WARSAW, December 19, 2007 - Cisco® today announced that AmRest Holding, one of the largest restaurant chains in Central and Eastern Europe, is creating a new, collaborative work environment with Cisco Unified Communications. AmRest employees can now use the most appropriate channel of communication and access all collaborative applications on the network, no matter where they are. The project also includes the implementation of a new wide-area network (WAN) connecting 171 sites in Poland and Hungary, as well as wireless access in all offices and several restaurants.
AmRest Holdings N.V. operates restaurants under such well-known brands as Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, Freshpoint and Rodeo Drive in Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. With Cisco Unified Communications, all data and voice communication, as well as Cisco Unified MeetingPlace® Web and video conferencing, is consolidated on one platform. Administrators can easily manage users' accounts and access rights and deploy any Cisco Unified Communications applications centrally through the network.
The connected restaurants have also been equipped with wireless networks that can be used both by guests and staff. In several locations, waiters are now able to enter customers' orders online via PDAs, thus increasing productivity.
"Our aim was to achieve a new level of functionality and productivity while also lowering the overall costs of maintaining the communication infrastructure. We wanted to streamline the performance of the restaurant personnel and automate some of the business processes," said Przemys?aw Poppe, information technology director at AmRest Holding. "Renewing the infrastructure and restructuring our services involved significant investment. It is, however, bound to pay for itself. We expect significant savings on the administration costs of the unified network and the services we are running on it, as well as an increase in employee productivity through collaboration and more efficient processes," he added.
AmRest's new WAN network operates as a managed service by Polish Service Provider Telekomunikacja Polska (TP S.A.). "This is one of the most innovative projects we implemented during this year," said Mariusz Gaca, director of Business Customers Branch in TP S.A. "The AmRest Unified Communications network is managed centrally by TP S.A. via the central Cisco Unified Communications Manager located in Wroc?aw. Virtual private network solutions help enable highly secure traffic on the network."
The AmRest network is centrally managed, while the communications service is virtualized over the network, allowing users to share the same applications and user experience across all locations. It also provides additional survivability options so that stores can keep operating even if connectivity to the central location is not available. A new, centralized order taking system is planned based on the Cisco Unified Contact Center solution, which enables a uniquely personalized communication with individual customers through a variety of media including voice, Web, e-mail, and video.
About AmRest Holdings
AmRest Holdings N.V is one of the largest restaurant chains in Central and Eastern Europe. In Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia and Hungary it operates more than 240 restaurants under such well-known brands as Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, Freshpoint, Rodeo Drive and soon coffee bars - Starbucks Coffee. According to its recently announced strategy, AmRest is planning to continue opening new restaurants in countries it has already entered as well as expanding into other countries in the region. The company has already set up its branches in Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine. Altogether it employs approximately 8 thousand employees. AmRest is also listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In 2006 the company's revenue amounted to about PLN 629,3 mln. The net EBITDA income was PLN 91,2.
