Los Angeles, Calif. -- OfficeMax, Inc., a large US office product superstore chain, is working with Sun Microsystems, Inc. on a chain-wide in-store kiosk concept which begins this month. After a pilot, OfficeMax plans to install touch-screen networked kiosks, each powered by a Sun SPARC 5 workstation and Sun Solaris operating environment, at all of its 600 U.S. stores. Customers can walk up to the new kiosk -- located near the OfficeMax Customer Service area -- and obtain information and place orders on more than 25,000 office supplies, office furniture, computers and business machines using their credit card. The items are delivered to the customer's home or office through OfficeMax's national delivery network. The kiosk application and user interface, developed by Sun reseller The Allied Group, employs its InTOUCH touch-screen technology, giving customers the ability to search for items by product category, product name, manufacturer's name or SKU number. The kiosks offer benefits for OfficeMax vendors as well as customers. Since the kiosks feature full-screen video, vendors can display product videos, advertising and also have special offers printed for customers. In addition, vendors are able to tailor and run advertisements on the kiosks at OfficeMax stores in a select geographic region. The new system will eliminate the need for a paper-based catalog and provide a much more efficient inventory management system for OfficeMax.
SPARC 5, Solaris to Power In-Store Kiosks for OfficeMax
January 17, 1997