CHICAGO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 3, 2004 -- Endeca, the only provider of advanced search and Guided Navigation solutions, announced today that Phil Braden, product manager for Endeca InFront, will join Dave Fry, CEO and founder of Fry, Inc., a leading e-commerce design, development and managed services firm, and Fain Sutter, project manager for Fisheries Supply Company, to discuss how next-generation search is being used to dramatically improve the customer experience, facilitate merchandising and drive sales on Fisheries Supply’s online catalog. The presentation, entitled "The Next Generation of Search: Dynamic Search and Guided Navigation (Search Inside Your Site)," will be delivered at the 21st Annual Catalog Conference (www.catalogconference.com), held at McCormick Place, Lakeside in Chicago, Illinois from May 3-5.
Working closely with Fry for site development and hosting and deploying Endeca InFront, the market-leading business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce and catalog search, navigation and merchandising platform, Fisheries Supply overhauled its online catalog and storefront. As a result, Fisheries Supply, a leading business-to-business distributor of marine and industrial products, estimates that approximately 60 percent of its customer base now uses the new site as the first resource for product information, leading to more than a 100 percent increase in online orders in the first four months of 2004 alone. The presentation, using the Fisheries Supply project as a case study, will provide catalogers and merchants with best practices, lessons learned and tips for creating best-in-class e-commerce sites and optimizing sales through the online channel.
WHO: Phil Braden, product manager, Endeca; Dave Fry, CEO, Fry, Inc.; Fain Sutter, project manager, Fisheries Supply
WHAT: Presentation: "The Next Generation of Search: Dynamic Search and Guided Navigation (Search Inside Your Site)"
WHEN: Tuesday, May 4, 2004 from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: Annual Catalog Conference, McCormick Place, Lakeside, Chicago, IL
Of the leading business-to-business and business-to-consumer catalogers presenting at this year’s conference, 15 percent are currently using Endeca InFront to power search, navigation and merchandising on their online storefronts, including companies like Brookstone, eBags, Lenox Collections, Orvis, Patagonia, Spiegel and JC Whitney.
About Endeca
Endeca offers innovative Endeca Search and Guided Navigation information delivery solutions for companies who need to integrate, discover, and navigate enterprise data to solve the business problems associated with information overload. Endeca technology, a winner of Computerworld’s 2003 Innovative Technology Award, is already at work for leading government, financial services, retail and business-to-business organizations like the Library of Congress, IBM, Barnes & Noble, Putnam Investments, and Arrow Electronics. Endeca solutions empower users to explore and discover relevant relationships in data and find accurate and precise results with unprecedented speed. This search and navigation technology can be applied across a wide-range of enterprise and customer applications including Knowledge Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), customer self-service, analytics, catalogs, directories, and portal integration. Endeca is a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Endeca is an IBM Advanced Business Partner. For more information, visit www.endeca.com or email us at info@endeca.com.
About Fry, Inc.
Fry, Inc. helps organizations conduct business transactions, disseminate information, build customer relationships and synchronize efforts across multiple channels. The firm designs, builds, integrates, hosts and manages Web-based applications for clients such as Crate and Barrel, Godiva Chocolatier, Unilever, Home & Garden Television, Food Network, Spiegel, Eddie Bauer, AAA Michigan and the Auto Club Group, Brookstone, Domaine Chandon and the National Association of Home Builders. Online operations created and managed by Fry generated $1 billion in 2003. The company has offices in Ann Arbor, New York and Chicago and specializes in systems engineering, managed services, information architecture, creative design, usability and brand strategy. Established in 1994, Fry is a privately held company celebrating its 10th year in business. For more information, visit the Fry web site at www.fry.com.