Customer Case Study

Challenge

Cretschmar is a German transport andlogistics company with sites acrossEurope. The Spanish arm has beenparticularly successful, growing tocomprise a national head office and sixbranches and depots nationwide.

Each of Cretschmar's sites had aseparate telephone system, andindividual service and maintenancecontracts with local companies. As aresult, problem solving from head officewas difficult. Each office had its ownlocal area network using equipmentfrom different manufacturers. Thisposed a big challenge for the Madrid-based IT team who had to travel aroundthe country to solve problems.

Continuing growth led to the decision tobuild a new head office outside Madrid.In preparation for this, Cretschmarwanted to implement newcommunications services andstreamline its existing processes so thatthey would be fully operational when themove took place.

Cretschmar wanted a reliable andscalable solution from a single supplier,

which would grow with the companyand support future services. For this, itturned to Impala Network Solutions, aCisco Silver Partner and PremierPartner of the Year (2007) in Spain.Impala designed voice and datanetworks at the sites using Ciscotechnology to connect the branches viaa Spanish service provider.

Results

With the new combined voice and datasolution, the various Spanish sites areable to communicate better. As a result,there is greater efficiency of vehicles,drivers, and loads, and a decrease in thenumber of incidents with items mislaidor wrongly delivered, that meant wastedtime. This, in turn, equates to bettercustomer service.

IP Telephony avoids public network tolls,reducing costs and allowing Cretschmar'semployees to keep in better touch witheach other and their customers, withsubstantial benefits. Daniel Martinez,Cretschmar's Head of IT, explains: “Wehave been able to improve our timemanagement and call-handling, givingbetter overall customer service.”

Communications revitalized for logisticscompany branches

Unified Communications provide added control, security and flexibility for logistics

company in Spain

Executive Summary

Customer NameL.W. Cretschmar Española, S.A.

IndustryTransport and logistics

Location7 locations across Spain

Number of Employees120

Challenge• Improve communications

throughout the supply chain• Enhance efficiency and

customer service• Support future growth and

flexibility

Results• Reduced operational costs• More efficient communications

and collaboration betweensites

• Established foundations forfuture growth and new services

Solution• A unified voice and data

network covering all sites• Unified Communications• Enhanced security with

antivirus and spam filters

With one supplier across all servicesand sites, the new solution is cheaperand easier to manage. The ITdepartment is more productive andcost-effective because they canadministrate users and fix problemsfaster and without traveling. Martinezdescribes the difference the solutionhas made: “Rather than spending timefixing faults, we are now developing newservices to benefit the company.”

The platform allows Cretschmar torespond with more agility to marketchanges and issues, making it morecompetitive.

An added benefit of selecting a Ciscosolution was the opportunity to takeadvantage of Cisco Capital EasyRenting. This offers finance with zeropercent interest and technology refreshoptions that can reduce total cost ofownership.

Solution

Impala designed and built a unifiedvoice and data network, which runs as asecure Virtual Private Network (VPN).

A Local Area Network (LAN) is providedat each office using Cisco® Catalyst3560 switches. A Cisco router at eachsite provides connections, via a Spanishservice provider, to the Wide AreaNetwork (WAN) at much higher speedsthan the previous service. This makes itmuch quicker and easier to exchangefiles and information. The routers are

modular, making them very cost andpower-efficient, as the customer canadd new services like firewalls, wireless,and IP Telephony when it needs them.

IP Telephony services are provided toevery office by a Cisco UnifiedCommunications Manager callprocessing system in Madrid.Centralizing service in this way makes itmuch easier for the head office-basedIT team to support each site. The cost ofmobile services has also been reducedby routing calls to mobile phones overthe network.

In the past, each office had its ownconnection to the Internet, but the newsolution benefits from centralizedInternet access from the head office.This is more cost effective and alsomakes it easier to provide security. Theentire network benefits from end-to-endsecurity with the Cisco Self DefendingNetwork. Cretschmar has a Cisco ASA5500 Series Adaptive SecurityAppliance. This is a modular platformthat provides the next generation ofsecurity and VPN services, includinganti-virus protection.

Centralizing services and devicescombined with network managementsoftware enables the IT team to deliver abetter service. “We are able toconstantly measure the performance ofthe network. With this data we canguarantee optimal functioning of the IPnetwork at all times,” says Martinez.

Customer Case Study

“We have beenable to improveour timemanagement andcall-handling,giving betteroverall customerservice.”

—Daniel Martinez, Head of IT, L.W.Cretschmar Española, S.A

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Americas HeadquartersCisco Systems, Inc.San Jose, CA

Asia Pacific HeadquartersCisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd.Singapore

Europe HeadquartersCisco Systems International BVAmsterdam, The Netherlands

Customer Case Study

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Next Steps

With the move to its new Madridfacilities, Cretschmar expects to furtherimprove customer services. The newnetwork will enable it to achieve betterinventory management through RFID(Radio Frequency Identity Device) tagtechnology and 24/7 connections todrivers and warehouse keepers. Thiswill give the company better productvisibility, greatly reducing the time todelivery and risk of items being mislaid.

Product List

• Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series PoESwitches

• Cisco Integrated Services Routers2800 Series (models 2821, 2811 and2801)

• Cisco Unified CommunicationsManager

• Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance5510

• Cisco Unified IP Phones 7900 Series(models 7941, 7920, 7914 and 7911)

For More Information

To find out more, go to www.cisco.com

“Rather thanspending timefixing faults, we are nowdeveloping newservices tobenefit thecompany.”

—Daniel Martinez, Head of IT, L.W.Cretschmar Española, S.A