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Kurt Salmon Associates helps Tractor Supply Company Go-Live

22 February 1999

Kurt Salmon Associates helps Tractor Supply Company Go-Live on SAP Retail in a Record 11 Months

    ATLANTA, Feb. 22 -- Tractor Supply Company (TSC) has gone
live on SAP Retail (v4.0B), making TSC the third company in the United States
to go-live on version 4.0B of SAP's retail enterprise solution.  Kurt Salmon
Associates (KSA) served as TSC's Prime Integration partner, managing the
configuration and testing of the retail, warehousing and financial modules of
the solution.
    The implementation of SAP Retail, a new solution for North America
introduced in late 1997, was started in March of 1998 by TSC.  The total
implementation timeframe was 11 months and included not only retail
(merchandising, planning, allocation, replenishment), warehousing and
financial modules, but also building interfaces for Point of Sale (POS) and
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).  Compaq and Microsoft NT provided the
technical foundation.
    Many SAP cross-functional implementations take 14 to 16 months or more.
The key ingredients to TSC's success in such a short timeframe were:

    1.  Executive level commitment
    2.  Scope control
    3.  Aggressive project management by KSA and TSC
    4.  SAP's responsiveness to enhance the solution during configuration
        and testing
    5.  Utilizing the Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology
    6.  Utilizing the TeamSAP approach to coordinate resources from many
        different consulting providers
    7.  Hard working, committed team of consulting and TSC professionals

    "Despite implementing a new release of the SAP Retail solution, KSA, along
with our consulting partners, overcame many obstacles by establishing strong
communication links to SAP development," stated Dean Sivara, KSA Account
Executive for Tractor Supply. "We truly believe the SAP solution is more
robust today because of functionality enhancements made to meet Tractor Supply
business requirements."
    Tractor Supply Company is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with over
250 stores and 4 distribution facilities.  Revenue for 1998 was $600 Million.
    Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA) is the premier global management consulting
firm specializing in retailing, consumer products, and health care.
    KSA's insight into the global consumer products supply complex, from
consumer to retailer to supplier, helps companies develop and implement
winning strategies. The firm's thought leadership among retailers and consumer
products companies has led to the transformation of entire industry sectors.
KSA is a leader in SAP Retail and Apparel Footwear Solution (AFS)
implementations, along with other solutions serving the retail and consumer
products marketplace. KSA has been identified as one of the top 10 consulting
firms, according to industry publication Consultants News.
    Services provided by the firm include corporate strategy, supply chain
integration, operations improvement, business process reengineering, business
transformation, information technology, logistics, and sourcing.  In each
service area, KSA services include planning and implementation to achieve
results.
    KSA has offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific.