Massive Intranet to tie Boots together

Project Sunrise connects Boots UK outlets as part of a #52m deal withTektronix.

Boots stores across the country are to be linked up to a company-wide Intranet by the end of the year as part of a multimillion pound revamp.

The retailer is due to complete Project Sunrise by December with the installation of Tektronix Netstations to its 1,300 stores. The deal is part of a #52m IT spend for 1997.

More than 4,000 Netstation units will be installed by the time the project is completed.

The Netstation is used to front IBM RS6000 applications in each outlet. Staff have access to applications such as email and ordering. "The new system is our lifeline, instead of having to use the phones all the time," said one source at a recently upgraded store.

Tektronix beat IBM Hewlett-Packard and NCD to the Boots deal. "We liked the committed approach of Tektronix. Project Sunrise has a three-year life span, so it was vital that we could establish a working relationship that would endure beyond the placement of the order," said Chris Edwards, infrastructure projects manager at Boots and head of the revamp.

At the time the deal was struck, Boots bought the Netstations as X terminals, but Tektronix has since adhered to the NC reference profile enabling Boots to use the same platform for its Intranet plans.

Project Sunrise was launched in 1994 in an effort to enhance IT within Boots outlets. At the time, they only had electronic point-of-sale systems linked into their telecommunications network.

3Com won a #5m deal in September 1995 to install a nationwide SNA-based network to replace the existing EPOS system from IBM and Gandalf.