Southern States Cooperative Selects Ultimate Technology As POS Solutions Partner

Rochester, N.Y., January 9, 2007 Ultimate Technology, a leading provider of open system point of service (POS) hardware solutions and services, announced today that they have been selected by Southern States Cooperative, Inc. to manage their POS refresh project. The project includes hardware as well as managed services. The first phase of the project will be dedicated to developing a solution allowing for the integration of credit, debit and check authorization into Southern States legacy POS application.

Ultimate Technology is developing a middleware application that interacts with their POS software and allows for the integration of these critical authorizations, while at the same time adding new functionality for signature capture, gift card and electronic journaling.

“What was most important to Southern States in our selection process was finding a proven POS provider who understood our business issues and exhibited the ability to architect a solution that meets our retail technology objectives today and in the future,” said Karen Lankford, Vice President of IS. “Ultimate Technology rapidly assessed our situation and developed a comprehensive solution that allows us to continue using our legacy software, upgrade to contemporary hardware, add new functionality, and establish a clear migration path for upgrades in the future. Of the venders that we considered for this project, Ultimate Technology clearly exhibited a superior understanding of our business issues and was also able to provide a complete suite of life-cycle services enabling us to outsource the entire deployment to one competent point of contact.”

A pilot is expected in Q1 2007 with a rollout in late 2007 and 2008.


About Southern States Cooperative
Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Southern States is one of the nation’s largest agricultural cooperatives. Serving more than 300,000 producer-members, it provides a range of farm inputs, including fertilizer, seed, feed and pet food, animal health supplies and petroleum products, as well as other items for the farm and home. The cooperative’s distribution network includes more than 1,200 retail outlets in an area that extends from Maine to the Gulf Coast and as far west as Kentucky.

About Ultimate Technology Corporation
Since 1988, Ultimate Technology has deployed and serviced over 315,000 POS installations for leading retailers in North America. Ultimate Technology goes beyond offering retail-hardened products by delivering a range of POS services that ensure customer success throughout the entire POS lifecycle. Every year more retailers discover the flexibility, convenience, and cost benefits of our full service POS solutions.

For more information about Ultimate Technology’s world-class portfolio of point-of-service products and support services visit www.ultimatetechnology.com.

For more information, contact Kathy Manners, Marketing Communications Specialist, at 585-742-5245 or by e-mail at mannersk@ultimatetechnology.com