Press Releases

The Shoe Company Selects Opterus’ Store Ops-Center Store Operations Software for Chain-Wide Deployment

Entire software implementation completed in less than a week;
Store efficiency at The Shoe Company improved by 20 percent

Toronto, Ontario - October 27, 2008 - Opterus Inc. today announced that The Shoe Company has fully deployed its Store Ops-Center store operations software to all 65 store locations. The Store Ops-Center solution will automate communications, messaging and operational compliance for The Shoe Company. Implementation for the entire chain was completed with less than a week’s worth of effort.

For years, The Shoe Company attempted to communicate with store-level employees via internal e-mail and paper-based methods. The Shoe Company found that the majority of stores would ignore the emails, read the e-mails but not complete the tasks, or read the e-mails and complete tasks incorrectly. Store Ops-Center now provides The Shoe Company with an “eye-in-the-sky” view of store operations, and replaces the retailer’s manual communications methods through an on-demand retail portal that ensures message delivery and verification of operational compliance issues.

Opterus Store Ops-Center is offered in a “Software as a Service” model (SaaS) providing retailers with a low-cost solution that is simple and quick to deploy. There is minimal upfront investment, which gives retailers the ability to move quickly and easily to implement the solution across all stores. Store Ops-Center can be installed within a few days through simple configuration of workflow business rules, and easy integration of operational data. The only technology required at the store is a browser pointed to Store Ops-Center, requiring no additional hardware or software at the corporate office or individual stores.

“Most retail software projects are very demanding on internal resources and take time to implement. It took only days to plan and go live with Store Ops-Center and our employees love using it because it's easy, and it works well while greatly streamlining our store operations," said Lewis Feinstein, VP Operations, The Shoe Company.

“Although Store Ops-Center will benefit retailers of all size, The Shoe Company represents the retail segment that has traditionally been underserved from a technology standpoint,” said Ron Blackwelder, VP Sales and Marketing at Opterus. “We are very excited to have The Shoe Company as our first client because they are recognized in the retail industry as a progressive technology leader. We believe there are many other small, medium and large retailers that can benefit from our low-cost communication solution.”

About The Shoe Company
A subsidiary of Town Shoes, The Shoe Company was launched in 1992. Today, the national chain includes 65 stores across Canada – from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia. The Shoe Company prides itself on being the number one family shoe store in Canada. Since 1992, the chain has broadened its range to include a men’s and women’s clothing line, handbags, and accessories. The Shoe Company created an online store in 2006 in order to provide customers with the opportunity to shop from home. For more information about The Shoe Company, please visit www.theshoecompany.com.

About Opterus
Opterus Inc. is a leading provider of a cost-effective, easy-to-implement store information and execution management solution that increases productivity and improves retail enterprise communications. Opterus’ Store Ops-Center software is an on-demand, web-based retail portal designed to communicate corporate policy and day-to-day objectives between corporate office and store locations. This solution is specifically designed for retail operations, and provides store personnel with clear, concise and timely direction, along with the proper tools to best do their jobs to support corporate initiatives. Opterus is based in Toronto, Ontario and was founded in 2006 by a group of seasoned retail industry technology veterans. For more information about Opterus, please visit www.opterus.com.

Media Contact:
Janet Hawkins, President
416-840-8495 x707
janet.hawkins@opterus.com

Catherine Seeds
KetnerBarnes (for Opterus)
512-794-8876
cseeds@ketnerbarnes.com