Duane Reade Honored by IBM Retail User Group

The IBM Retail User Group named Duane Reade as the winner of its 2011 Retail Innovation Award for an innovative solution it developed with solution provider Retail Tech, as well as IBM’s RTC Group, and Agilysys, Inc.

The award, accepted by Richard Gilbert, Duane Reade’s director of store systems, was presented at the User Group’s 34th annual conference in Orlando, Fla., held in May.

The Innovation Award is unique among industry awards because the winner is chosen by its peer group – the membership of the organization. Retail Tech and Agilysys, Inc. were also honored with the 2011 Retail Solution Innovation Award.

“At Duane Reade, we fully understand the honor it brings to our organization and exemplifies our continued endeavors to improve the customer experience,” said Gilbert.

The award decision was based on a challenge Duane Reade addressed with an innovative technology solution. The retailer needed to replace hardware and software to comply with parent company Walgreen’s directive to interface to a common pharmacy solution, in a limited span of time, with a limited budget. The solution also contained one of the first two pharmacy chain implementations of the government backed Medagate Program.

The award recognizes a retail member and its solution provider with an innovative solution that demonstrates a sustainable competitive advantage through the application of a unique, not easily copied process, business model, or software.

Judging criteria is based on creativity and uniqueness with the ability to enhance retail: consumer experience, reducing the cost of doing business, speed up the processes and achieving a competitive advantage

The IBM Retail Users Group is owned and run by the representatives of over 300 retail companies that make up its membership. The group focuses on advancing the state-of-the-art of retail technology for all aspects of the retail enterprise. It is an independently-run, mutual benefit organization of IBM retail solution users, and providers of support products and services.

To learn more about the IBM Retail User Group and how to become a member, please visit http://www.ibmretailug.org.