Woolworth Sales Tracking Network
F. W. Woolworth Corporation began an intensive effort to bring greater efficiency to all 8,500 of its retail stores in 1989. To manage such a large and diverse organization and its underlying network presented a real challenge. To meet its goals each division required the highest levels of functionality, ease-of-use, reliability and cost-effectiveness. The Networks met each of these criteria in association with our global partner Sprint, and designed and implemented the core Woolworth Store network in March of 1990.
Today, after five years and well over a million transactions, almost 900 Woolworth Stores from Alaska to Puerto Rico have enjoyed a daily reporting scheme that allows them to summarize and transmit end of day results to The Networks with the push of a button. At peak loads over the last five years, some 25,000 monthly transactions have been sent via dial-up access to the Sprint X.25 packet-switched network, and routed automatically to our host across a dedicated access facility on our site. With re-routing capabilities, network redundancy and a fault-tolerant, fully-redundant host on our site, we have delivered almost six years of continuously available, 99.95% uptime network services at a price that value-conscious Woolworth can appreciate.
Sprint Electronic Mail Directory
Sprint International, the second largest of the long-distance telephone companies contracted with The Networks to assist in the design and operation of their SprintMail® electronic mail address directory. As one of the largest providers of X.400 international e-mail systems, Sprint provides online access to hundreds of thousands of customers every day. The single biggest barrier to worldwide use of electronic mail or any universal data exchange system is the lack of internationally recognized standard directories. Sprint tackled this problem by hosting a worldwide address directory on The Networks for its Private Management Domain (PRMD) mail customers, some supporting as many as 100,000 employees on e-mail company wide. For the last five years, with a simple command close to one half million Sprint customers have had access to national and international directory entries on our host 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Reliability and simplicity remain the hallmarks of this and all Networks' products and services.
The Wolf Organization, Inc.
The Networks, Inc. is currently involved in a major undertaking to bring the information architecture of a 150 year old company into a state-of-the-art re-engineering. We have designed and are deploying an east-coast regional network covering 6 states and over 50 sites for the retail and wholesale operating divisions of this highly successful building materials supplier. Today we are installing, configuring and managing a 50 site Frame Relay and ISDN network, enabling client-server distribution of computing resources to operations. Our Advanced Services Network (ASN) brings tremendous cost efficiency to the complex and resource intensive development of today’s network systems. Our home office Network Operations Center allows us to remotely configure, diagnose and troubleshoot network systems and devices while optimizing performance. We integrate today’s leading technology solutions to provide "best-practices" approach to solving the most challenging problems for companies like The Wolf Organization.
Hanover Direct, Inc.
This billion-dollar catalog sales company located in Hanover, Pennsylvania depends on timely accurate distribution and collection of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for purchase orders and acknowledgments between all of its customers and suppliers. No longer satisfied with the time-to-response they were experiencing with General Electric Information Services (GEIS), they turned to The Networks, Inc. for EDI services in 1994 and have been a growing customer ever since. We pride ourselves on rapid response and customer satisfaction, the keys to successful relationships with customers, large or small. And with the demands of mission-critical applications like EDI, we’re pleased to have the opportunity to demonstrate reliability and performance, the key attributes we have cultivated over the last ten years.
PLANet SM Child Planning Resource Network
Pennsylvania Council of Children's Services (PCCS) contracted with The Networks in 1990 to design and implement a client server network that would stretch the information web from Harrisburg to Chicago for planning and matching available resources with children in need - the mission of PCCS. Today that network encompasses the child care system and all of its resources for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
A combination of real time online access to databases of available resources by state, electronic mail and bulletin board systems, PLANet is a comprehensive centralized network bringing instant answers to important questions when child safety and treatment are in need. The centerpiece of this system, the relational database of criteria and placement opportunities, allows agency workers in each state to reach beyond local constraints to identify and reserve residential treatment, foster care, in-home services and alternative care programs.
Through creative application of distributed processing technology, case workers in Chicago are able to work in their office productivity software, and automatically and seamlessly interface with the online host. This reduces training and administration on the public agency side and promotes more efficient and accurate data on the shared server. The result is a truly useful and important service for meeting the specialized needs of children on a national scale.
SCAN® State Chemical Affairs Network
Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) oversees coordination of vital information resources to its membership, the petroleum and industrial chemical manufacturers of America. As legislation is considered, and before it is acted upon in the capitol, SCAN helps state Chemical Industry Council leadership monitor chemical legislation and quickly notify constituents about essential grassroots action initiatives.
Since 1987, The Networks, Inc. has provided an information network offering electronic mail, bulletin boards and databases to the State Affairs Division of CMA. The service is available to CMA members companies and state Chemical Industry Councils. Members such as ARCO, Dupont, Exxon, Kodak, and Rhone-Poulenc have all been customers of this service, to stay on top of legislation and to communicate with CMA and other chemical companies.