400 attend Smith-Gardner conference for MACS sites

Smith-Gardner, the leading direct marketing application vendor for the HP 3000, held its eighth annual users’ conference last month in Delray Beach, Fla. S-G offers MACS (Mail-order And Cataloging System), and may well be the fastest-growing application provider for the HP 3000 platform.

Titled “Lock in the Power of the New Millennium,” the conference was attended by more than 400 S-G clients and partners from around the world. The company’s new WebOrder internet commerce system attracted the most attention. Historically, MACS has primarily addressed the needs of catalog-based retailers; however, the WebOrder module is making the 3000 application attractive to a new generation of online retailers, such as BigWords.com. Some traditional catalog companies have embraced the new technology, including Coldwater Creek and dELiAs.

The company counts over 200 clients in the US and throughout Europe, South America, and Australia. Clients range in size from companies processing 50 to 300,000 orders per day. Products offered by clients include clothing, software and hardware, automotive parts, gifts and food items. Among the larger client sites represented at the conference: the U.S. Mint, MicroWarehouse, Nordstrom, TimeLife and Staples.

Smith-Gardner president and CEO Gary Hegna said, “The sessions on our WebOrder Internet commerce system had the heaviest attendance, indicating that our clients and partners are clearly focused on this growing direct marketing medium.”

Hewlett-Packard’s Alvina Nishimoto, R&D Internet Program Manager at CSY, was a featured guest speaker. She reiterated the company’s continued commitment to the HP 3000 platform. The HP 3000 community was also represented at the conference’s vendor showcase. HP-related vendors were VESOFT, OmniSolutions, Lund Performance Solutions, MiniSoft, Disc, Cognos, STR Software and Bradmark Technologies.