Tompkins' e-fill brings new SmarterKids.com facility live for holiday 2000 and beyond

Raleigh, NC, July 14, 2000—Tompkins Associates, the leading Total Operations consulting firm, today announced that SmarterKids.com (NASDAQ: SKDS), the leading online educational store and resource for parents, this month opened their new, fully customized fulfillment facility in Mansfield, Massachusetts utilizing Tompkins Associates' e-fill^SM fulfillment solution. The team, consisting of executive personnel from SmarterKids.com, Tompkins and Logility (NASDAQ: LGTY), the leading supplier of B2B collaborative commerce solutions via the Internet, achieved their goal to prepare early for the holiday 2000 season.

Tompkins Associates' customized e-fill^SM solution for SmarterKids.com's fulfillment operations will enable the new 140,000 square foot distribution center (DC) to handle 300% more orders per day, with a conservative capacity of 6,000 orders handled per day by the 2000 holiday season. The e-fill^SM process included reviewing potential sites and structures for the new facility, developing an overall distribution and warehouse solution for holiday 2000 with expansion plans for 2001 and 2002, managing the distribution center (DC) construction, integrating the new DC's WarehousePRO® Warehouse Management System, managing the implementation and integration of the material handling equipment, systems and facility, and developing and managing the facility occupation and start up.

"SmarterKids.com challenged Logility, Tompkins Associates and ourselves to prepare for the holiday 2000 season by June 1, and we achieved it," said Mark De Chambeau, vice president of operations for SmarterKids.com. "We anticipate high growth due to the superior customer satisfaction ratings we earned last December, and our ability to implement WarehousePRO this early in the year will contribute significantly to our success this holiday season."

Tompkins' unique e-fill^SM solution is a proprietary fulfillment process created to help dot-coms get functional, faster, and allows Tompkins Associates to rapidly get e-commerce clients operational with a modular, flexible and adaptable order fulfillment system.

"This is the year that a dot-com has to prove its fulfillment excellence. Tompkins' e-fill and Logility's WarehousePRO solutions assure SmarterKids.com will exceed the needs of its customers for holiday 2000 and beyond," said Jim Tompkins, president and founder of Tompkins Associates.

Tompkins and SmarterKids.com chose Logility (NASDAQ: LGTY) Voyager Solutions™ WarehousePRO® to improve receiving, picking, shipping, and cross-docking functions. Logility's best-of-breed warehouse management system, WarehousePRO, is designed with industry best-practices workflow technology providing unprecedented configurability and the industry's fastest implementations. SmarterKids.com completed its implementation of Logility Voyager Solutions™ WarehousePRO, in just 90 days from contract to production.

"An immediate time-to-benefit is critical for aggressive dot-com companies. That's why SmarterKids.com partnered with Logility and Tompkins Associates to quickly implement a total fulfillment solution enabling SmarterKids.com to manage its significant growth and further its reputation for a superior customer experience," said Mike Edenfield, Logility CEO.

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