Best Buy Co. is installing new software that's designed to cut costs, expand product selection, and give customers greater capabilities to customize more elements of a computer. The Eden Prairie, Minn., electronics retailer has let customers customize and order PCs via in-store kiosks for two years. By this fall, the kiosks in more than 400 Best Buy stores will be upgraded to Calico Commerce Inc.'s Network Advisor 3.5, a Java-based application that can walk consumers through complex product configuration and ordering. Jeff Loeb, program director for Best Buy, says the enhanced application gives PC customers greater flexibility to choose from more vendors and products; compare prices among more vendors and computer configurations; and send an order to custom-build a computer directly to the manufacturer. The software also tracks changes, additions, and deletions to custom-configured systems.
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