Germany, 18 October 2004 - Media-Saturn today announced the implementation of Cisco Systems' Intelligent Retail network framework throughout almost 500 stores in eleven European countries within the next two years. The framework includes a new converged network infrastructure, 40,000 Cisco Internet Protocol (IP) phones and wireless access points in every store. The roll out will give Media-Saturn the opportunity to improve productivity and mobility at store and head office levels, as well as optimising efficiency within its supply chain operations.
Media-Saturn will implement Cisco Systems Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and IP Communication (IPC) solutions, which will run a number of applications on the Cisco IP phones to help to reduce costs in line with its vision. This will be implemented and maintained by Cisco Systems partner net Stemmer GmbH www.stemmer.de/, who specialise in implementing new technologies such as IP telephony, security, wireless and storage.
On the shop floor, the new technology will help Media-Saturn improve communications with employees. It will also bring new cost savings to managing its supply chain. Applications available for deployment include store manager services as well as the opportunity to offer employee self-service in the future.
Media-Saturn Spokesperson Bernhard Taubenberger said: "Being Europe's largest consumer electronic retailer, we pride ourselves on customer service and needed a solution that would progress services for our customers while also improving efficiency in the supply chain. We chose the Cisco Systems solution for its ability to provide a secure, robust platform allowing us to reduce bandwidth costs. It will also help to reduce the total cost of ownership because common network standards require less staff for management and maintenance than multiple networks."
Lothar Renner, Regional Sales Manager, Germany Cisco Systems added: "Running these applications with real time connection to head office will reduce the bandwidth requirements to a level that was not possible with separate networks. Also with the greater availability of broadband and the ability to integrate voice, data and video over a single IP architecture, Media-Saturn will become more cost effective."
"The results highlight the importance that consumers have placed on technology applications." Renner states. "Implementation offers the opportunity to increase revenues plus improved customer service and satisfaction, all of which are made possible by the infrastructure behind them - the infrastructure is a core driver in making innovation a reality."
METRO Group, the holding company of Media-Saturn initiated the Future Store Initiative in February 2003 which has also adopted Cisco Systems' intelligent retail network framework.. The Future Store Initiative aims to encourage innovations in retailing on a national and international level and it hopes to be viewed as a platform for technical, process-related developments and innovations in retailing. In the long run the initiative is aimed at setting standards for retailing that can be implemented on an international scale.
The Metro Future Store first field test survey in September 2003 concluded that customers are very interested in Future Store Initiative applications and customers on the trial cited that technology implementation in stores would provide a number of benefits including faster and more comfortable check-out processes, pricing information and orientation support. The results of the trial also saw the level of highly satisfied customers rise from 34 percent to 54 percent.
About Cisco IP Communications
Cisco IP Communications is a comprehensive system of enterprise-class solutions including IP telephony, unified communications, rich media IP audio and videoconferencing, IP video broadcasting and customer contact solutions that take advantage of customers' existing Cisco IP infrastructure to deliver new converged applications. Since shipping its first IP phone in 2001, Cisco has in the past 12 months alone shipped over 450,000 IP phones in the European region. In Western Europe, according to IDC, Cisco ships 49% of all IP telephony products, which are a part of the enterprise telephony market. Cisco has over 14,500 IP Communications customers globally and has sold over 3 million phones worldwide. More information about Cisco IP Communications is available at:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/innovators/VoIP/index.html
