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CONNECT3 News Releases

March 17, 2008

Connect3 to Provide Advanced Promotion Software to Bon-Ton Department Stores
Integrated promotion planning, in-line analytics and vendor trade portal will improve promotion collaboration and effectiveness while increasing efficiencies with consumer-centric versioning.

Cerritos, CA - March 17, 2008 --- Connect3 Systems, Inc., the leading provider of collaborative Advertising, Merchandising and Promotion (AMP) solutions, announces Bon-Ton Department Stores has licensed software modules from the Connect3 Advanced Promotion Solutions suite. Licensed modules include Promotion Manager, DecisionPoint Analytics, Workflow Manager, Proofing Manager and the newly released Trade Funds Manager. One of the largest regional department store chains in the US, Bon-Ton has also contracted with Connect3 to provide Professional Services to configure the Connect3 business application suite and integrate with Bon-Ton's existing merchandising, pricing, POS and supply chain systems and thereby put in place a collaborative enterprise AMP solution for planning highly versioned and targeted promotions and executing across Bon-Ton banners and channels.

Bon-Ton will leverage Connect3 DecisionPoint Analytics to provide its marketing and merchants users with real-time, in-line promotion optimization capabilities. Connect3 DecisionPoint Analytics will provide Bon-Ton the ability to access the science necessary to assist with recommendations around promotion space allocation, optimal category selection and promotional price optimized to the market/store, segment, event and calendar. In addition, Bon-Ton will implement Connect3 Trade Funds Manager module to enable a collaborative, web-based negotiation process with its suppliers. This application will allow suppliers, via a web-portal, to submit promotion deals to Bon-Ton, while providing its merchants the ability to manage the approval process related to turning deals into customer-facing offers and then placing the completed offers directly into events in Promotion Manager.

Mike Hayes, Bon-Ton SVP, Marketing, comments, "As we went through the process of investigating AMP technology providers, Connect3 stood out as the clear leader. They not only had the superior product, but also worked closely with our management team to develop the business case and ROI for Bon-Ton's AMP project and in the process 'raised the bar' for future business case justifications at Bon-Ton. Connect3's AMP footprint will allow us to standardize promotion activities across our banners while providing us the ability to better focus on the consumer and target promotions that will enhance the consumer's experience."

Connect3 Advanced Promotion Solutions provides a configurable AMP foundation and application framework that provides the underlying structure to support efficient promotion planning, collaboration, analysis and execution. Connect3 analytics offer distinct advantages as they are in-line and organic to the promotion planning process and provide merchants and marketing personnel the flexible modeling methodology necessary to execute optimized cross-channel promotions at the market, store or customer level.

"We are enthusiastic to have the opportunity to work with the team at Bon-Ton," says Dale Byrne, President & CEO of Connect3. "Automating the end-to-end, cross-channel promotion workflow from the vendor all the way through to execution, including sophisticated in-line optimization technology, is something the retail industry has envisioned for years. Connect3 is excited to work with forward thinking retailers like Bon-Ton who share our vision for the collaborative retail environment where the consumer is truly the center of the promotion planning process."

About Bon-Ton
The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. operates 279 stores, including ten furniture galleries, in 23 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains under the Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers nameplates and, under the Parisian nameplate, three stores in the Detroit, Michigan area. The stores offer a broad assortment of brand-name fashion apparel and accessories for women, men and children, as well as cosmetics and home furnishings.

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