Best Buy Upgrades Computer-Ordering KiosksBest Buy Upgrades Computer-Ordering Kiosks

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.

Loeb says the new Advisor can handle more users and vendors than earlier versions, yet is more efficient and requires fewer hardware resources. "The upgrade gives us greater scalability," says Loeb, "and we're decreasing our hardware by one-third." Financial savings have been substantial, Loeb says, but he declined to give specific numbers. The kiosks are already integrated with PC vendors' order-management systems, as well as Best Buy's back-end systems and call-center applications.

Best Buy plans additional changes. It will offer customers computers from several additional vendors. It will also redesign the kiosk screens to look more like Web pages, Loeb says. A customer also will be able to have a custom-built PC delivered to the store or his or her home.

Best Buy does have some concerns. Calico has been delisted from the Nasdaq exchange because its stock price had fallen below $1. But Loeb says the software vendor has plenty of cash on hand. "At this point, we're comfortable," he says.

Network Advisor 3.5 will be available later this month and will cost between $500,000 and $1 million, including implementation fees.