Intellectual Property for Digital Receipts

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Michael Zeglin
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
650-786-6255
[email protected]

Kira Perdue
Alexander Ogilvy for Sun Microsystems, Inc.
404-881-2317
[email protected]

Jim Greene
AfterBOT, Inc.
770-564-5561
[email protected]

Sun Microsystems and AfterBOT Provide Smart and Final with Next Generation Online Customer Service Solution
Sun Enterpriseô Servers and Sun StorEdgeô Arrays Power AfterBOT ReceiptsPLUSô Application to Provide Desired ROI to Top 100 Retailer

SANTA CLARA, CA and ATLANTA, GA (January 10, 2002) - Sun Microsystems, Inc., a leader in networked server-based computing, and AfterBOT, Inc. announced today that Smart and Final, a warehouse grocery chain with 233 stores, has implemented an online customer service solution utilizing AfterBOT's ReceiptsPLUSô web-service application with Sun Enterpriseô servers and Sun StorEdgeô arrays. AfterBOT's ReceiptsPLUSô solution is the first digital receipt implementation based on the ARTS standard relational data model and IX Retail standards. The solution provides retailers the ability to create, deliver and archive digital receipts using in-store point-of-sale (POS) transaction data. In addition to providing a digital version of the paper receipt, the ReceiptsPLUSô solution allows the retailer to provide new online self-service functions with each customer receipt designed to increase operating efficiency and enhance customer service.

Smart and Final, based in Commerce, CA and among the top 100 retailers in the country, has already begun using the AfterBOT solution, powered by Sun, to generate what their analysis indicates will be in excess of 30 million digital receipts per year. Bob Graham, Smart and Final's Vice-President of Store Technology said, "Superior customer service is the cornerstone of our success. When fully implemented, AfterBOT's innovative ReceiptsPLUSô solution will give our customers the ability to securely view their receipt details and related purchase information on our website, a unique service that none of our competitors offer today. In addition, our analysis indicates that the ReceiptsPLUSô solution, combined with the flexibility and scalability of network server technology, will enable us to generate significant cost savings by streamlining key business processes and enhancing our loss prevention capability."

"We are excited about working with AfterBOT to provide unique and powerful web-services which enable Smart and Final to offer the next generation of online services to their customers while reducing overall customer service costs," said Bob DeLaney, director, Retail Industry Solutions for Sun Microsystems. "Further proving our commitment to the retail industry, Sun consistently works with quality companies to develop cost-effective solutions for retailers and works closely with retail industry groups like NRF-ARTS to create and promote open industry standards. We are pleased to be working with like-minded companies such as Afterbot."

Sun, Epson, Chelsea Market Systems and Afterbot will be demonstrating at the annual National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention & Expo (January 13-16) in New York a 'post to host' open standards demo at the Sun booth (#113) showcasing the ARTS data model, JavaPOS, IXRetail, IrDA, and Java retail standards.

Jim Nadler, SVP of AfterBOT, said "We are excited about the Smart and Final's implementation of our ReceiptsPLUSô solution. Our relationship with Sun Microsystems has enabled us to deliver a breakthrough web-service solution for retailers. The ReceiptsPLUSô solution provides significant cost-savings for retailers by enabling superior loss-prevention, customer self-service and business process re-engineering through a digital receipt. We are looking forward to introducing AfterBOT's ReceiptsPLUSô to the retail industry at NRF 2002, both in Sun's booth and the ARTS Pavilion."

The online customer service solution is an example of the iForce(sm) Initiative in action. Leveraging the iForce community, Smart and Final worked with Sun and Afterbot to create a solution that would help the company leverage the network to improve its business processes. The iForce community is designed as an intra-community exchange of products, services, tools, certification, programs and expertise to help fuel growth and allow partners to focus on their individual core competencies, while implementing "best-practices solutions" for customers. Built around a dynamic relationship model and providing access to iForce Ready Centers worldwide, the iForce program helps customers engage with Sun and its industry partners to reduce risk in deployment through tested and integrated iForce solutions. The hosted solution is powered by Sun StorEdgeô A1000 arrays and Sun Enterpriseô E420 servers running the Solarisô Operating Environment.

About Smart And Final
Smart And Final is a non-membership warehouse grocery chain operating 233 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Florida, and northern Mexico. The company also operates two foodservice distribution businesses in Northern California and Florida. Smart & Final Inc.'s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol SMF. Sales for fiscal year 2000 were $1.9 billion. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.smartandfinal.com.

Sun in Retail
Sun's global retail clients include hard and soft goods specialty businesses, discount and mass merchandisers, department stores, food service, grocery chains, convenience store chains, chain drug stores, electronic retailing merchants, catalog and home shopping. Fast growing retailers are building their technology foundations on Sun Enterprise servers and Sun StorEdge. Sun offers the scalability to ensure retailers can meet the extreme load demands they experience in seasonal peaks throughout the year.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - The Network Is The Computer[tm] -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at www.sun.com.

About Afterbot, Inc.
Founded in 2000 and based in Atlanta, Georgia, AfterBOT is a web-services provider utilizing patent-pending technology, ReceiptsPLUSô, to deliver digital receipts and post-sales services to retailers, consumers and manufacturers. For more information visit the company's web site at: www.afterbot.com.

About ARTS
The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) is a retailer-driven membership organization dedicated to creating an open environment where both retailers and technology vendors work together to create international retail technology standards. ARTS has three standards embraced by the retail industry around the world: (1) Standard Retail Data Model, (2) UnifiedPOS, and (3) IXRetail. These standards have been created through a cooperative effort of retailers and software solution providers to reduce the time and cost of implementing technology within the retailing industry. More information about ARTS can be found at www.nrf-arts.org.

About the National Retail Federation
The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet and independent stores. NRF members represent an industry that encompasses more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, employs more than 20 million people-about 1 in 5 American workers-and registered 2000 sales of $3.4 trillion. NRF's international members operate stores in more than 50 nations. In its role as the retail industry's umbrella group, NRF also represents 32 national and 50 state associations in the U.S. as well as 36 international associations representing retailers abroad. For more information about NRF, visit our web site at www.nrf.com.

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