Press Releases
Cybera Completes Enterprise Network Rollout For E-Z Mart
Texas-based Convenience Store Operator Selects Cybera to Build and Provide Managed Network Services for 300-plus Sites
FRANKLIN, TN— (NOVEMBER 28, 2007)—Cybera, a leading MPLS-based managed service provider, today announced the completion of a secure, multi-site broadband MPLS network for EZ-Mart Stores, Inc., a convenience store and petroleum retailer with more than 300 stores spread throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. The network reduces E-Z Mart’s costs by allowing simultaneous direct connections to transaction processors for Shell, Conoco/Phillips, and Citgo branded sites, and its unbranded locations while reducing the cost of dedicated telephone data lines and credit card fees.
Additionally, E-Z Mart has already realized productivity and efficiency gains from the Cybera network infrastructure that have almost completely offset its cost, at added benefit to the previously installed and limited functionality satellite connectivity (VSAT).
Prior to Cybera’s involvement, E-Z Mart had no centralized network, and relied on slow dialup connections from local exchange carriers—to transmit store data such as transactions, inventory, and routine sales reports—combined with VSAT for credit card processing. The new, PCI-compliant Cybera SmartNetwork connects E-Z Mart’s sites at broadband speeds, allowing for more efficient credit and debit card processing, while reducing transaction costs and IT overhead. The SmartNetwork also cut transaction times from 20 seconds to fewer than five seconds for authorization, enhancing customer satisfaction.
Cybera’s dedicated project management team supervised the entire network rollout, from the design of a secure, Shell Coolband-certified network, to the provisioning of circuits for each site’s required bandwidth, while providing ongoing management of the network aligned with E-Z Mart’s business requirements.
“We’ve been so impressed by Cybera’s dedicated project management and the implementation team,” said Tom Withem, Information Resources Manager at E-Z Mart. “They’ve stood behind their work, keeping us informed and tailoring the install to our unique requirements. Our stores are located across such a wide area that we would have had trouble managing all the implementations on our own.”
Cybera also took responsibility for managing the third party vendors involved in the complex installs, taking that burden off E-Z Mart’s help desk, and cutting down on wasted site visits and avoidable rescheduling fees. The entire solution is PCI compliant, which has helped E-Z Mart’s IT staff address credit card security requirements.
“The complexity of the E-Z Mart implementation is in many ways typical of the work we consistently deliver for convenience stores,” said Dan Glennon, senior vice president of marketing and strategy, Cybera, Inc. “Our Coolband-certified solution – from custom design and on-site integration of bandwidth-dependent applications, to the ongoing management of all sites on the network – highlights the value of Cybera’s managed SmartNetwork service.”
Cybera’s custom design includes access technologies ranging from MPLS T-1s to business-grade DSL, delivering connections to a private MPLS+ core. Additionally, E-Z Mart chose to directly connect to the secure data center of its transaction processors, including Shell and Chase Paymentech, with Cybera’s Merchant Services Gateway.
The new Cybera SmartNetwork also provides secure access for E-Z Mart’s IT help desk and vendors to remotely support, update, and maintain their in-store applications, such as POS, money order, tank monitoring, backoffice applications, and video surveillance systems.
About Cybera (www.cybera.net)
Cybera, Inc. is a leading MPLS managed network service provider. Cybera offers customers an enhanced MPLS+ core architecture, a portfolio of cost-effective broadband access technologies, a five-part SLA, and nationwide broadband coverage. Cybera’s PCI compliant SmartNetwork is the secure wide area networking solution for the challenges faced by multi-site enterprises in the retail, restaurant, convenience store/petroleum, healthcare, and financial services industries. As an application delivery platform, SmartNetwork leverages numerous merchant services gateways implemented and managed by Cybera to deliver superior performance for business-specific IP applications such as credit/PIN debit authorization, WiFi hotspot access, DVR, and other back-office applications. In addition, Cybera’s industry-leading design, implementation, and management services ensure the SmartNetwork solution provides a measurably lower total cost of ownership over traditional carrier or transport wide area network alternatives. Cybera is a privately held company based in Nashville, TN, with venture capital backing led by Adams Street Partners, L.P., Chrysalis Ventures, L.P., and Claritas Capital, LLC. For more information, please visit www.cybera.net or call (866) 4CYBERA.
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