The Platform Architecture & Technology Our platform provides for the automation and management of retail enterprises It is constructed of data centers and remote thin clients, such as browsers and cellular phones. The platform's architecture enables a single data center to support thousands of remote thin clients simultaneously, providing each with a rich feature set, without reducing its QOS (Quality of Service).The clients communicate with the data center via standard Internet/Intranet connections, or through a dedicated VPN (Virtual Private Network). The product is implemented as an N-Tier solution. Data Layer - SQL back-end Business Layer - ASP.NET suite of objects exposing WEBSERVICE interface Presentation Layer ASP.NET middle tier managing the terminal sessions Thin Client Terminals - agile browser based, utilizing the latest technologies of WEB 2.0 (AJAX), optimized communication to reduce bandwidth usage The communication protocol uses HTTP, which enables firewall, load balancing and failover solutions to be integrated into the data center as a complete scalable, robust and secure solution. The solution is constructed in an N-Tier architecture, allowing flexible configuration. The static and transactional data can be stored in an ORACLE NT/UNIX box or MSSQL. The data structure adopted is NRF (National Retail Federation) ARTS 2.0, which is the standard for database schema in the retail industry. The system is built as a set of open-system components, enabling easier future integration with third-party or enterprise solutions, as well as client customizations. The Platform Benefits & Advantages The technology and architecture form a scalable, robust, multi-featured solution with a dramatic reduction in TCO and a faster time-to-market. This enables retail enterprises to focus more of their time and energy on their core business and professional activities, and less on operational management.