CDW Voice and Data Solutions Reduce Telecommunications Cost and Complexity to Unleash Business Potential
July 09 2007 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDWC), a leading provider of technology
products and services to business, government and education, today
demonstrated the business value of consolidating and simplifying an
organization�s telecommunications infrastructure. CDW provided
design assistance to implement simplified, converged audio, video
and data network solutions for Summer Bay Resorts, Pentax Medical
and The Riverside Company, unlocking the solutions� business value
and encouraging profitable revenue growth for the customers. CDW
works with a broad set of telecommunications partners, including
Global Crossing (NASDAQ:GLBC), a leading global provider of
telecommunications solutions, to provide services and products that
meet customers� business and technology requirements alike. Global
Crossing�s portfolio of fully managed, converged IP services
includes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), IP VPN, Remote VPN
access, Internet Access and IP Video designed to meet the exacting
performance and reliability needs of customers� mission-critical
communications. These services are supported by a comprehensive
suite of managed solutions, simplifying the management and
maintenance and improving the security and reliability of the
converged IP solution. �Organic and acquisition-driven growth can
create a tangle of telecommunications contracts and systems that
constrain a company�s growth and sap valuable resources from new
initiatives,� said Ian Kieninger, manager of CDW�s Voice and Data
Specialist Team. �Working with telecommunications providers such as
Global Crossing, CDW can cut through that tangle to consolidate,
simplify and reduce the cost of telecommunications. The net result
is fewer resources spent on maintenance and more resources
available for business investment.� Summer Bay Resorts: A cool SIP
for open source fans Summer Bay Resorts, a rapidly growing vacation
ownership company with timeshare developments in Tennessee,
Florida, Nevada and Missouri, also operates more than 500 operator
seats at call centers Florida and Missouri. Running 24 hours a day,
in 2006 the call centers handled 7.1 million phone calls supporting
Summer Bay�s marketing and customer service operations. Summer Bay
IT Director Dave Kurz had tried without success to locate a single
service provider that could deliver a Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP) over Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution that
supported the company�s Asterisk open-source VoIP infrastructure at
all four of the company�s locations. As well as preferring a single
carrier to ease management of the system, he wanted consistent
reliability and quality of service. Kurz turned to CDW, whose
technology specialists worked with him and Summer Bay Network
Administrator Jason Brown to understand their requirements,
identify all practical options and provide a comprehensive
comparison of them. �When we speak directly with service providers,
each presents itself as the best, of course,� said Kurz. �But since
CDW represents so many providers, they do a great job of comparing
the options openly and fairly, without pushing us toward any
particular one.� Global Crossing�s SIP-enabled enterprise VoIP
solutions matched Summer Bay Resorts� needs and now enable Kurz to
manage all four locations and call centers with ease while reducing
the company�s annual telecommunications expense by more than 50
percent. Pentax Medical Company: Frame-breaking technology and
stellar service Pentax Medical Company, a manufacturer of life care
systems, imaging systems and optical component products, operates
ten widely dispersed locations across the United States, including
sales and distribution centers. Director of IT Vito Micciolo and
Infrastructure Manager Luis Collado were seeking a single provider
that could serve all locations with Pentax�s voice, data and
Internet services with improved availability and maximized cost
savings. They also wanted to simplify management of their system
through consolidated billing services that had not been available
from previous providers. Over a three-month period, CDW and the
Pentax team reviewed a range of options and planned to upgrade the
firm�s aging frame-relay system to a new multiprotocol label
switching (MPLS) wide-area network WAN. Pentax selected Global
Crossing as its new service provider, and CDW facilitated
additional details such as Web-based and audio collaboration
services, calling cards and conference bridges. Beyond the benefit
of the MPLS WAN for improved Internet service, Pentax valued its
improved voice connectivity and the advantages it presented for
disaster preparedness. �Our experience with Global Crossing has
been excellent. We�ve had several sites at 100 percent
availability, with most at better than 99.8 percent, and on the
rare occasion when there is an outage in the system, they call us
before we have time to call them,� adds Collado. �Plus, we have
reduced our total service bill by about $22,000 per month � more
than half of what we had been paying with the former provider.� The
Riverside Company: Big-company benefits for small-company bottom
lines The Riverside Company is a global private equity firm with
headquarters in New York, New York. Director of Strategic Analysis
and Sourcing Jonathan D. Kinney and his team saw voice/data
services as one area where all 48 Riverside portfolio companies
based in the U.S. and another 11 in Europe could potentially
economize and improve their operations by contracting with a common
service provider. CDW had provided core technologies to Riverside
for several years, so Kinney turned to CDW in search of
telecommunications service options that would leverage Riverside�s
buying power for all of their holdings. CDW and Global Crossing
finalized their agreement with Riverside in August 2006 and so far
have completed installations at 19 of Riverside�s portfolio
companies. Participation in Riverside�s strategic sourcing programs
is optional for the portfolio companies, but the CDW / Global
Crossing program has gained great momentum and participation
continues to grow. �Most providers we spoke with were inflexible
about allowing Riverside to leverage our combined buying power to
benefit our portfolio companies, but to CDW�s and Global Crossing�s
credit, they saw the business advantage of doing so,� Kinney said.
�Our properties now have access to an offering of WAN services,
conferencing, local calling, international long distance and all of
our special services.� About CDW CDW�, ranked No. 342 on the
FORTUNE 500, is a leading provider of technology solutions for
business, government and education. CDW is a principal source of
technology products and services including top name brands such as
APC, Acer, Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Lenovo,
Microsoft, Panasonic, Quantum, Samsung, Sony, Symantec and
ViewSonic. CDW's direct model offers customers one-on-one
relationships with knowledgeable account managers and access to
more than 820 on-staff engineers and advanced technology
specialists who customize solutions for customers� complex
technology needs. CDW also provides same-day product shipping and
post-sales technical support. CDW was founded in 1984 and employs
approximately 5,640 coworkers. In 2006, the company generated sales
of $6.8 billion. For more information, visit CDW.com. Where You Can
Find Additional Information In connection with the proposed merger
between CDW and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, CDW filed a
preliminary proxy statement with the SEC on July 2, 2007. CDW will
also file with the SEC, and furnish to its shareholders, a
definitive proxy statement soliciting proxies for the meeting of
its shareholders to be called with respect to the Merger. CDW
SHAREHOLDERS ARE ADVISED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT WHEN IT IS
FINALIZED AND DISTRIBUTED TO THEM BECAUSE IT WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT
INFORMATION. CDW shareholders and other interested parties will be
able to obtain, without charge, a copy of the proxy statement (when
available) and other relevant documents filed with the SEC from the
SEC�s website at http://www.sec.gov. CDW shareholders and other
interested parties will also be able to obtain, without charge, a
copy of the proxy statement (when available) and other relevant
documents by directing a request by mail or telephone to CDW
Corporation, 200 N. Milwaukee Ave., Vernon Hills, Illinois 60061,
Attention: Corporate Secretary, telephone: (847) 465-6000, or from
CDW�s website, http://www.cdw.com. CDW and certain of its
directors, executive officers and other members of management and
employees may, under SEC rules, be deemed to be �participants� in
the solicitation of proxies from shareholders of CDW with respect
to the proposed transaction. Information regarding the persons who
may be considered �participants� in the solicitation of proxies is
set forth in the preliminary proxy statement described above.
Statements about the expected timing, completion and effects of the
proposed merger between CDW and Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, and
all other statements in this filing other than historical facts,
constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements, each of which is qualified in its
entirety by reference to the following cautionary statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and are
based on current expectations and involve a number of assumptions,
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
CDW may not be able to complete the proposed merger because of a
number of factors, including, among other things, the failure to
obtain shareholder approval, the failure of financing or the
failure to satisfy other closing conditions. Other risks and
uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements are
described in the reports filed by CDW with the SEC under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including without
limitation CDW�s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2006.
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