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Leading Farm and Home Retailers Select Activant Eagle Solution

Posted on: Monday, 30 March 2009, 07:00 CDT

Rural King and Atwoods to rely on an Activant Eagle solution to help them better manage their businesses and sustain growth

LIVERMORE, Calif., March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Activant Solutions Inc., a leading provider of retail and distribution business management solutions, today announced that Illinois-based Rural King Farm & Home and Oklahoma-based Atwoods Ranch & Home have selected the Activant Eagle(R) solution to manage their successful Farm and Home retail businesses. These prominent Farm and Home retail chains selected the Activant Eagle retail software solution to help streamline operations as well as increase margins and inventory turns.

At the end of 2008, Rural King and Atwoods executives recognized that their businesses had outgrown their existing retail technology solutions and took the unusual step of combining their efforts to select a new technology partner. The two successful Farm and Home retail chains were both experiencing brisk growth and realized that they needed better access to important inventory and sales information to sustain success and to manage their expansion of new locations.

"Our previous technology solution was an important part of our success, but we have outgrown it," said Brian Atwood, president of Atwoods. "The existing developer did a great job of responding to our requests, but didn't really understand our business or anticipate our needs. We needed a software partner who is going to lead us, not follow us."

Activant is a premier provider of technology solutions for hundreds of farm & agriculture businesses throughout North America. The Activant Eagle software is an integrated business management solution that combines the technology tools needed to improve customer service with advanced business analysis and management solutions. The Activant Eagle solution helps Farm and Home retailers manage a wide variety of products, and even businesses, under one roof.

Managing a multi-store Farm and Home retail business can be very challenging. With 41 stores across Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, Rural King will rely on the Activant Eagle software to automate the important process of managing live inventory across multiple locations. "The Activant Eagle solution gives us better access to the information we need to run our business," said Don Davis, CFO for Rural King. "The product automates the measurement of key criteria as it is entered into the system -- so that we can immediately evaluate sales, inventory, and turns. It also gives us dynamic order points that change with business conditions. The system's trending model will allow us to quickly adjust and make decisions based on current market trends."

"By giving us a more accurate view of our business, we expect Activant technologies will help us increase inventory turns and overall profit margins," continued Davis. "The Activant Eagle Price Optimization feature will help us identify the items that are less price sensitive, and therefore candidates for increased margins."

Atwoods plans to grow from 37 to 40 stores by the end of the 2009 and will rely on the Activant Eagle solution to help it sustain this growth by helping them manage all facets of running a multi-store retail operation. The software supports inventory management, customer service and purchasing and receiving across multiple locations. Atwoods executives will have immediate access to critical business data for every store, which allows for faster and more informed decision making.

"The most impressive thing about Activant was how 'in tune' they were with our business," said Atwood. "We have heard many horror stories of companies that go through this process and wind up damaging their businesses because the vendor did not understand the business enough to anticipate the random problems that pop up. We have spoken with a number of Mid-States members that have gone through this process with Activant and are confident that our implementation will go smoothly."

"What makes us most proud is that Activant was selected because of its strong reputation and track record with the companies that comprise the Mid-States Distributing Company," said Scott Hanson, senior vice president for Activant Solutions. "Rural King and Atwoods visited a number of Farm and Home retailers that are using the Activant Eagle solution. They saw the impact the solution can make on a retail business and Activant's track record in this market. We look forward to a long and successful partnership with these two prominent retailers."

About Activant Solutions

Activant Solutions Inc. is a leading technology provider of business management solutions serving small and medium-sized distributors and specialty retailers. Activant provides customers with industry-specific software, professional services, content, supply chain connectivity, and analytics.

Over 30,000 customer locations use Activant to manage their day-to-day operations. Activant's systems are designed to help customers increase sales, boost productivity, operate more cost-efficiently, improve inventory turns and enhance trading partner relationships. Headquartered in Livermore, California, Activant has operations in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.activant.com.

This announcement relating to Activant may contain statements that are forward looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, such as statements concerning trends, future technology or products, or Activant's execution. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could materially affect the company's results, including, without limitation, market demand for products and technology, the company's ability to meet that market demand, the integration of Activant's technology and products with technology and products supplied by others, the integration of Activant's products into the businesses of its customers, customer acceptance of Activant's products, and the retention and deployment of skilled Activant service providers. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update or publicly revise any of the forward-looking statements. Please refer to our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2008 filed with the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 12, 2009 and our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2008, both of which can be found through the Activant investor relations website at www.activant.com/company/investors for a full discussion of the risks and other factors.

Note: Activant, the stylized Activant logo design, Activant Eagle and Eagle are registered trademarks of Activant Solutions Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contact: Rick Fernandez Incendio International Tel: 770.973.8401 rick@incendiopr.com

SOURCE Activant Solutions Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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