilling (or unable) to adapt their business processes to the 
'Wal-Mart Way' will find themselves not only shut out of Wal-Mart's market 
share, but that of other large retailers abandoning inefficient past 
practices in favor of new ways of doing business," says Jim Crawford, 
president of Retail Forward.

At last week's 2004 Consumer Goods Technology Conference, Wal-Mart CIO 
Linda Dillman announced that the retailer is seriously considering 
migrating from an RFID mandate to a partnering model, meaning it will move 
forward with the vendor partners that understand the strategic imperative 
of more tightly integrated supply and demand enabled by RFID, rather than 
trying to force it on suppliers. "Few CPG companies can afford to lose (or 
not grow) their business at the world's largest company, so they will have 
to adopt a strategic view of RFID," says Mark Tepper, director, Industry 
Solutions of Clarkston Consulting Consumer Products.

Mike Dominy, senior analyst, Business Applications and Commerce for the 
Yankee Group, agrees. "Consumer goods companies unwilling to support 
Wal-Mart's business requirements, such as the use of EPC RFID, will find it 
increasingly difficult to grow revenue at a rate deemed acceptable to Wall 
Street," he says. "Consumer Goods companies must establish an EPC RFID 
migration plan that is fiscally prudent and able to scale quickly."

http://www.imakenews.com/edgellcgt/e_article000323008.cfm?x=b3SVmKd,b1NLgGLS
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  [4]  Microsoft To Pay $536 Million To Settle Novell Suit
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Microsoft has agreed to pay Novell US$536 million to settle a long-simmer 
private antitrust  claim over its NetWare operating system, a deal that 
also calls for Novell to withdraw from the European antitrust proceedings 
against Microsoft.

Microsoft said the deal, which came about after lengthy private mediation, 
does not require it to license any Novell technology and that it is not 
admitting to any wrongdoing.

Still to be resolved are similar claims against Microsoft from Novell for 
its WordPerfect software. Under the agreement announced today, Novell 
retained the right to pursue those claims, which stem from a two-year 
period starting in 1994.

For Microsoft, the deals mark more progress in a long-range effort to 
whittle down the amount of outstanding litigation against it, which poses a 
threat to the health of its business and hangs over the company's head as 
an uncertainty in all of its forecasts and projects.

"They have done a great job of reducing their exposure and the risk 
involved with having these cases go to trial," Enderle Group principal 
analyst Rob Enderle said. "But each time they settle a case, it's also a 
reminder of how many more are still out there."

Recent settlements include a $750 million deal with AOL to settle claims 
over the Netscape browser, and a sweeping $2 billion deal with Sun 
Microsystems to settle disputes over Java  and other technology. Still, new 
actions crop up from time to time, the most recent being a suit on behalf 
of California municipalities.

Microsoft likely feels the exposure associated with the WordPerfect case is 
not significant enough to warrant a sizeable settlement, analysts said.

In fact, Microsoft said settling with Novell enables it to project how much 
outstanding liability it has remaining.

Details at...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/37946.html

+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
IMHO, Novell lost what should have been their market.  They were the first 
in the networking world with Netware, even though there were some 
multi-user systems available before them (Northstar's 5 user Horizon - an 
8-bit machine).

They also own WordPerfect, which was the premiere word processing 
application taking the lead from WordStar.  WordPerfect sill has many law 
firms, who have a large investment in technology.  For those of us who use 
or have used WordPerfect, we know the differences that are still not in Word.

What a pity.

George
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