Smokin Joes Picks Pinnacle!

 

ARLINGTON, Texas, November 13, 2008 –

The Pinnacle Corporation

(Pinnacle) announced today that Smokin Joes has selectedPalm POS™as their go forward POS platform as well as Pinnacle’s full suite of retail automation software for their retail cigarette locations throughout New York,.   After an extensive review of the offerings currently available in the marketplace, Smokin Joes chose Pinnacle’s award-winning Palm POS system for a number of reasons, including its productivity benefits, integration with back office applications and Pinnacle’s unique Oasis Manager Workstation™ that delivers centralized management and remote control of Palm POS systems. Also chosen as part of Smokin Joes POS selection werePinnacle’sLoyalink®,a real-time, fully integrated, non-invasive customer loyalty management solution that enables Palm POS clients to efficiently drive a broad range of responsive consumer marketing and promotional programs; and Enterprise Performance Manager™ (EPM), Pinnacle’s real-time, POS integrated business intelligence suite.

 

Smokin Joes chose Palm POS and Symphony Business Platform™, Pinnacle’s browser based suite of retail automation software, based on its ability to support a number of capabilities and functions not provided by their current solutions provider. Palm POS, in conjunction with the Symphony Business Platform suite for retail automation and business intelligence, and Pinnacle’s Loyalty solution includingLoyalink®,

LoyalDebit™andLoyalPay®will provide Smokin Joes with the tools they need to be successful moving forward.

 

“After evaluating several automation technology solutions, we are confident that Pinnacle’s Palm POS has the tools we need to move our company forward. With Pinnacle’s Loyalty Solutions fully integrated with Palm POS, we have the information we need to design a loyalty program to increase customer frequency and average spend” said Salvatore Ragusa, IT Director for Smokin Joes.

 

Palm POShas a broad range of capabilities that are desired by today’s more progressive convenience store marketers. From advanced scanning and the intuitive touch-screen cashier interface, Palm POS improves your ability to service your customers. Palm POS is hardware flexible, and works with a variety of scanners, printers, pole displays, security cameras, lottery, money order, kitchen video, price sign, car washes and more. Nationwide, it is used to process more than $ 10 billion in total convenience store sales and is certified on more than ten different credit payment networks. With an open architecture, it provides comprehensive management, operational and retail reporting across the enterprise for better, more accurate and timely decision making.

 

“We are excited to add Smokin Joes to the Pinnacle client family.” said Drew Mize, VP Product Management and Marketing for Pinnacle. “As we learned more and more about Smokin Joes’ desire to implement a suite of automation solutions that provide tightly integrated POS, back/home office, loyalty and real-time business intelligence to best service their customers and ensure company stakeholders have the needed information to manage the business, it become increasingly apparent that Pinnacle’s integrated and broad footprint of solutions was a great fit between our two companies. I look forward to working with this group and watching their business grow.”

 

In addition to Palm POS, Smokin Joes will also implement Pinnacle’sOasis Manager Workstation™ and Symphony.pos manager™. Oasis Manager Workstation is a windows-based in-store manager workstation system that allows complete flexibility for automating daily reports and reconciling merchandise inventories, cash and sales. Pinnacle’sSymphony.pos manager™is an enterprise level solution designed to remotely define and update store level point-of-sale configuration files.  Quickly and easily create group-based configuration settings utilizing a user-friendly, intelligent graphical interface.  With Symphony.pos manager, complicated configuration settings for each store register become a thing of the past.

 

Smokin Joes will also be utilizing Pinnacle’sSymphony.auditor, allowing them the flexibility of customizing rule sets that validate data related to sales and cash accountability, inventory categories, and cost and retail inventory. Data that does not pass client defined exception rules are flagged which enable auditors to manage by exception instead of looking at the entire set of paperwork. Exceptions are displayed and easily checked for accuracy, and after the report has completed audit, retailers can useSymphony.auditor’s browser-based reporting system,Symphony.information manager™to view and extract data from over 150 reports available in the system.

 

Pinnacle’sLoyalink®, the most unique and flexible loyalty software solution in the convenience store industry. Pinnacle’sLoyalinksolution will enable Smokin Joes to reward their customers with an extensive set of promotional options. Smokin Joes chose to implement the Pinnacle suppliedLoyalinkprogram due to the flexibility of its features which allow them to focus on loyalty rewards that are important to today’s shopper.

 

Pinnacle’s 

LoyalPay®

 is a pre-paid, stored value card solution.

LoyalPay

is a very cost effective method for retailers to combat rising credit card transaction fees.  Pinnacle’s

LoyalPay

offers retailers the opportunity to sell and support their own branded pre-paid card service. With

LoyalPay

transactions are processed in-house, therefore eliminating interchange or transactions fees that would have incurred by going to an outside provider. Self-hosting also allows for storing and accounting card activity and current card balance. is a pre-paid, stored value card solution.

LoyalPay

is a very cost effective method for retailers to combat rising credit card transaction fees.

 

Pinnacle’s

LoyalDebit™

adds payment capability to traditional, non-payment loyalty cards providing numerous benefits to convenience retailers and consumers alike.  Once the

LoyalDebit

solution is deployed, consumers can register their Driver’s License or Loyalty card with their bank account and then use that non-payment card as a dual-purpose debit card for payment.  To further ensure security, the customer registers their card via a secure web site and is assigned a unique PIN.  The customer can then present their loyalty card at the time of purchase and the transaction is handled as if it were a standard credit or debit card purchase. 

LoyalDebit

is added convenience to the customer, eliminating the need for them to present multiple cards to complete a single transaction. All of Pinnacle’s loyalty solutions are built on a common databases and architecture designed to work in conjunction with one another or as a stand alone solutions.

 

For their Business Intelligence needs, Smokin Joes will utilize Pinnacle’sSymphony.enterprise performance management™ (epm). Symphony.epm provides the infrastructure to deliver critical business metrics. Some of its current features include secure browser access, scheduling, budgeting and forecasting, reporting and graphs, event and alerts, data mining, and Dashboards. Symphony.epm is a modular set of tools designed to help retailers and petroleum marketers better manage their business from a strategic, tactical and operational perspective. EPM’s base module includes a database of consolidated transaction data as well as a data movement tool that seamlessly transports your store’s scan data into a fully-accessible centralized database.

 

For information on any Pinnacle product or service, e-mail

sales-info@pinncorp.com

, call 1-800-366-1173, or visit the Pinnacle website atwww.pinncorp.com.

 

About Smokin Joes

Smokin Joes® Trading Post (www.smokinjoe.com) is a premier retail location located on the Tuscarora Nation.   With four locations, gasoline, tobacco products and other merchandise are available at some of the lowest prices in Western New York. Visit the Native American Museum, Gift Shop, Grocery Store, Café, Jewelry Department, Boutique and Men’s Shop. Smokin Joes attributes its success not only to affordable, high quality products, but also a unique, cultural shopping experience.

 

About Pinnacle

The Pinnacle Corporation (

www.pinncorp.com

) is the leader in the automation technology industry focusing on the rapidly evolving convenience store and petroleum industries. Pinnacle delivers products that automate the broad spectrum of convenience store operations and supply chain management of fuel operations. Nationwide, Pinnacle's products and services are used daily in thousands of convenience outlets to automate and improve their store operations and by fuel marketers to increase their efficiency in the complex management of fuel delivery.

 

Pinnacle is committed to solving key industry issues that make the greatest impact on an organization’s success. Let us show you how our PCI Compliant Palm POS and our Store and Home Office solutions can offer you streamlined efficiency and the data that matters, on time, every day. Our products include EPM Business Intelligence Suite and Enterprise Loyalty Suite. Make your business more profitable and efficient using the latest technology from a proven provider. Your choice is simple, pick Pinnacle!

 

Contact Information:

 

Tracie Wilbanks
The Pinnacle Corporation
1-800-366-1173, extension 293