In its first major venture into the retailing sector, Marlboro, Massachusetts-based Stratus Computer Inc has teamed up with Logica Plc to market StoreNet/2, a data collection and distribu tion software system. Able to operate as a centralised front-end processor to a mainframe and as a regionally distributed proces sor, StoreNet/2 runs on the Stratus XA2000 and is able to dis tribute information originating from corporate mainframes and point-of-sale terminals. It has also been designed to communi cate with a broad family of IBM systems and is able to support IBM NetView. The software was developed by Dallas-based Shared Financial Systems. Stratus says the product will streamline merchandising and customer payment processing through point-of sale data collection and networked in-store controllers and terminals, claiming that, until now, separate lines have been necessary to transmit each form of data between stores and corpo rate mainframes; StoreNet/2 claims to transport different kinds of data on a single line within a fault-tolerant system. Aimed at large retailers with over 100 payment terminals, the new product can be used in conjunction with Stratus’s existing ON/2 system – for financial transactions – and will be available in October; the company hopes to sell at least five applications in the UK in the first year of release.
