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Capt'N Snooze Franchise Selects Pacific Internet for 70-Site Managed Connectivity and Security Solution

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 09:00 CDT

MELBOURNE, Australia, Aug. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pacific Internet (Australia), part of the Asia Pacific's largest telco-independent communications service provider (CSP) by geographic reach, Pacific Internet Limited , has commenced a 70-site managed connectivity and security roll out for Capt'n Snooze, the national bedding franchise, as part of a 36 month contract.

"This is a great example of Pacific Internet's ability to bring the best of the connectivity and managed IT solutions to our customers. Such a contract demonstrates our ability to execute the strategic plan announced in May 2006," said Phey Teck-Moh, President and CEO of Pacific Internet.

Pacific Internet managing director Dennis Muscat said: "With Pacific Internet's SecureSite offering, Capt'n Snooze will have fully managed high-end Cisco routers at their 70 stores to connect their private IP network. Pacific Internet pre-configures and delivers these routers and performs ongoing management and maintenance remotely."

Capt'n Snooze IT Manager Lionel Van Niekerk said: "SecureSite -- Pacific Internet's managed connectivity and security offering -- is a huge relief for my IT department as we don't have to monitor each connection. With Pacific Internet delivering our private IP network it also gives us complete flexibility -- if anything goes wrong they will notify us immediately and they have in-house technical skills to fix issues.

"Handing over the management of our network to Pacific Internet was a significant business decision but it will prove to be a powerful cost and resource saving venture," he said.

Dennis Muscat said: "SecureSite addresses the important issue that SMBs generally don't have access to trained and skilled network, routing or security professionals on-site, yet security remains a critical concern for them*."

* The October 2005 Pacific Internet Broadband Barometer research highlighted that 77% of small to medium businesses have broadband but the vast majority don't have integrated security within their internet connection or network. At this stage, their security tends to be simplistic, modem-based measures or software packaged firewalls. Yet, 52% of respondents named security of organisational data and financial transactions as their primary internet concern.

Techlink, one of Pacific Internet's important channel partners operating in Melbourne, approached Pacific Internet for support around this opportunity.

Dennis Muscat said: "The deal highlights the importance of Pacific Internet's channel partner program and our ability to work hand-in-hand with systems integrators to be successful in complex deals."

Lionel Van Niekerk said: "We assessed numerous tier-one vendors but found that Pacific Internet best suited our business needs -- they're incredibly responsive and flexible."

The upgrade wasn't just a head office decision; franchisees were demanding more support and wanted to use IT to gain a competitive edge. The old set-up was mainly decentralised and outdated.

"It was frustrating previously because 70% of our stores used unstable dial-up modems and virtual private networks and we could only gather sales figures over weekends. Constant drop-outs made it horrendous -- we didn't have live information and could never tell how marketing campaigns were tracking without spending days retrieving ad-hoc data," he said.

The Pacific Internet private network allows franchisees to use Capt'n Snooze's newly upgraded and now centralised ERP system which delivers end-to-end business functionality and intelligence; featuring accounting, stock control and the point-of-sale systems.

Pacific Internet's Project Management Office is managing the rollout over a four month window with several successful test sites already up and running.

The Capt'n Snooze head office in Melbourne now enjoys a fibre connection and each store is getting business-grade DSL. There's a teleworking option for franchisees who want secure access to the private IP network from home.

Lionel Van Niekerk said: "Having a single, streamlined system that's completely handled by Pacific Internet is very convenient. Remote management and changes are done in one movement compared to us trying to do 70 stores individually. We're experiencing a huge reduction in travel -- this improves efficiency and our bottom line.

"The private network element is appealing because it's exclusive, secure, and a network we can call our own. Some franchisees own several sites: the beauty of it is that they can have their own private network, all within Capt'n Snooze's private network.

"What we're now offering is phenomenal in terms of the functionality and scalability. For franchisees, we're now able to maintain their complete IT systems and network so we can provide real-time business reporting, fast email and intranet access. They don't have to pay for three to four dial-up connections anymore. With Pacific Internet's services we can roll back cost, and roll everything into our private network," he said.

"Our new, robust private IP network means we can scale to Pacific Internet's VoIP solution with no problem in the near future. We have lots of calls between head office and stores so hope to reduce our phone bill costs. This will be phase two for us," said Lionel Van Niekerk.

Editors' Notes About Pacific Internet Limited

Pacific Internet Limited or PacNet is the largest telco-independent Internet Communications Service Provider by geographic reach in the Asia Pacific region. The company has direct presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, India, Thailand and Malaysia. PacNet delivers a comprehensive suite of Internet data, voice and video services to corporate business and consumer customers. For more information, visit http://www.pacnet.com/ .

Cautionary Statement

Statements made in this press release with respect to Pacific Internet's current plans, estimates, strategies and beliefs and other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements about the future performance of Pacific Internet. Forward-looking statements include but are not limited to those using words such as "seek", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "project", "plan", "strategy", "forecast" and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will, "would", "should", "could", "may" and "might". These statements reflect management's current expectations, beliefs, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future and assumptions in light of currently available information. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to (i) changes in the economic, regulatory and political environments in the countries where Pacific Internet operates; (ii) changes and developments in technology and the Internet marketplace; (iii) Pacific Internet's continued ability to develop and win acceptance of its products and services, which are offered in highly competitive markets; (iv) the success of its joint ventures and alliances; (v) exchange rates, particularly between the Singapore dollar and the U.S. dollar and other currencies in which Pacific Internet makes significant sales or in which its assets and liabilities are denominated; and (vi) the outcome of contingencies. In light of the many risks and uncertainties surrounding the Internet marketplace, the actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Pacific Internet assumes no obligation to update any such statements.

Media & Analyst Contacts Media Bernard Ho Direct: +65-6771-0433 Mobile: +65-9783-3393 Email: bernard.ho@pacific.net.sg Investor & Analyst Alan Katz Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Direct: +1-212-279-3115 ext 211 Email: alan@cjpcom.com Mervin Wang Direct: +65-6771-0780 Mobile: +65-9798-6077 Email: investor@pacific.net.sg

Pacific Internet Limited

CONTACT: Bernard Ho, +65-97823393, or bernard.ho@pacific.net.sg, orMervin Wang, +65-9798-6077, or investor@pacific.net.sg, both of PacificInternet; or Alan Katz of Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek for Pacific Internet,+1-212-279-3115 ext 211, alan@cjpcom.com

Web site: http://www.pacnet.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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