IBM unveiled technologies and services that are uniquely able to improve energy and operational efficiency across a retailer's entire IT operation. The IBM "Green Retail Store" portfolio includes high-performance point-of-sale systems, industry-leading IBM blade servers, and system management software that allow retailers to deploy end-to-end solutions from the front of the store to the back office that benefit the environment.

The anchor of the IBM solution portfolio is the IBM Sure POS 700, the world's number one selling point-of-sale system. It offers clients a choice of three high-performance, energy-efficient processors that help reduce their power consumption by 36 percent or more.

The Sure POS 700 also includes new proactive system monitoring features that allow retailers to avoid costly downtime, helping ensure a fast, reliable, efficient shopping experience for consumers. Using IBM system management technology, practically all elements of the store from point-of-sale, to advanced IBM Any Place kiosks, to self checkout systems can be managed from a single location using the IBM Remote Management Agent (RMA), an enterprise-class management system that allows retailers to remotely monitor the POS device, track assets and distribute software. When combined with IBM Director, an integrated, easy-to-use, suite of tools that provides clients with flexible system management capabilities for maximum system availability and lower IT costs, these functions can be monitored across one single location, or across multiple stores.

The power behind the IBM Green Retail Store is an IBM Blade Center S system capable of managing an entire retail IT environment from servers to the point-of-sale terminals to phone systems and antivirus applications, all from a single back-office location. The Blade Center S is one of the industry's first blade systems with attributes designed to help retailers simplify the management of technology needed to operate a store. With its Store Integration Framework (SIF) certification, the Blade Center S system enables more than 75 SIF-certified retail independent solution providers to create and run applications on the system. Even more, the IBM blade's environmental features allow retailers to reduce their energy costs up to 20 percent, cut back office noise by 50 percent, and to run the system desk-side, enabling clients to maximize back office space for other mission critical application platforms.

IBM recognizes that retailers need to evaluate and address their role in managing resources both as a market differentiator and good corporate citizenship. The opportunities for retailers to be good corporate citizens span the realms of business process, people and resource management, and customer service offerings. IBM consulting and technology services manage a wide range of in-store issues, from POS systems, energy consumption tracking and management, asset management and monitoring, to workforce management issues, and IT product recycling. IBM is also a leader in supply chain optimization and can help retailers design efficient logistics and packaging solutions that benefit the environment as well as the company and its customers.

Additionally, IBM offers services to help retailers evaluate their energy and thermal profiles in data center facilities through 3-D modeling and thermal analysis, assess the energy efficiency of their enterprise data centers, and move to virtualized infrastructures and emerging hybrid systems that utilize special purpose processors to reduce energy consumption.