International Masters Publishers

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Three Times the Capacity at Half the Price for IMP

International Masters Publishers (IMP) is a global leader in continuity publishing specializing in products that "inform, entertain and inspire." Its products cover a wide spectrum of interest areas, ranging from recipe cards and gardening projects to home PCs and classical music.

Challenge

International Masters Publishers (IMP) is based in London, England, and is a global leader in continuity publishing. Founded in 1972 by Swedish entrepreneur Alf TÖnnesson, IMP has locations throughout Western Europe and the United States. Today, the company has millions of customers in more than 25 countries.

For many years, IMP used different kinds of networking technologies to connect local offices to its office in Sweden where it handles vital operations ranging from administration to production. Each country office had its own Internet connection and firewalls that were managed separately.

"Our old company network was slow and built without redundancy. We used several types of technology, from frame relay to satellite links, and as a consequence, we had equipment from many different suppliers," says Dan Doyle, director of Network Services at IMP.

Solution

When the time came for an upgrade, the company's main goal was to build one single, secure network for the whole company to reduce the management burden, increase performance and lower network costs.

To meet these requirements, Sprint built an IP virtual private network (IP VPN), an IP network with encrypted traffic, between IMP's offices. The company's 25 firewalls were reduced to only four - all managed by Sprint.

IMP has a large number of employees who are mobile or work from home, and access has become considerably easier for them. The Sprint IP technology makes it possible for IMP employees to connect on a secure IP VPN connection from a wide range of mobile devices using various access technologies, such as mobile, dial-up, fixed line and digital subscriber line.

Bottom line

As a result of moving onto a single network, IMP halved network costs and tripled its bandwidth. The IP-based solution that Sprint offered IMP is a highly secure and reliable service based on widely recognized industry standards.

Another major advantage with an IP network is adaptability: once it is installed, it can be used for virtually anything. IMP is presently testing video conferencing between London and New York, and the company's next step will be to deploy IP-based telephony.

Why Sprint?

When you choose Sprint, you're in good company. 95% of the FORTUNE 1000® chooses Sprint for combinations of data, Internet, voice and wireless solutions.

When you select Sprint, you're doing business with a global company that:

• Has a rich heritage more than a century strong and remains one of the most financially stable companies in the telecom industry
• Provides multinational enterprises, Internet service providers and carriers global data and Internet services in more than 100 countries worldwide
• Has won industry and customer accolades for service reliability, cost effectiveness, customer satisfaction and product innovation
• Is committed to developing solutions that can transform the way you get business done

"The IP VPN network has given us the platform to support our business change program and the day-to-day flexibility that our business requires. It was delivered with a true, measurable return on investment."
Gary Isaacs, chief information officer, IMP

FORTUNE 1000® is a registered trademark of FORTUNE Magazine, a division of Time inc.

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