Odyssey Software Enables New Coca-Cola Freestyle Fountains to Phone Home

WEST HENRIETTA, N.Y., Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Odyssey Software, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise-class mobile device management (MDM) products, today announced that The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) has chosen Odyssey Software's Athena™ software to augment the management of its next-generation beverage dispenser, the Coca-Cola Freestyle®, through the Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 console.

These new dispensers have the capability to deliver over 100 different beverages and allow consumers to choose their beverage combination of choice from an easy-to-use touch screen display.  By incorporating Odyssey Software's Athena into these new machines, which will be deployed nationally, The Coca-Cola Company will be able to remotely collect consumption information, manage, provision and provide statistics needed to keep these machines operational.

"Odyssey Software's Athena provides us with the ability to remotely collect consumption and operational data from these state-of-the-art beverage dispensers and provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to use the data to make marketing and business decisions," said Gene Farrell, vice president, Coca-Cola Freestyle, Coca-Cola North America. "The remote device management capabilities provided by Athena ensures that we can efficiently and quickly gather important data as well as provision and observe issues that may occur without touching the machine."

"The seamless integration of Athena and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 is not only cutting edge in terms of remote device management, but is a great example of how organizations like Coca-Cola can extend the core functionality of Configuration Manager to enable new capabilities and deployments of embedded solutions like the Coca-Cola Freestyle," said JD Marymee, director of strategic partner alliances, Management and Services Division, Microsoft Corp. "Odyssey Software is an innovative partner, whose remote device management features give organizations more power and control over these devices as they look to expand their use to new business opportunities."

"We have seen an increase in the application of configuration management technology beyond traditional IT devices, like servers and PCs, to remote and embedded platforms," said Terrence Cosgrove of Gartner. "Gartner estimates that as much as 60 percent of unplanned downtime is due to application errors; IT organizations should look to improve their remote configuration and management practices to drive higher availability."

Odyssey Software's Athena is uniquely designed to integrate directly into the native infrastructure of Configuration Manager without the need for additional servers or consoles, unlike all other device management products, which require their own tightly coupled server, console and database infrastructure. By integrating Odyssey Software's award winning Athena software on each Freestyle dispenser, The Coca-Cola Company has the ability to remotely manage and transmit data captured from each dispenser.

"Innovative technologies such as Coca-Cola's Freestyle demand increasingly faster response time to achieve organizational goals, drive profitability and maintain customer satisfaction," said Mark Gentile, CEO of Odyssey Software. "Odyssey Software is thrilled that Athena has been chosen to provide comprehensive remote management of this sophisticated new machine that allows over 100 Coca-Cola products to be in the same space where a traditional seven fountain dispenser would live."

About Odyssey Software

Odyssey Software is a leading provider of enterprise-class mobile and embedded device management software products for today's most popular device platforms. Our mission is to provide industry leading software technology innovations that make it efficient and cost effective for IT organizations to remotely manage, support and control the complexity of enterprise deployments. More information is available at: http://www.odysseysoftware.com or by calling +1-585-214-2409.

SOURCE Odyssey Software, Inc.