The Co-operative Group plans to add workforce management from Kronos, in a major project to enhance operational efficiency in its 2,200 UK food stores. The Kronos system will record the working hours of 55,000 staff using biometric data collection terminals, which will be installed in stores in a rolling program over the next two years.

The fully automated time and attendance system, which uses finger scan verification, will replace the current system used by the Group's Food Retail operation that requires some information to be keyed in at store level.

The key benefits include faster and more efficient management of store staffing requirements, which can help reduce costs as well as enable managers in the field and at Head Office to have easier access to important information on longer term staffing trends and patterns.

The system also will reduce the amount of time spent on manual activities such as time capture, employee scheduling and absence management, and ensure compliance with legal requirements on break rules, maximum weekly hours and minimum rest times.

"We are very pleased to have teamed up with Kronos," says Mark Hale, director of food retail information services, The Group. "We wanted a system that would be able to handle efficiently and accurately the huge amount of information that needs to be processed and the Kronos product fitted the bill."

"The use of the workforce management system in our stores will bring many benefits, not least of which will be the cost savings and the freeing up of management time," says Sean Toal, director of food retail operations, The Group. "The system will be able to operate across all our stores and will help them to run more efficiently."

Toys"R"Us extends its relationship with GSI Commerce to include its newly acquired eToys.com and babyuniverse.com brands. GSI will provide e-commerce technology, customer care and marketing services for the Web stores.

GSI has provided e-commerce technology, customer service support, and interactive marketing services for www.Toysrus.com and www.Babiesrus.com since 2006. Last year, the company named gsi interactive, the full-service interactive marketing and design agency of GSI, as its digital agency of record for e-mail marketing, paid search and online advertising, affiliate marketing, content creation and interactive design. As part of the expanded relationship, gsi interactive will also be the digital agency of record for eToys.com and babyuniverse.com.

"We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Toys"R"Us, to include well-respected brands eToys.com and babyuniverse.com," says Scott Hardy, executive vice president of business management for GSI. "We look forward to offering a world-class online experience to new and loyal customers of these sites."