Salem, NH, March 2, 2002 - iCentrix announces the launch of its newest customer, Selling Shows Inc , a San Diego based producer of national trade shows for wholesalers and independent retailers.

Overview

The name "Selling Shows" very accurately describes what the company does. They sell trade shows. More specifically, sponsorships to trade shows in the retail industry. If an organization wants to sponsor a trade show, they would hire Selling Shows to manage all aspects of the event. So, as you might imagine, acquiring and retaining show sponsorships is a large part of Selling Shows' business.

Three years ago, Selling Shows pioneered the trade show business by releasing their first version of an automated deal collection tool and, for the first time, vendors were able to collaborate with wholesalers and submit their show deals electronically. Show sponsors saw this as a huge advantage and were eager to hire Selling Shows to operate their trade shows. Selling Shows has seen a 30% increase in sales every year since.

In order to sustain this growth Selling Shows has implemented a number of technical solutions to help them manage their business. The primarily area of focus was on timely and accurate information processing.

They have learned a number of valuable lessons on how to improve business efficiencies and were eager to move a large portion of their business to the web. This would allow their affiliates to collaborate more effectively, create deals, manage products, generate order reports and conduct real time commerce.

Solution

iCentrix built a web based system that manages all assets of these trade shows. This system allows for management of individual shows that consist of Distributors, who sell their products through Vendors and Retailers.

The web based "Show Solution" manages all aspects of retail trade show operation, from keeping track of invited Dealers, Vendors, Retailers and their users, to the printing of bar coded deal sheets and tracking of promotions and discounts.

The system also gives Retailers the ability to purchase products on-line after the show, making this an unmatched offering in the retail trade show industry.

Remote systems management, with role based access, makes this system "self maintaining" where users such as Retailers, Vendors and Dealers can manage their own information in a secure and private environment. They can also add user accounts, create deals, add products, take orders and run order reports.

iCentrix built the solution on top of its Integrated Component Environment (ICE) This environment has been specifically designed to be a reusable technical foundation for web based applications offering many benefits, such as:

• Refinement of design through prototype use
• Limiting the amount of new code development
• Stability of proven components and methods
• Drastically reducing time to market
• Establishing a growth path