Hong Kong, 28 November 2000, SPECTRA Technologies, Greater China Leader in electronic transaction technologies, announced successful achievement of the most prestigious award, Best in Innovation, of the 2000 Hong Kong Awards for Services. The "ECR/POS Integrated Solution (EPIS)" is the pioneering one-stop-shop retail solution in Hong Kong. It is specially designed in satisfying retailers' need for an integrated settlement solution in handling both card and cash sales with effective analysis reports aiming Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Thereafter emerge from traditional to more effective electronic business models.

According to a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Productivity Council's Software Industry Information Centre (SIIC) in July, over 76% of retailers in Hong Kong are planning to implement a centralized system that covers accounting, sales analysis and inventory control in the coming year. Out of which, over 72% will consider using local instead of overseas suppliers.

"Facing the highly competitive environment, retail players are more engaged in CRM in order to reach out more effectively to their customers and in turn derive more profits," Alfred Hung, Sales & Marketing Director of SPECTRA Technologies, explained.

SPECTRA Technologies foresaw this demand, and developed the EPIS with an ECR (Electronic Cash Registry) communications driver software base on NT, Windows and DOS. This dedicated software interacts with virtually any computerized ECR systems. It overcomes the barrier of having no international standard on ECR integration, and tremendously enhances ECR system manufacturer's efficiency; the integration process is then simplified. Beneficiary manufacturers include IBM, Olivetti, Techtran, JDA, etc...

EPIS connects retailers' back-end computerized accounting and inventory systems with their front-end ECR and POS (Point of Sales) e-transaction systems. As the POS system directly wires with the bank, retail outlets, their accounting office and the bank can simultaneously share card sales transaction information at once, without the need of duplicating data-input. Most importantly, the solution provides analysis reports of any kind - sales, inventory and consumer behaviour.

With over 95% market-share, it sets the de facto standard of solutions of the same kind in Hong Kong. EPIS lets retailers enjoy convenience, effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and cost performance.

"Being a Hong Kong based SME, we are proud to be the Greater China Leader in e-transaction technologies. We are glad that our contribution to the retail industry, thereafter the general public and the tourist industry, is recognized," Hung expressed great appreciation in being awarded. "In future, we will continue to put our emphasis on innovation, futurism and pragmatism - elements that have formed a strong culture of SPECTRA Technologies. We ensure that our home-made technologies will benefit more and more Hong Kong people."