Barnes & Noble Selects Accenture And Initiate Systems To Implement Master Data Management Software To Improve Customer Service

NEW YORK; Nov. 1, 2007 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, has selected Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Initiate Systems to develop a new customer database. The new system will be designed to improve customer recognition at all interaction points.

Barnes & Noble is using Initiate Systems master data management software, which provides a record for each customer, household, company or other entity within and across all data sources. The retailer will deploy Initiate Consumer™ (formerly known as Initiate Identity Hub®) software as well as the Householding Hub software to recognize individual and household relationships and reduce the number of duplicate customer records.

Accenture is leading the software implementation and working with Barnes & Noble to plan how the retailer can use data to gain better insight into customer behavior and improve the overall shopping experience. In delivering these services, Accenture, identified as a customer relationship management (CRM) leader five years in a row by CRM Magazine, is drawing on its global experience to bring in best practices that will help Barnes & Noble create a more holistic picture of its customers.

“Accurate, complete customer views are the foundation of our strategic initiative to improve the customer experience,” said Terri Pucin, vice president of customer experience at Barnes & Noble. “Accenture and Initiate Systems understand our technology goals and are helping us turn data records into a database that can better serve our customers’ needs.”

“Before retailers can improve the customer experience, they must first know who their customers are, and this requires a comprehensive and accessible view of customers,” said Patricia Walker, a senior executive in Accenture’s Retail practice. “We are working with Barnes & Noble to create a single view of the customer and, therefore, help them gain insight into what customers want and how to serve them better.”

“Barnes & Noble considered a number of competitive options and selected Initiate® software because of its high degree of accuracy in customer recognition, data matching capability, capacity to scale to millions and quickly help generate value,” said Bill Conroy, president and chief executive officer at Initiate Systems.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With approximately 170,000 people in 49 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$19.70 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Initiate Systems

Initiate Systems, Inc. enables organizations to strategically leverage and share critical data assets. Its Master Data Management (MDM) software and experience as an information exchange leader provide organizations with complete, accurate and real-time views of data spread across multiple systems or databases, even outside the firewall. This allows companies to unlock the value of their data assets for competitive advantages or operational improvements. Initiate Systems operates globally through its subsidiaries, with corporate headquarters in Chicago and offices across the U.S., and Toronto, London and Sydney.

About Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 792 bookstores in 50 states. For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation’s top bookseller brand, as determined by a brand’s overall strength based on its combination of familiarity, quality and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Contacts:

Caitlin Storhaug
Accenture
+1 (415) 537-5458
caitlin.storhaug@accenture.com

Maria Diecidue Initiate Systems, Inc.
+ (312) 395-1345
mdiecidue@initiatesystems.com