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Technology Stocks : Infonet - Leader of Managed Data Communicaton Services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JakeStraw who wrote (163)	1/9/2002 8:28:26 AM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 241

Infonet Baselines Network and Application Performance for Chiquita Brands Company Models Behavior and Performance of Chiquita's Key ERP and CRM Applications on its Global Network biz.yahoo.com EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2002-- Infonet Services Corporation (NYSE:IN; FSE:IN), a leading provider of global communications services for multinational corporations, today announced it has completed its Network Analysis Program for Chiquita Brands International (NYSE:CQB), a leading international marketer, producer and distributor of quality fresh fruits and vegetables and processed foods. As a result of the company's growth and expansion, Chiquita engaged Infonet to benchmark its applications and bandwidth requirements to ensure optimal global application and network functionality. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Chiquita conducts its principal production and processing operations in Central and South America as well as in the United States. The company provides all of its remote offices, subsidiaries and 30,000 employees worldwide with a network infrastructure that supports its business operations. Its network has key international data circuits originating in Ohio, with endpoints in Belgium, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala. And, as a result of recently installing Citrix, Chiquita's IT team decided to measure and optimize the application and network performance to ensure highest Return on Investment (ROI). A global leader in premium branded fresh food for more than 100 years, Chiquita is also involved in protecting the land it farms and the quality of life of its workers. The company began working with the Rainforest Alliance's Better Banana Project in 1992 -- and has been a force in this international standard for environmental protection and worker health and safety. In October 2000, Chiquita achieved 100% certification of its company-owned farms by the Rainforest Alliance. Chiquita is also the U.S. leader in private label canned vegetables -- and offers a variety of processed products including fruit and vegetable juices, beverages, processed bananas and edible oil-based products. Needing a Global Player According to Hugh Mohan, Director of Global Network Services, ``We wanted an objective third party to look at our applications and network and to determine how we could optimize what we have.'' Although Chiquita had never worked with Infonet before, the company specifically wanted a global player who knew the industry. ``We selected Infonet because it was a global company with a good reputation and large footprint -- and found that Infonet conducted a meaningful audit, on time and within budget, that demonstrated how well they understood our network,'' Mohan responded. Infonet's solution is based on global network services offering reliable, stable and proven technologies that also guarantee high levels of service. Through Infonet's Application Defined Networking (ADN) approach, Chiquita has been able to prioritize network traffic, guaranteeing that its mission-critical ERP and CRM applications take precedence over other mission-supporting applications. Utilizing Infonet's patent-pending Network Analysis Program (NAP) methodology, Infonet consultants collected, profiled and analyzed the data traffic of Chiquita's network applications. After baselining Chiquita's existing network performance, Infonet modeled the behavior of the enterprise class applications, then calculated the business benefits of alternative network designs utilizing Infonet's proprietary ROI Solution Builder(TM) software. The final analysis eliminated either over or under provisioning of Chiquita's network and led to a configuration based on the performance requirements of its enterprise applications (primarily its ERP, fleet management, e-mail and the newly implemented Citrix applications.) As a result, Mohan was able to maximize the value and performance of both the applications and network. ``The NAP service gave us a better understanding of what we had. We could then use the analysis and the written report to understand what new applications or new design would do to the network -- and how we could adapt an application to be more efficient,'' Mohan observed. Infonet showed Chiquita what they were doing correctly and to place mission-critical ERP applications, for example, at a higher priority level than e-mail and Web browsing. ``We thought the idea of the engagement was a good one at the time we initiated it. Working with Infonet confirmed it was a very good idea after all,'' he concluded.