Cisco Unified Communications for Retail Solution Enhances Customer Experience and Improves Operational Efficiency for Retailers Around the Globe

Business Wire, Sept 26, 2006

W.W. Grainger, Hannaford Bros. Co., Mitsukoshi and SUBWAY Restaurants Increase In-store Productivity and Drive to Improve Customer Satisfaction

NEW YORK -- Cisco Systems[R] (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced its Cisco[R] Unified Communications for Retail solution to help retailers reduce costs, improve productivity, and provide integrated communications throughout stores, contact centers, and headquarters. Cisco also announced that four retailers have selected the Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solution to enhance customer experience and improve operational efficiency:

* W.W. Grainger, the leading industrial distributor of facilities maintenance products with 600 branch locations in North America, integrates market-based sales and service call routing to deliver customer service within three rings 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

* Hannaford Bros. Co., with 147 supermarkets in the Northeast, improves productivity by giving its employees the ability to communicate important information via a touch screen or button while also cutting costs.

* Mitsukoshi, Japan's largest upscale department store, offers "intelligent fitting rooms" that offer shoppers self-service, IP communications throughout the stores and directly from their fitting rooms.

* Twenty-six SUBWAY[R] franchise restaurants, part of the second largest fast-food chain in the world, provides its employees with easy access to cost-efficient, time-saving applications through Cisco IP phones.

"Cisco is establishing itself as a company who is teaming closely with industry partners to offer the Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solution," said Ed Jimenez, Cisco's retail global marketing lead. "With retail customers from various industries and around the globe, we are working diligently to develop solutions specifically designed to help retailers meet their objectives and increase network productivity."

Enhanced Call Routing Accelerates Customer's access to Grainger

Grainger has grown into a leading industrial distributor with over 16,000 employees and more than 1.7 million customers. Grainger's business challenges included integrating its customer service channels, upgrading its communications infrastructure, improving the customer experience, and lowering total costs. Over a five-year period, Grainger upgraded and expanded its intranet and IP network infrastructure, implemented voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and integrated voice and data systems. "Grainger has achieved consistent, unparalleled, 24/7 customer service experiences across multiple channels and reduced costs while providing backup for peak demand periods at more than 400 branches," said Janice Howse, Grainger's vice president, customer service - phone channel. "Through enhanced access locally and through our customer service representatives in our service centers, we are helping to ensure that we are able to serve our customers when their need arises."

Spanlink is a provider of customer interaction solutions that use VoIP-based unified communications technologies. Grainger was able to use the Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solution and the Spanlink[R] CentralControl[TM] system to improve the phone-based customer shopping experience by speeding up and simplifying the placement of orders. Now customers enjoy a consistent, world-class experience throughout each call, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, giving Grainger a competitive advantage.

Supermarket Streamlines Time and Labor for Employees

With an end-to-end Cisco Intelligent Retail Network designed on the principles of the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA), Hannaford Bros. Co. has deployed Kronos Inc. time and labor solution available in Kronos for Retail from Kronos Incorporated, the leading provider of workforce management software and services. This allows Hannaford Bros. Co. to lower phone maintenance costs and reduce training expenses for store associates. The Cisco system can also do computer-assisted ordering, inventory access and out-of-stock notification, personnel and operations, and product lookup.

"As a forward-looking, customer-oriented supermarket, Hannaford was looking for a solution that improved employee productivity while cutting costs," said Ed Taggart, manager, network and communications, Hannaford Bros. Co. "Integrating the Cisco solution with Kronos for Retail empowers our employees and gives them the ability to communicate important information with the touch of a button or screen."

Hannaford is also using the security-enabled authentication device from LiteScape so that employees can clock in and out with a simple swipe of their badge followed by a finger swipe for identity validation. This system also allows Hannaford to alert employees of work shift updates and other company announcements and verify receipt of these notifications when employees clock in and out.

Customer Assistance in the Intelligent Fitting Room

Mitsukoshi offers "intelligent fitting rooms" in its large commercial stores that enable busy shoppers to have merchandise delivered directly to the fitting room without needing to exit the room, walk out into the store, and search the shelves. This Cisco "store of the future" solution combines LiteScape's RFID and XML-based applications with Cisco Unified CallManager and IP-based devices to offer shoppers self-service, IP communications throughout the stores and directly from the fitting rooms. Mitsukoshi has already automated and streamlined a number of customer and employee tasks including product browsing, product lookup by stock keeping unit (SKU), inventory checks in nearby stores and the ability for customers to contact live agents to place orders or answer questions.