TradeStone Software is helping retailers arm their workforce on-the-go.

The new TradeStone Mobile PDA platform lets retailers scan vendor showrooms and catalogs, request samples and place pre-commitments and orders from their PDA and other mobile devices. TradeStone's customers include American Eagle Outfitters, Boots, Circuit City, Deutsche Woolworth, Guitar Center, Kohl's, Macy's, Novi Footwear, NBrown Catalog Company, Pacific Sunwear, Regatta, Shoprite, The Children's Place and Urban Outfitters.

"The strategy was to offer to our customers the most exciting technology tools to make it easier for them to work remotely using PDAs and other mobile devices -- make mobile part of their everyday business process," said Ann Diamante, chief product officer of TradeStone, Gloucester, MA.

"When buyers are traveling around the world, looking at thousands of items, they want the system to automatically request a sample of the item they're interested in, get pricing and safety requirements and figure out what type of variations they need to provide," she said.

The goal of TradeStone Mobile's Virtual Showroom is to improve the speed and accuracy of communication, collaboration and negotiations between retailers and suppliers.

With TradeStone Mobile, retailers can check the status of orders, update events and access and update data, all in real-time.

"Retailers can alert suppliers and track work flow throughout the process," Ms. Diamante said. "They can view electronic catalogs that are available, access information on the fly, view, do comparisons and system-generated additional information.

"This will help them move downstream in the process of ordering a particular product," she said.

TradeStone Mobile supports various mobile platforms, including Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion's Blackberry and Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5 or 6.

TradeStone Mobile said that Virtual Showroom is the first of many mobile updates to come.

TradeStone Mobile will also allow retailers to access internal detailed product information as well as vendor specific catalogs, including IBM's WebSphere Product Center (WPC) catalog.

TradeStone Mobile lets a retail buyer log into the TradeStone Web site via their PDA browser, then enter the item number or use the scanner to scan the barcode label on samples, with product details -- including images -- displayed on the screen.

A key feature includes the buyer's ability to enter product selection and quantity, comment on the selected product and request samples.

The buyer can also track and provide offers, which are captured within the TradeStone system, giving everyone visibility into the supplier negotiation process.

TradeStone Mobile is officially being launched at this week's National Retail Federation 98th Annual Convention and Expo in New York City, January 12-13, 2009.

TradeStone representatives are in Booth #559 to discuss and demo the full TradeStone Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite and TradeStone Mobile's functionality.

TradeStone claims that it provides merchandise lifecycle management software that enables retailers to bring private label products to market quickly.

TradeStone's Merchandise Lifecycle Management suite consists of TradeStone PLM for Retail, TradeStone Global Sourcing, TradeStone Quality Management, TradeStone Global Order Management and TradeStone Supplier Management.

TradeStone Software is headquartered in Gloucester, MA, with offices in Atlanta, Bangalore, Hong Kong and London.

TradeStone Mobile has a per-user pricing model, which is very similar the model TradeStone uses with its other enterprise apps.

The company will promote the new app at trade shows like the NRF and through its partners such as IBM's Center of Excellence.

"This application is useful across product categories," Ms. Diamante said. "We're trying to extend our product offering to buyers around the world, building private label collection and making it as easy as possible for buyers to make a selection of their product and negotiating with suppliers in the showroom."

TradeStone's customer base is split between Europe, Asia, South Africa and North America.

"When buyers are viewing products at factories around the world, in vendors' showrooms, either virtually or at the locations themselves, they want to be able to negotiate right then and there," Ms. Diamante said.