Brightstar's Easy To Deploy, Simple To Use POS Solution Matches Perfectly With Cricket Wireless' Rapid National Expansion

Cricket Communications, Inc., a leading provider of unlimited wireless services, announced recently an agreement to purchase an enterprise license from Brightstar Corp. for their innovative retail management software called Inpowered.

The Inpowered solution will be used at all Cricket-owned stores as well as more than 4,000 additional points of sale throughout the United States that represent Cricket's expanding authorized retail channel.

Inpowered provides the most flexible, easy to integrate software solution in the industry for the management of inventory and processes at the point of sale. Cricket's company-owned stores, as well as preferred retailers and authorized dealers, will benefit from an in-store inventory control and cash management module, which will provide them with visibility and technology to monitor inventory levels and enable them to manage cash at the point of sale. In addition, Inpowered will be used to record and track all in-store sales as well as sales via the Internet.

"We were looking for a best-in-class, seamless supply chain management technology solution that was easy to use and deploy. We also needed one that was tailored to the serialized nature of our industry and could act as a catalyst for our cutting-edge inventory replenishment ideas," said Keith Buckley, senior vice president of supply chain management at Cricket. "Brightstar's Inpowered fit the bill perfectly as we needed a POS system that would help our sales teams sell more services, gain important intelligence about our sales and ensure that Cricket, as a company, manages our inventory in a cost-effective way."

While reviewing POS systems available in the market today, another critical requirement for Cricket was to find and implement an open architecture solution that was flexible enough to co-exist and interact with existing customer-facing systems. Unlike many other POS wireless systems that require staff and time to integrate and maintain, with Inpowered, Cricket's sales associates and partners do not have to spend time dealing with the usual hassle of system implementation and change management.

Additional features of Brightstar's Inpowered technology include:

• Accounting features that help retailers keep track of their inventory, commissions, and profits all at once eliminating problems with tracking sales, sales commissions, store inventory, returns, and transfers
• Provides information to retailers instantly by compiling data in real-time rather than batching daily or even weekly
• Not only provides real-time data for protecting commissions and securing inventory, it also motivates employees and helps increase profits
• Real-time activation is embedded in the POS
• Acts like a cash register system that prints receipts
• Paperless and automatic scanner function populates data into the POS
• Validation of mobile phone's Electronic Serial Numbers (ESN's)
• Multi-language and multi-currency capabilities

"We're excited to bring the right solution and support to an innovator like Cricket, ensuring they receive best in class intelligence at the point of sale. Cricket's growth and results are a testament to their innovative product and service offerings," said Brian Corey, Brightstar's vice president of business development.

"Brightstar is recognized as the global innovator in supply chain solutions for the wireless industry and a leader in supporting wireless retail. Our partnership with companies like Cricket ensures we continue to create innovative solutions that retailers want while helping to catapult the industry forward," Corey continued.

Brightstar, along with Cricket, will co-lead the implementation of its Inpowered technology into the Cricket IT and retail environments. Implementation is slated to begin this year.

About Brightstar
Brightstar Corp. is a multi-billion dollar global leader in customized distribution and integrated supply chain solutions for the converging wireless and IT industries. With sales and distribution facilities on six continents, Brightstar offers leading wireless and IT manufacturers the largest global reach, ensuring that the right product is in the right place, at the right time. Brightstar's industry-leading supply chain solutions are used by the world's top network operators and retailers to improve financial results, increase EBITDA and turn their supply chains into a competitive advantage. For more information on Brightstar, please visit www.brightstarcorp.com.

SOURCE: Cricket Communications, Inc.