HANNAFORD EXPECTS TO IMPLEMENT STORAGE SERVER IN FALL

DAN ALAIMO

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- Hannaford Bros. here said it will complete the implementation of its new high-powered storage server in October when it brings two remaining warehouses online.

Bill Homa, senior vice president and chief information officer at Hannaford, recently updated SN on the progress of the project.

The chain's biggest warehouse, in South Portland, Maine, was connected with the server earlier this month. Two other warehouses were connected earlier this year.

Hannaford, an operating company of Delhaize America, Salisbury, N.C., has 112 stores.

The 3.3 terabyte IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server, also known as "Shark," supports two key applications: the warehouse management system and an order and store inventory system, Homa said.

"The storage is attached to our mainframe and we have essentially doubled our workload without any degradation of performance," Homa said.

Homa added that the system cost "in the ballpark" of a half-million dollars.

The system also is enabling the implementation of new technologies such as online ordering via Symbol handheld terminals in the stores.

"We are in the process of rolling out online DSD receiving at retail. We just keep adding more functionality related to the supply chain," he said.

Other applications handled by the server include merchandising systems and category management.