Action-Sports Retailer Carves Way to Extreme Growth with Smart IT Sourcing from CDW.

Zumiez Growth Requires Streamlined Provisioning of In-Store IT, an Enhanced Datacenter and Expanded Offsite Disaster Recovery Facilities

VERNON HILLS, Ill. -- CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDWC), a leading provider of technology products and services to business, government and education, today announced that Zumiez, a 236-store retailer of action-sports clothing, music, and hard goods for skate, snow, surf and active youth lifestyles, has consolidated its point-of-sale (POS) component and information technology purchasing with CDW. CDW now provides a customized bundle that includes all the point-of-sale and back room components to equip each new Zumiez store, while CDW's server technology specialists facilitated a search and evaluation for Zumiez that led to a more powerful, leading-edge corporate data center based on IBM Bladecenter HS20 and LS 20 servers with Cisco switches. The blade server implementation enabled relocation of existing servers to Zumiez's offsite disaster recovery center to assure business continuity for the rapidly growing chain. The company grew dramatically in 2006, from 174 stores in 19 states to 236 stores in 22 states by year's end.

"It is invaluable to work with CDW because they take so much of the work off of our shoulders in this kind of evaluation process, making sure that we only spend time looking at solutions that will fit our business," says Kevin Sonney, Technology Specialist at Zumiez. "To CDW's credit, their team is resolutely objective about all of the options, and we make our own choices, confident that CDW can deliver them for us."

"With more than 600 engineers and product experts and over 1,000 technology partners, CDW has the breadth and depth to create tailored solutions based on the best technologies that the industry has to offer," said Firooz Ghanbarzadeh, director of technology services and solutions for CDW. "We applied our consultative approach, which begins with understanding the customer's business and challenges, to develop IT solutions that help Zumiez manage and even drive their growth."

The Zumiez/CDW customer relationship started five years ago with desktop computers and monitors purchased to support Zumiez's PC-based POS solution. Although Zumiez's POS solution originally included components from more than a dozen independent sources, their purchasing from CDW expanded over time to include more comprehensive technical services including sales engineering and configuration support to help the company equip its corporate data center and disaster recovery facility.

"As soon as we ship one system to open a new store, we restock immediately from CDW and keep the process moving," said Sonney. "Their turnaround for whole-store shipments and replacement parts has been crucial to maintaining our opening schedule - they are clockwork reliable."

"In our data center, we needed a high-performance solution robust enough to support our growth across all of our applications, and we wanted to make the best use of our server space while economizing on power and leveraging our SAN infrastructure," Sonney points out. "We looked to CDW for assistance because we knew they could help us look at solutions from each of their server vendors while remaining hardware neutral - and that they would reliably deliver whichever option we chose."

Sonney links the Zumiez association with CDW to the company's dramatic expansion. "We save time and money by working with CDW. Their technical knowledge and ability to respond promptly to our needs helps us make smart business decisions that support our growth, accelerate our revenue and create great experiences for our customers."

To receive a Zumiez case study with additional details, reporters may send an e-mail to Martin Nott at [e-mail] or Brian Schwartz at [e-mail].

About CDW

CDW[R], ranked No. 343 on the FORTUNE 500, is a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government and education. CDW is a principal source of technology products and services including top name brands such as Acer, Adobe, Apple, Cisco, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Symantec, Toshiba and ViewSonic. CDW's direct model offers customers one-on-one relationships with knowledgeable account managers and access to more than 600 on-staff engineers and advanced technology specialists who customize solutions for customers' complex technology needs. CDW also provides same-day product shipping and post-sales technical support.

CDW was founded in 1984 and employs approximately 5,250 coworkers. In 2005, the company generated sales of $6.3 billion. For more information, visit CDW.com.