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Petro-Canada Transforms Customer Experience with NCR's Retalix StorePoint Software Innovative software to help Petro-Canada build shopper loyalty across its more than 1,500 retail locations DULUTH, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NCR Corporation (NYS: NCR) , the global leader in consumer transaction technologies, announced today that Suncor Energy has selected NCR's Retalix StorePoint point-of-sale (POS) and fuel management software for the company's Petro-Canada branded retail network. Petro-Canada, known as "Canada's gas station," has more than 1,500 retail outlets across the country and is rapidly expanding its use of technology to enhance shopper experiences and to drive shopper loyalty. Suncor Energy chose StorePoint because the software met the company's immediate needs and is easily expandable and adaptable to meet future needs. StorePoint meets all traditional convenience and petroleum store software needs, from forecourt fuel management to back-office operations and everything in between. The solution also supports pricing and promotions, comprehensive replenishment management, food service management and more. Suncor plans to ramp up marketing and promotions activity at Petro-Canada stores in the near future. This was one of the major considerations in Petro-Canada's selection of StorePoint. The software supports Suncor's current needs and can quickly bring new marketing and promotions initiatives to Petro-Canada shoppers as those initiatives are finalized and rolled out. "Engaging and marketing to our customers in new ways is key to building shopper loyalty and encouraging repeat visits, and it is the foundation of our retail brand strategy," said Petro-Canada Director of Marketing Strategies, Pat Lizotte. "StorePoint offered us the functionality and reliability we need now and the ability to easily expand our marketing programs in the future." "Powerful software can be a key differentiator for retailers as they work to transform customer shopping experiences and operate their stores more efficiently," Jimmy Frangis, vice president and general manager grocery and convenience retail at NCR. "We look forward to working with Petro-Canada and providing technology solutions to make their stores even more welcoming to shoppers throughout Canada." About Suncor Energy Suncor Energy is Canada's premier integrated energy company. Suncor's operations include oil sands development and upgrading, conventional and offshore oil and gas production, petroleum refining, and product marketing under the Petro-Canada brand. While working to responsibly develop petroleum resources, Suncor is also developing a growing renewable energy portfolio. Suncor's common shares (symbol: SU) are listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Web site: www.Suncor.com and www.Petro-Canada.ca About NCR Corporation NCR Corporation (NYS: NCR) is the global leader in consumer transaction technologies, turning everyday interactions with businesses into exceptional experiences. With its software, hardware, and portfolio of services, NCR enables more than 300 million transactions daily across the retail, financial, travel, hospitality, telecom and technology industries. NCR solutions run the everyday transactions that make your life easier. NCR is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia with over 26,000 employees and does business in 180 countries. NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries. Web site: www.ncr.comTwitter: @NCRCorporationFacebook: www.facebook.com/ncrcorpLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ncr-corporationYouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ncrcorporation NCR CorporationMark Scott, 678-808-7721Cell: 404-771-8658mark.scott@ncr.comKEYWORDS:   United States  North America  GeorgiaINDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

After our last stop in SA we headed to the GOR. We had arranged to do more WWOOFing in Lorne in a holidayretreat place called Allenvale. We were also waiting to hear back about a farm job in NSW but until then continued on our journey. We travelled along the coast passing other towns before we got to the GOR. It39s a bit of a drive if you see everything The first of our 2 days we travelled

Well there was no rush this AM to beat the rain....it succeeded in arriving with a vengence at 5 AM.or possibly before. Ralf slept in while we packed up and headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and the futile hope for sunshine. My carfeful routing went south when I discovered a sign stating detour for bridge on 141. Bypassed the exit and on to the conventional route to Gatlinburg. This entaile

Before arriving in Santorini, I felt like I had already been. With all of the famous pictures out there, it is easy to conceive what it looks like. Or so it seems. While I did see a lot of familiar faces, like this blue domed church, the sheer impossibility of Santorini is something that must bee seen to be completely appreciated. The famous blue dome and also where we take a left to go to our room the view from our hotel hot tub Ol' blue dome at dusk Looking out into the caldera the church The Bells over the caldera

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Ace Hotels opening in one of our favorite cities, London!We stumbled upon this news yesterday as we were hunting down more info on their Los Angeles property, opening in the fall. The Ace's Facebook page posted picture of construction but not much else. Yet a link in the comments sent us to a jobs opening site for "London Shoreditch." Was this for an actual Ace Hotel or for some sort of Ace-related pop-up experience, we wondered? We got our answer almost immediately when we went to the Ace home page and saw a link for London. The hotel is going up at 100 Shoreditch High Street, which is currently home to

By Melissa Iwai and Anne Rockwellfor Cynthia Leitich Smith's CynsationsMelissa Iwai and Anne Rockwell interview each other about their new release, Truck Stop, written by Anne and illustrated by Melissa (Viking, 2013). From the promotional copy:Early each morning, before the sun is even up, the truck stop opens for breakfast, and the trucks start pulling in. Eighteen wheeler, milk tank, moving van, and flatbed! Their drivers order eggs and bacon, pancakes with syrup, and a blueberry muffin. For the boy who helps his parents at the counter, there is nothing better than seeing all the trucks roll in.Melissa: Anne, it was very exciting to read your manuscript for Truck Stop (Viking, 2013) when it was first presented to me. My family and I have long been a big fan of your books, and I was so thrilled to be chosen to illustrate one of your stories! You’ve been so prolific and written so many wonderful stories throughout the years.You’ve written books for early readers, such as Boats (Puffin, 1993), At the Supermarket (Henry Holt, 2010), First Day of School (HarperCollins, 2011). Also stories relating to history, mythology, and science. . . .I wonder—what keeps you curious about the world and inspires you to write?Photo of Anne by Oliver Rockwell, copyright 2013.Anne: I think that for some reason I remain as curious as I was as a child about how our world works, whether it’s the stories we tell of people and events that live on from our past, or the endless fascination of the patterns to be found in nature, or simply the everyday (which for young children, a new world).I can’t think of any child who divides the world into “fiction” vs “nonfiction” but adults do, which is sad, because children bring a joy and beauty to everything they learn, and no matter what we think, young children enjoy learning.Sullivan Wong Rockwell reading his first book not yet knowing that his NaiNai (Mandarin Chinese for "paternal grandmother") wrote and illustrated it many years ago for another little boy who grew up to be Sullivan’s BaBa. Photo by Oliver Rockwell, copyright 2013. 72 Melissa: Where do you get your voice?Anne: I’m afraid I don’t get it. It owns me; it gets me, and I’m lucky when it comes my way. I’ve learned ways to summon it.I find that it seeks me out when I’m in a foreign country. Fortunately I love to travel, and the voice seems to find me more readily when speaking, and sort of functioning in a foreign language.A few years ago I was alone for an extended sketching visit to the south of France. Café au lait and fresh baked bread goes well with the song of pinball machines, I find, and ancient Roman ruins.My sketchbook seems to want to turn into a journal—no, I mean a picture book. A picture book comes, and the language is that of my childhood. I wish I could summon that voice, but it has a mind of its own.Melissa: Do you remember what the seed was for the story of Truck Stop?Anne: Not specifically but it goes back to the same place, that I love to travel. I’m fascinated by the places we claim as our own when we’re on the road. My son and his family, including my littlest grandson, live in China, so I’ve been there twice for extended stays. Even in a village unchanged from the Ming Dynasty (14th through 17th century) at the base of the Great Wall, travelers may reach out in friendship. I guess I’m just fascinated by food culture around the world.And Melissa, you’re a foodie, as we can see from your blog, The Hungry Artist, and your picture book Soup Day (Henry Holt, 2010). I guess that assured you having the right emotional take on Truck Stop.Melissa: Thanks, Anne. I do love that in the story, each trucker has his/her own particular truck as well as a particular breakfast dish. It was so fun to create the diner scenes and their breakfasts. I wanted to communicate the camaraderie and sense of community between the characters. They have a connection with the narrator and his family, and breakfast brings them together.Anne, did you hav

Travel ratings website TripAdvisor said Wednesday it has acquired US start-up GateGuru, a mobile app focused on flight and airport information.

Piranha Games has announced the release of a big, quick new machine into MechWarrior Online. Called 'Quickdraw', this beast weighs in at 60 tons yet can travel up to 85 miles per hour. The team has released a new video to show off some of Quickdraw's features.

I recently met with several different prominent credit card issuers and I frequently have contact with industry insiders, so I thought I’d pull together my general thoughts from these meetings and what I expect to happen for the second half of 2013 in terms of sign-up bonuses and other new developments. In general, I see the credit card industry heating up and that has already been seen with great credit card bonuses like the recent limited-time offers of 75,000 Membership Rewards points for the Business Rewards Gold card from American Express and this week’s limited-time offers of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points on the Chase Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards. Like many other sectors of the economy, the credit card markets are heating up as consumers and businesses start spending again, and while we didn’t see too many jaw-dropping bonus offers in the second half of 2012, by contrast, I expect to see some great offers in the second half of this year. More Attention On Business Credit Cards As the economy improves, more and more people are starting their own ventures – either outright or as a side business, and many credit card companies are picking up on this and beginning to make the bonus offers on their lines of business credit cards more and more attractive. Starting a business involves spending money, and the banks want that business. They realize that these are the high-value customers and that there is a lot of competition for their spending, so they are going to be offering better and better sign-up and spending bonuses and more attractive perks and benefits to entice them. Just note that business cards are not regulated by the Credit CARD Act of 2009 and generally have fewer protections and higher fees. However, they also have some of the highest sign-up bonuses and category spending bonuses like the Ink cards’ 5X on office supplies and telecommunications and 2X on hotels and gas; the Business Gold Rewards card’s 3x points on airfare, 2x points on purchases in the U.S. for advertising in select media, gasoline at U.S. stand-alone gas stations, and shipping; and the Capital One Spark Miles Business and Capital One Spark Miles Cash cards’ 2X points per $1 on all purchases. The great thing is most issuers will issue pretty much any small business- even if a brand new idea or side consulting project, by allowing consumers to apply and use their Social Security Number in lieu of an Employee ID Number (EIN) as sole proprietorships. Note: the credit card companies are all very keen on bringing in actual small businesses so I wouldn’t be surprised to see these rules tighten in the future as they raise the threshold of what type of business qualifies for these lucrative offers. More Limited Time Offers Limited-time sign-up offers are not exactly new – many of the best credit card offers that periodically come around like 100,000 Avios for the British Airways Visa or 30,000 points for the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex stick around for a couple months, but what is new is that many credit card companies are offering truly limited-time offers – sometimes only a week, a day or even several hours on truly lucrative points bonuses like January’s 100,000-point offer on the Amex Platinum card. And consumers have been responding since they know that these offers are historically high and won’t be around for long. They have gotten in the habit of applying immediately and credit card companies have noted how extremely effective these offers are at driving new customers and account openings. I have no doubt that we will be seeing more and more (and hopefully higher!) LTO’s for the rest of the year. More Spend Threshold Bonuses and Benefits As credit card companies start attracting new consumers, their second challenge is keeping them engaged and getting them to put more of their spend on these cards. One way to to so is to add category spending bonuses like the Ink ca

It’s Week 2 of Amex’s Daily Getaways special vacation package sales, and today, Wednesday, June 19, Daily Getaways will be selling packages of Club Carlson points at a significant discount of up to 50%. Here are the packages. 100,000 Club Carlson Gold Points – Redeem for a 2-Night Stay, $385 ($700 value), 71 Available, Max per purchase: 2 Dates of Travel: Anytime 50,000 Club Carlson Gold Points – Redeem for a 1-Night Stay, $194 ($350 value), 142 Available, Max per purchase: 2 Dates of Travel: Anytime No more than 2 sets of points purchased through this offer are allowed per loyalty number. A maximum of 4 sets of points is allowed per loyalty number across both Club Carlson offers. So with this promo, you are essentially buying Club Carlson points for 0.385 cents each instead of the 0.7 cents they usually cost – and if you pay with an American Express card, you get a further 10% discount, bringing your per-cent cost to 0.3465 cents per point. That means you’re getting a discount of over 50%. Packages go live at 1PM ET and the numbers are pretty limited – just 71 of the 100,000-point ones and 142 of the 50,000 point ones, so you have to be quick on the draw. To give you a concrete example, if you purchased 50,000 points – the point requirement for an award night at a top-tier Category 7 property – at the rate of 0.3465 cents each, you’d be paying $173.25 and would have enough points for one award night outright. Just looking around at top-tier Carlson hotels in Europe this summer – let’s say you had some time off over the July 4 holiday and went wanted to hit Paris for a night around July 3-5. You could use those 50,000 points to stay at the Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan boutique property just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. Rates around those nights are going for 560 EUR each, or $750 – so you’d be getting a $550 discount per night! However, if you have one of the Club Carlson co-branded credit cards you get the last night of any award reservation of 2 nights or more for free. So if you do have one of those cards, your 50,000 points would get you two free nights. So the $173.25 you paid for those points would get you $1,500 in value in terms of room rates. You’d be saving over $1,300! Granted, even though this hotel is quite a nice little hidden gem in a beautiful neighborhood just steps from the Eiffel Tower, these prices seem a bit inflated, but that’s what they’re going for and what you would have to pay if you were just using cash. It is not always easy to get such high values from Club Carlson redemptions and you could argue that some of them aren’t worth it since I personally don’t put their top-tier hotels in the same category as those of other chains like Hyatt or Starwood, but the bottom line is, you could still be saving a lot of money on some great redemptions, especially if you have a little flexibility and know where to look. Again, these packages are limited in number, so you might want to consider the flash sales taking place all week on Club Carlson’s Facebook and Twitter feeds if you can’t score one of these.