Cybera data networks linking retail outlets Tennessean April 19, 2004 by: Kathy Carlson

Nashville startup networking company Cybera is pinning its strategy for growth on making the dishes a thing of the past and helping the stores become more convenient by speeding up their communications.

Cybera, which marked its third anniversary this year, is targeting retail outlets, including convenience stores, in its push for growth.

In recent months, it finished installing a new broadband network for the 243-store Mapco Express convenience store chain, based in Franklin and with units in Tennessee and six other Southeastern states. Over the past year, Cybera has more than doubled its commissioned sales staff, which grew from four to 10. Total employment stands at 35, with plans to add two sales reps by the end of next month.

''I really think we have found (markets) that no one else is selling to,'' Cybera President Cliff Duffey said.

Cybera's specialty is setting up and managing private data networks for multi-location companies. It uses DSL lines leased from telephone companies, along with other technologies, to connect locations. Cybera customers' locations communicate with one another over dedicated lines connected to the Cybera network. They reach the public Internet only through Cybera firewalls.

Cybera's strategy is to target companies with multiple locations that currently use dial-up lines or satellite dishes for communications and that need secure, faster service.

Large telecom companies offer very secure, speedy business systems — called frame relay — that use essentially a private data line to connect locations. Cybera uses DSL lines wherever available to connect business locations, at a monthly cost of about $120 to $150 for each location, Duffey said. He said that is cheaper than the private phone lines.

Mapco, for example, used dial-up connections to send data to its home office in off-hours and to process credit-card purchases. Mapco stores ''couldn't transmit a large amount of data using dial-up,'' said Scotty Creason, the chain's information technology manager.

''We knew that we had to get some kind of broadband access to our corporate offices.''

To address the problem, Mapco decided how much it could spend and considered satellite technology and two broadband technologies, Cybera's and a frame-relay provider.

Mapco's budget would allow it to bring satellite or MPLS service to 50 to 75 locations, Creason said. For the same amount, he said, Cybera could bring broadband service to all 243 locations. The Cybera system uses DSL lines, and frame-relay systems where DSL isn't available.

The new Mapco system can support other uses, besides shipping data back to headquarters every day.

''The biggest thing has been the video surveillance system,'' Creason said. The system's goals are to protect employees and customers as well as to reduce inventory loss, he said. With its broadband system, Mapco executives can watch stores from the corporate office or from their homes.

Creason said employees like the new system because they don't have to change video surveillance tapes. Surveillance information is stored on computer hard drives.

Mapco is one of 125 corporate customers Cybera now serves. Growth has spurred the company to add technical support staff as well as sales reps, Duffey said. The company also added a new data center in Chicago, its second technical facility, thanks to an infusion of private debt funding earlier this year.

Duffey declined to give revenue figures but said the company ''came very close to break-even in the fourth quarter'' and had record sales in March. Cybera also racked up five straight quarters of improving cash flow.

Within the convenience store industry, ''the role of (information technology) has greatly expanded,'' said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. ''They're competing against everyone — drugstores, grocery stores, discount stores, dollar stores — everyone's trying to be more convenient. … Investing in technology is critical if you are to stay competitive.''

© Copyright 2003 The Tennessean
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