Roanoke Computer Systems Provider Wins Microsoft’s Most Prestigious
Retail Partner Award

Digital Retail Solutions earns top all-around award, and two others.

Roanoke, Virginia — A Roanoke-based provider of computer systems to retail stores and chains nationwide has won Microsoft Corp.’s 2005 Point of Sale Solution Excellence Award for Partner of the Year.

“Digital Retail Solutions won this award for building a business based on satisfied customers, providing Microsoft with valuable customer feedback to improve our products, and for innovating new software solutions to retail problems,” said Maureen Mascaro, Retail Management System channel marketing manager at Microsoft. “It is our most prestigious award to our most outstanding retail partner.”

On-hand to receive the award for DRS at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota were J.D. Young, John Chang, Anil Garg, and Mim Young. “Working with Microsoft to bring meaningful change to the retail businesses we serve has been an honor and truly inspiring,” said J.D. Young, DRS President. “Specialty retailers across the world benefit from the dedication Digital Retail Solutions and Microsoft share to bringing the best business processes to their customers. Armed with affordable, appropriate technology, these retailers can more readily succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace.”

Digital Retail Solutions won this award among all Microsoft Point of Sale Solutions Partners nationwide. For the second year in a row, the company was awarded Microsoft’s prestigious President’s Club status, and in June of this year, Microsoft presented Digital Retail Solutions with a Regional Solution Development Recognition Award for 2005.

“Microsoft congratulates Digital Retail Solutions on achieving President’s Club status,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Craig McCollum. “DRS truly understands how important customers are to Microsoft and has gone out of their way to make the customer’s experience a positive one.”

Microsoft Retail Management Solutions
Microsoft provides three levels of retail management automation to serve retailers of any size, from a new store to a midsize chain. Microsoft Retail Management System Headquarters is the corporate-level IT solution that helps retail chains monitor, control and report on detailed activities in every store, distributing or centralizing management controls as desired. Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations is used in individual stores to deliver owners and managers a complete retail solution. In chain environments, Store Operations sends detailed store data up to the Headquarters solution. Microsoft Point of Sale serves smaller single stores, giving them an affordable array of retail marketing and management tools they need to compete, survive and grow, while opening a clear path to easy system expansion as their growth demands.