'Dreams' of convergence & enhanced customer service become reality
by Corporate Communications

Converged voice and data strategy from Corporate Communications puts a spring into retailer's ambitions.

London, 1 December 2003 – Corporate Communications (Europe) Ltd, today announce the deployment of a single, converged voice and data communication network for Dreams Plc, Britain’s leading bed specialist.

Using Internet Protocol (IP) telephony across the network, with a broadband-enabled MPLS IP VPN, the solution will allow Dreams to speed up customer service and revolutionise communication between its headquarters, central distribution, home delivery depots and its 86 stores. The network deployment will be designed, managed and supplied to Dreams through Corporate Communications (Europe) Ltd (www.cc.net), a business communications consultancy and solutions provider. The deployment is due for completion by the end of February 2004.

The converged private communication network connects all of the Dreams' locations using ADSL. It is designed to support applications essential to the business and its profitability. This includes applications such as Retail EPoS, stock management and intranet solutions. The new network and applications will improve the company’s 'real- time' view of its business processes and reduce reliance on paper-based transactions.

Brian Horsfield, IT and Systems Director, Dreams Plc says: "The Dreams business has been growing at such a rate that the IT systems were struggling to keep up. The network deployment frees us to expand the business at a faster speed and allows us to become much more efficient in our day-to-day management of the company. The consultative and independent approach taken by Corporate Communications have given me and the other senior management at Dreams the reassurance that we were making the right choices in this important area."

The new converged communication network will also enable Dreams to deploy IP telephony between all locations. IP telephony can help businesses such as Dreams reduce costs and enhance productivity through greater functionality and mobility. As a result of having one network instead of two, network-operating costs are expected to reduce by 25%.

Mr Horsfield continues: "The network investment will allow us to implement 'in store' applications such as video streaming and customer product selection kiosks which will add real value to our customer's visits and improve our selling opportunity. IP telephony will give us the flexibility to add new retail applications as they evolve. An important component of the new solution is the flexibility of providing secure wireless access to devices, whether are voice or data, from anywhere in the store."

The move towards a common functionality and central management of the communication systems brings together a previously disparate operation, which offered little consistency and was difficult to service and support. Customer enquiries can now be routed across the converged communication network to any location with ease.

Benefits will include faster processing of customer orders with the onward improvement in turnaround of stock fulfilment, through the Central Distribution and Home Delivery Depots, handling thousands of deliveries every week.

Suresh Punjabi, Managing Director, Corporate Communications explained "Corporate Communications is delighted to be working with such a dynamic company like Dreams. Dreams is a forward thinking and fast growing organisation, and needed a future-proof and resilient solution to drive its business forward. Corporate Communications looked at Dreams' business drivers and having established an understanding of the business and business processes, developed a solution for data and voice requirements and analysed the entire marketplace to select the appropriate vendors. We independently selected the appropriate vendors and integrated their offerings to meet the Dreams' business requirements and believe that the solution being implemented by Corporate Communications will deliver Dreams considerable business benefits. We are delighted Dreams placed their confidence with Corporate Communications.

The solution will give Dreams the ability to centrally manage their IP based telephony and use their data network to route their voice calls at no additional costs, which will lead to considerable competitive advantage. The state of the art data network provides Dreams with the ability to open branches rapidly, and provides future proofing for additional services going forward.“

About Corporate Communications (Europe) Ltd
Corporate Communications is an independent communications consultancy and service provider, presenting a full range of strategic services including business analysis, project management, architecture design, application development, systems integration and managed services.

Corporate Communications has a unique combination of expertise in the field of voice, data and Contact Centre technologies. The fundamental goal of Corporate Communications is to deliver robust, cost-effective business advice and solutions, based on return on investment models and proven methodologies, from an independent viewpoint.

For more information about Corporate Communications visit www.cc.net or email .

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Corporate Communications (Europe) Ltd, Tower 42, Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HQ