Stores Magazine - November 2007 - (Page 66) NUTS AND BOLTS / COMMUNICATIONS they are, team members can diagnose the problem, and an e-mail alert can invite the IT technician or developer to “click here to see the problem.” A single product mention on a popular TV show or online portal can send traffic streaming to drugstore.com. “Marketing like that can overflow the site,” says Allen, “so, we put in a watchpoint and set the application to show us how many people are hitting a promotional item in real time. We’ve never had a problem after such a mention, but we like to keep an eye on the site just in case.” drugstore.com also uses TrueSight to monitor what happens after an operations change of any kind is made. “Being able to see if user performance got better or worse is huge for us,” says Allen, “especially if we just spent a lot of money to make a change. We did that last year when we upgraded our wide area network: We actually could see that the response time between our customers and our customer service representatives went down by more than 20 percent.” Having TrueSight also gives IT the ability to answer management questions about the user base. “We recently had a situation where a project team wanted to know how many of our users are broadband versus dial-up,” Allen says. “We were able to log in, run a report and answer the question in just a few minutes.” StORES Liz Parks is a Union City, N.J.-based writer with extensive experience reporting on retail, pharmacy and technology issues. New Protocol IP-based system streamlines communications for Peruvian retailer BY LIZ PARKS S upermercados Peruanos, the second-largest food retailer in Peru, was being visionary when it opted to implement a highly-integrated IP communications network in 2005. tions manager for Supermercados Peruanos, says Mitel “has studied the particular issues faced by retailers and they were willing to adapt their solutions to fit our needs, helping us achieve our goals. “Their solutions are easy to manage and use,” he says. “Plus, we can expand the system and its applications as we grow and our needs change.” Owned by Interbank Group, Supermercados Peruanos operates under four brands: Vivanda, Plaza Vea Super, Hypermarkets Plaza Vea and Mass minimarkets. The company, which has 6,000 employees and generates annual sales in excess of $300 million, is focused on expanding the upscale Plaza Vea brand. By replacing its aging communications systems, Supermercados Peruanos is now able to respond much faster and more efficiently to customer requests, Tomas says, thereby improving customer satisfaction levels. It also implemented Mitel’s Contact Center solution, which means there is now a single phone number for individuals to call to reach any store or the corporate office; the system routes the call to the appropriate party. Market differentiator The new system has helped Supermercados Peruanos gain a reputation as “a customer service-oriented company,” says Tomas -- a key market differentiator in Peru’s highly competitive $4.4 billion food retail market. With the IP communications network, WWW.STORES.ORG Operator of more than 40 supermarkets, Supermercados Peruanos was using several different types of telephone and data services across its enterprise; management wanted to consolidate those systems by implementing a more cost ef66 STORES / NOVEMBER 2007 fective Internet Protocol (IP) network. After researching various technology providers, it chose a product portfolio from Ottawa-based Mitel to serve as the cornerstone of the new system. Enrique Tomas, IT telecommunica- http://www.drugstore.com http://www.drugstore.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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