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New World Restaurant Group Standardizes on Netifice to Support Leading Edge Communications and Next Generation Applications; High Performance VPN Services Significantly Reduce Credit and Gift Card Processing

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

Netifice Communications, Inc., a leading provider of Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions and other managed IP services to businesses worldwide, today announced that New World Restaurant Group, Inc. (NWRG) has deployed the Netifice Retail Connect VPN service to support high performance communications between its headquarters and its more than 430 Einstein Bros and Noah's Bagel sites around the country. NWRG is standardizing on Netifice to increase the reliability of restaurant data communications and deliver capabilities that help drive customer satisfaction. The company is also using Netifice to provide HotSpot services to customers at select restaurant locations.

"New World Restaurant Group is constantly evaluating new technologies to better serve our customers, and Netifice's fully managed VPN services provide us with the ideal infrastructure to support all of our application requirements," said Beth Briggs, Vice President, Information Technology at New World Restaurant Group, Inc. "Netifice is enabling all of our company owned restaurants to improve the overall customer experience, with new applications and faster service."

Previously, the company used dial-up connections for all of its locations, which limited the types of applications it could roll out, was affecting customer service and becoming costly. Netifice's fully managed IP VPN service provides NWRG with 24 X 7 monitoring of all sites to eliminate downtime and address any potential network issues before they effect the business. The increased reliability and speed also enables NWRG to decrease credit and gift card processing times from between 30 to 35 seconds to approximately 5 seconds, significantly improving customer service at all of its locations.

"As the leading provider of fully managed VPN and connectivity services for the restaurant and hospitality industry, Netifice has built a reputation of enabling companies to cost effectively support leading-edge applications without having to worry about managing the entire distributed network," said Stafford Brown, Vice President of Sales at Netifice Communications. "Netifice allows customers, like New World Restaurant Group, to focus on improving the customer experience and increasing revenues, rather than worrying about whether their stores can connect to the credit card processor or share point-of-sale data. Netifice takes care of all of that, ensuring that the underlying infrastructure is reliable and able to support all of the customers' needs."

In select locations across the country, NWRG is using Netifice to offer HotSpot services to its patrons. Based on the usage in these restaurants, NWRG will evaluate expanding the service to additional locations throughout the US. The company is also leveraging Netifice to improve operational efficiencies by creating an Intranet site. The new site accessed using the Netifice VPN, will enable restaurants the ability to more efficiently access human resources and training documents, and key reports. This not only eliminates the need for the majority of the company's overnight courier or mail charges, but also provides all sites with immediate access to important information required to operate their business.

Based on its success to date, NWRG is now evaluating a loyalty program to better service its regular customers. Because of information required to operate a program of this nature, this would have been impractical using the old dial-up system.

NWRG is using Netifice's SmartWorX online provisioning and management system to monitor the entire network and simplify remote IT support for all of its locations. The advanced SmartWorX Customer Portal enables NWRG to easily view pertinent information about their entire multi-carrier network that in the past would have required compiling information from numerous vendors. It simplifies network management by automating the provisioning, monitoring and billing for all sites, regardless of access technology or last mile provider.

Netifice Solutions

Netifice delivers the most flexible IP VPNs available, enabling businesses to integrate all of their mission-critical applications onto a single secure and scalable network platform that spans the entire enterprise. Netifice can tailor a solution that is cost-effective and fits its customers' specific requirements -- whether they need to run performance-sensitive applications between the corporate headquarters and branch offices via the Netifice MPLS fiber optic network, or extend their infrastructure to include numerous other carrier networks, increasing their reach to thousands of remote users and retail sites via broadband, wireless, satellite and global dial access.

New World Restaurant Group Inc.

New World is a leading company in the quick casual restaurant industry that operates locations primarily under the Einstein Bros. and Noah's New York Bagels brands and primarily franchises locations under the Manhattan Bagel brand. As of January 3, 2006, the Company's retail system consisted of 626 locations, including 435 company-owned locations, as well as 121 franchised and 70 licensed locations in 34 states, and the District of Columbia. The Company also operates a dough production facility. The Company's stock is traded under the symbol NWRG.PK. Visit www.newworldrestaurantgroup.com for additional information.

Netifice Communications, Inc.

Netifice Communications is a global provider of flexible IP VPN solutions that enable businesses to lower costs, increase scalability and expand the deployment of enterprise applications and communication systems. Netifice customizes its clients IP VPNs using the widest selection of access, security and communication options, combined with advanced systems for managing and monitoring their IP VPN. Customers can easily deploy expansive networks so that their corporate headquarters, regional offices, remote workers, and retail outlets can communicate with each other as if they were in the same location. Netifice is recognized by customers for delivering the highest quality service and support with industry-leading Service Level Agreements that guarantee site-to-site performance and reliability. For more information, go to www.netifice.com or call 1-877-NETIFICE (638-4342).

Source: Business Wire

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