BALL'S TO TEST SATELLITE-BASED NETWORK

CHRIS O'LEARY

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A new satellite-based communications network will go on-line next week at Ball's Food Stores here in a pilot test expected to lead to a chainwide rollout. The 21-store retailer was to have installed a very small aperture terminal in one local store last week and the first applications to go live are credit and debit card authorization and transmission of retail pricing data from the corporate office to the store.

Brad Riffel, director of information systems, said the chain had considered a land-based network, but satellite technology worked out to be more cost-effective thanks to support from Ball's wholesaler, Associated Wholesale Grocers, also based here.

"We had been exploring the possibility of putting in our own terrestrial network and the costs were outrageous," he said. "We'll be able to install [VSATs] in all our stores and operate them for 60 months before we'd [be able] to pay the costs of installing our own terrestrial network."

Associated recently signed a contract with the satellite network provider, Hughes Network Systems, Germantown, Md., and retailers using the satellite pay a leasing fee to the wholesaler.

Another Associated retailer, McKeever Enterprises, Independence, Mo., will also launch a satellite pilot this month.

At Ball's, satellite-driven applications will go beyond credit and debit approvals. The retailer also plans to enhance its labor scheduling abilities by using the satellite link to gain frequent access to store-level time-and-attendance information.

"We're going to transfer time-and-attendance information directly to our [corporate] payroll system," Riffel said, adding that Ball's stores currently batch the information and send it to the corporate office weekly.

"Now we're going to be uploading at least once a day," Riffel said. "We hope it will let us [analyze] the data and see where our labor is from day to day."

Store systems repair and maintenance will be facilitated by satellite communications, he added. "If we have a corrupted file, for example, instead of having to go visit each store we'll be able to do it on-line," he said.

After the system is rolled out chainwide, Ball's plans another round of initiatives. Key among them will be the retrieval of item movement information from the store level, Riffel said.

"We plan to bring back item movement information daily. This will help us to get markdown information on a daily, rather than a weekly, basis."

Satellite link-ups will enable the chain to create a central negative check file at the corporate level.

"Right now we have data bases scattered throughout our 21 stores," he said. The data bases communicate with one another periodically for updates but a satellite-based network will allow all stores nearly instant access to a uniform negative check data base.

Ball's may eventually communicate by satellite to its wholesaler, Riffel added. "If the need arises we'll do that," he said. "If it becomes possible for us to compile all our orders at our central office and take a look at them before we transmit them over to AWG, we might take a look at it."