7-Eleven takes a big gulp of technology

From...

By Eugene Grygo

(IDG) -- With EDS' help, 7-Eleven this week will be taking a big gulp of state-of-the-art online payment and wireless Web technologies.

7-Eleven is piloting with EDS a smart-card payment system as well as real-time wireless Web access in a "store of the future" project that is going live this weekend, said EDS officials.

Plano, Texas-based EDS is working with a new 7-Eleven store near its main campus to provide customers with VIP (Virtual Instant Payment) smart cards that use EDSPay Electronic Payment Services. The pilot project will continue for approximately three months before Dallas-based 7-Eleven and EDS expand it throughout 7-Eleven's worldwide chain of stores.

IDG.net INFOCENTER InfoWorld Main Page InfoWorld Test Center Subscribe to InfoWorld Newsletters Infoworld Opinions and Spotlights Related IDG.net Stories COMDEX: Cisco, EDS adopt e-learning mantra COMDEX: EDS CEO calls for high level of cybersecurity EDS, Sabre get approval for giant outsourcing deal Features PC World.com Product Finder Bluetooth wireless connectivity set to take off DSL in distress Visit an IDG site Choose a site: IDG.net CIO Computerworld Darwin Dummies.com GamePro.com The Industry Standard ITWorld.com InfoWorld.com JavaWorld LinuxWorld Macworld Online Network World Fusion PC World Publish.com UnixInsider IDG.net search

The VIP card has a Texas Instruments chip, circuitry, "and an antenna all printed onto a piece of paper that attaches to an employee badge," said Walter Lammert, an enterprise architect at EDS who has been involved in the project from the start. The VIP card will be taking other forms over the coming months of the pilot, Lammert said.

The VIP system requires VIP card readers, support for RFID (radio frequency identification), and a terminal that notifies the VIP server to verify the funds for purchases and approve the transaction. Customers select the amount they want to put on the card via the Web. The VIP card terminal readers were created by Telenexus, in Richardson, Texas, and based on its wireless telephony and RFID system.

To manage the transactions, EDS is employing Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Server) Web server and TCP/IP links to a Microsoft SQL Server database. EDS also has developed the code to hold the system together, Lammert said. Security is based on user ID and password protection.

"For the VIP card, all of the Web pages and database interconnection were done by EDS," Lammert said. EDS also constructed the communications network that pulls data "together to the backroom operations," he said.

EDS is serving as the host for the backroom operations. Connectivity from the store to the EDS service management center "where the Web and database servers reside" is via frame-relay networking, Lammert said.

EDS developers applied the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) Web services protocol to pave the way for funds transfer.

The VIP cards will soon be getting a reality check.

"We're going to put on live traffic very shortly ... We're anticipating [going live] over the weekend or first of next week," Lammert said. "The server is going through its vulnerability scan today, this afternoon."

7-Eleven is hoping to gain efficiencies from the cashless payment plan, to streamline the management and clerk reporting chores, and to build customer loyalty by pinpointing its marketing as a result of digitizing this kind of transaction information. The record of purchases and related transaction information might become crucial to special promotions between 7-Eleven and its business partners, but a decision on that has yet to be made, Lammert said.

EDS is also experimenting with wireless access to the Web via a Store Manager's Portal handheld devices, created by TouchStar Technologies, based in Tulsa, Okla.

One of the first uses of the Portal will be to provide customers with location and driving information via the Location Information Service. Future uses of the Portal may be to connect field consultants to a corporate intranet as well as to aid the creation of reports and to provide remote access to e-mail and applications, EDS officials said.

"It was an ideal situation to work with them and put technology in that environment," said Lammert, adding that EDS has a 10-year technology relationship with 7-Eleven.

"We developed their back-office retail information system," Lammert said. This year, EDS became more of a strategic partner by offering "forward-looking, customer-facing technology. ... We have developed an IT strategy for their entire company."