By taking part in the no cost, online survey -- available at
www."
Nancy Thomas, partner and global leader for financial management
for IBM, said, "Internal controls costs have almost universally risen
in response to Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. By introducing a
common global approach and database for measurement through OSBC
research, organizations may easily and affordably share data and draw
more meaningful comparisons on internal controls, than current
propriety benchmarks can offer. "Similar retailers need to know how they
compare in payroll expense, but more importantly, retailers want to know how
they can be more effective in their use of labor at the stores.

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org

About IBM Business Consulting Services

With consultants and professional staff in more than 160 countries
globally , IBM Business Consulting Services is the world's largest
consulting services organization.

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retailbenchmarks .

Business Editors/Software Writers/Retail Writers

SAN DIEGO----GERS Retail Systems, a
leading provider of enterprise software solutions for consumer-centric
retailing, today announced that Robbins Bros.

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Founded in 1977, the member-based nonprofit serves over
500 organizations in business , education, and government.ibm.

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com

About Parson Consulting

Parson Consulting is a no-conflict financial management consulting
firm that helps companies develop and sustain capabilities in
strategic finance, accounting + finance operations, governance + risk
management and corporate transactions across all industry sectors.com

Retail Benchmarks Adds over 100 New Members and Launches Store Labor Management Study at NRF 2006

As with all Retail
Revelations studies(TM), this one will define best practices in store labor
management through benchmarking results and the correlation of performance
results to related process characteristics and metrics. All Retail Benchmark members have immediate access to
Retail Connections(TM), an online member-only forum where retailers can
discuss and share their ideas, questions, and experiences with complete
security and anonymity .

Robbins Bros. Engages GERS for Planning and Analytics Solutions; World's Biggest Engagement Ring Store to Improve Ability to Manage Business Performance as Key

' operation," said Phil Kenney,
Vice President of Products and Marketing for GERS Retail Systems."
Robbins Bros.

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All OSBC research data is confidential ,
blinded and normalized by APQC and released in aggregate terms only.
The new survey on internal controls joins eight existing finance and
accounting surveys, including payroll, accounts payable , finance,
general accounting and reporting, as well as treasury and profit and
cost management .
"Our comprehensive retail model includes the definition of all retail mission
critical processes , their relationships and intersections, and how they drive
performance metrics."
GERS Planning facilitates well-implemented planning processes to
help develop and allocate better initial assortments that anticipate
consumer expectations to minimize markdowns and reduce the number of
shoppers who leave empty handed.

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GERS Analytics delivers a common
analytical platform built upon industry -standard technologies to
translate data into consistent, meaningful and actionable information
that helps retailers to fully leverage their data across the
enterprise.

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At a time when
companies are increasingly operating on a worldwide scale, the APQC
led initiative offers a global, industry standard definition of
processes and activities to improve organizational performance, as
defined by some of the world's leading companies. The APQC led initiative
will help organizations gain best practice insights into creating
flexible and responsive business processes to build credible cost
effective systems with reliable reporting mechanisms. For more
information, visit www.parsonconsulting."
"Simply knowing something is broken isn't going to really change a
retailer's bottom line. By leveraging our unique retail data model and data
warehousing techniques, we are able to correlate and link the information,
ultimately proving the connection between the process characteristics and
results - the basis of true Best Practices.
"GERS' Planning and Analytics are powerful, yet easy -to-use tools
that are well-suited to Robbins Bros.gers.

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Unfortunately, as
well intentioned as these efforts have been, there still remains a
level of confusion," said Toni Hicks, senior vice president of
practices at Parson Consulting. For more information, visit www. Excited new members from the U. Retail Benchmarks members can also browse the Retail
Connections library and download any of the process focused white papers from
leading retail industry experts and thought leaders .
Visit http://www.

This category is for web sites related to consultants specializing in one or more areas of retail trade, and specifically serve retail businesses.

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Retail Benchmarks
membership is FREE. Results of each study are only available to the study
participants.

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The OSBC research initiative was developed based on the need for
organizations to share one common definition and calculation framework
for benchmarking and to access one common source to conduct ongoing
performance measurement .

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Many organizations today depend upon third-party 'proprietary'
evaluations of their performance with no real view of the reliability
of the analysis beyond their industry or geography. The
company focuses on realizing greater timeliness, accuracy, relevance,
and accessibility of client's finance information and insight.
Retail Benchmarks, Inc.com

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"With this research, we hope to bring
some clarity to the discussion by providing a holistic and practical
tool that enable organizations to quickly evaluate what they have done
to date as well as efficiently target their future activities., an independent
firm dedicated to defining best practices in the retail industry , registered
over 100 new members at NRF 2006, and had a very successful launch of their
newest Retail Revelations(TM) Benchmark Study, "Store Labor Management". Labor is one of the three largest
expense categories for a retailer., an associate member of NRF (the National Retail
Federation ) with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, and Sacramento, is an
independent company dedicated to defining retail best practices and capturing
retail-specific process measurement information that highlights areas of
opportunity and improvement for its member companies.

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"
"A facet of the SOX compliance campaign has been a deluge of
points of view from professional service providers and others, all
aimed at helping clients make sense of the issues. Surveys are available for review and completion at
www.

riebe internals

Parson
currently has more than 1,000 clients, with a third of those from the
Fortune 500.
"It is easy to understand why we received such an enthusiastic response at
NRF for our Store Labor Management Study.com for more information.

"With these new tools from GERS , we'll be able to better manage
our open-to-buy and reduce on-hand inventory, plus we'll have
corporate -wide visibility over our operations," said Donne Kerestic,
Director of IT of Robbins Bros. "This meets our current needs and
provides the technology we need to effectively grow our business.

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apqc ."

About Retail Benchmarks, Inc. Retail Revelations(TM) gives members a unique perspective that
enables them to not only compare their bottom-line results to standard retail
performance metrics of similar retailers, but to leverage their ability to
benchmark their key process related characteristics with their peers to better
understand the specific actions that can be taken to improve outcomes.

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apqc.org/OSBCdatabase

About APQC

An international resource for process and performance improvement,
APQC helps organizations adapt to change, build better ways to work,
and succeed in the marketplace.S. Retail Benchmarks also
provides its members with the opportunity to participate in Retail
Revelations(TM), a series of benchmarking studies that provide retail
management process performance expectations and expertise from best-in-class
retailers. is a third-generation, family -owned business, with
seven stores in Southern California.

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The 'internal controls benchmark initiative ' is the latest in a
series of business process assessments that are part of the APQC's
Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative(SM) (OSBC).org/OSBCdatabase -- companies will be able to benchmark their
own internal controls against global best practices, as well as gain
insight into how other companies are approaching ongoing compliance. With the help of our
sponsors, IBM and Parson Consulting, we are able to offer
organizations free access to a common set of measures and surveys to
assess performance and to a custom report outlining how their
processes match to best-in-class processes . After all, just because everybody
does something doesn't make it a best practice.

About GERS Retail Systems

GERS Retail Systems is a leading supplier of software solutions
for consumer -centric retailing.

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"
To date, many companies have documented and remediated their
internal controls to meet the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Section
404. Over the past several years, IBM Business
Consulting Services has developed industry-leading transformation
consulting skills and delivery capabilities in key areas, including
Human Resources, Financial Management, Customer Relationship
Management and Procurement. Parson Consulting is headquartered in Chicago and is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Management Consulting Group PLC, a global
consultancy listed on the London Stock Exchange . "We
are looking forward to supporting their national store growth
initiative.

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Financial Executives Given Free Access to Evaluate Sarbanes Oxley Compliance and Comprehensive Internal Controls Capabilities against Global Best Practice

With a focus on measurement, knowledge
management, and benchmarking , APQC identifies best practices,
discovers improvement methods, disseminates findings, and connects
individuals. and International line up to participate
in study and leverage retail best practices in store labor management.

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apqc. For more information,
visit www.

NEW YORK, Retail Benchmarks , Inc. The
price of each benchmarking study is dependent on the level of reporting
purchased.

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However, at this point, these same organizations are evaluating
the level of investment required and how to establish processes to
sustain compliance on an ongoing basis. IBM Business Consulting Services
provides clients with business transformation and industry expertise,
and the ability to translate that expertise into integrated,
responsive, on-demand business solutions and services that deliver
bottom-line business value.
The Store Labor Management study is designed to help retailers understand
not only how they compare to similar retailers in store labor management, but
more importantly, how to become more efficient in their use of labor in the
stores while maintaining sales and customer service. For more
information, please visit www.

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Business Editors

DALLAS ----

Global, Standards Based Benchmarks Provide Insight into Compliance
Business Process Improvement

APQC, an international nonprofit research organization; IBM
Business Consulting Services; and Parson Consulting, a leading
financial management consultancy , are enabling financial executives to
evaluate internal controls, including SOX compliance, in a much more
comprehensive, standards based way than previously possible by making
available globally compiled and aggregated benchmarks. Store labor efficiency, designed to promote
sales and maintain long-term customer loyalty, is measured in terms of labor
cost, sales productivity, and customer service," says Marianne Gregory,
President of Retail Benchmarks. Helping them understand what dials to turn to fix
it - will," says Brenda Moncla, VP Research Technology at Retail Benchmarks. By facilitating the real-time flow of
transactions and information across the entire retail organization,
our solutions enable retailers to consistently anticipate, understand,
and fulfill their customers' expectations for products that are
priced, located, and timed to provide the optimal shopping experience.

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According to Lisa Higgins, APQC chief operating officer, "The real
payoff comes in the ability for organizations to close the performance
gaps as they work toward optimum performance. World's Biggest
Engagement Ring Store(R) will implement GERS Planning and Analytics
solutions to augment their ability to manage the overall performance
of their business.
GERS solutions manage the merchandising life cycle , multi-channel
selling, planning, business intelligence, and supply chain
synchronization to create a great customer experience.

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---

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