Hypercom improves the information flow at Peoples Gas System; single-box, single vendor solution combines voice and data to make frame relay practical.

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 22, 1995--Hypercom Network Systems Monday revealed it is providing Peoples Gas System, Florida's largest natural gas utility, with a single network that improves availability and response times for its legacy applications, incorporates wide-area LAN connectivity, and provides complete tie line coverage for every telephone user in the company.

Using Hypercom's Integrated Enterprise Network (IEN) family of hybrid routers and frame relay from Intermedia Communications of Florida Inc. (ICI), Peoples Gas transformed its antiquated analog leased line mainframe network into a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure with greatly improved performance, reliability and flexibility.

"Hypercom worked closely with Peoples Gas to provide the most reliable SNA and LAN transport," said Paul K. Wickre, Hypercom's vice president of sales and marketing. "With more than 10 years of experience in meeting the diverse SNA and internetworking needs of major companies around the world, Hypercom is uniquely positioned to provide the know-how and equipment to facilitate any SNA migration strategy."

Aiding A Communications Makeover

Peoples Gas needed to provide more effective communications links between its headquarters and branch locations around the state while reducing its network costs.

They improved the availability of the mainframe system and provided disaster recovery procedures which did not exist before. They replaced the analog multidrop lines with individual digital leased lines from the Tampa headquarters data center to each branch location. In addition, Peoples Gas contracted with a disaster recovery site in the event they had to vacate the data center during a natural disaster.

During this time, they installed LANs in every branch location and headquarters.

"We knew that initially if we were going to connect the LANs, there wasn't enough traffic to justify the cost of bandwidth," said Howell Hastie, manager of telecommunications for Peoples Gas. "But we believed if we could get one vendor to serve all our locations who could pool our SNA and LAN traffic and use some discrete DSOs for voice, we could have quite a network and save money, too."

ICI proposed the use of Hypercom's IEN family of hybrid routers to consolidate their legacy and LAN traffic over ICI's frame relay network. What's more, the same local exchange carrier T-1 would transport all voice traffic to ICI's point of presence, eliminating the need to pay for a separate tie line from the local exchange carrier.

"There were a lot of people in the communications industry who thought we were going off the deep end," recalls Hastie. "They didn't think there were any products that could combine the Ethernet, Token Ring and SNA interfaces, the CSU/DSU, FRAD, router, dial back up and, especially, voice. But Hypercom was able to provide everything in a single box."

More importantly, the network is improving productivity. With the tie lines linking all of its offices, not only is Peoples Gas saving about 75 percent on toll call costs, the tie lines have dramatically improved communications among the utility's workers. They can call anywhere in the company without incurring additional phone charges.

Today, People's Gas has installed IEN 3000 and IEN 5000 hybrid routers in their remote offices and IEN 5000s at the headquarters. A single T-1 line transports their SNA, LAN and voice traffic from each office to the Tampa headquarters providing complete tie line service between all offices. The SNA and LAN traffic is routed through ICI's frame relay network and tie lines are discrete DSOs.

Peoples Gas also installed IEN 5000s as part of a duplicate backup system. Hastie states the availability of their system now approaches 99.9 percent, due in part to the integral dial backup capabilities of the Hypercom IEN.

Next Steps

Hastie also feels the network's flexibility positions Peoples Gas well for future technologies.

"We can go forward with technologies like APPN or client/server if that's what our users want," said Hastie. "We're also looking at videoconferencing as a way to reduce the frequent trips people make between the Tampa headquarters and branch offices."

And the increased connectivity of the LANs will enable new applications, such as data warehouses, to distribute more information to the remote offices for better decision-making capabilities.

Peoples Gas System

Based in Tampa, Peoples Gas System is the largest natural gas utility in the state of Florida and serves over 225,000 customers.

Intermedia Communications of Florida Inc.

Intermedia provides customers with a competitive alternative to local telephone companies in the Southeast for voice, data and video services over its extensive CAP fiber optic system and region-wide voice and data network. Intermedia currently operates CAP fiber optic networks in Florida in Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville, St. Petersburg, and West Palm Beach; in Cincinnati, Ohio; in Raleigh/Durham, N.C.; and has networks under development in Huntsville, Ala., and St. Louis, Mo.

Intermedia also provides specialized telecommunications services to customers throughout the United States and internationally.

Hypercom

Founded in 1978, Hypercom Inc. is a multinational company with headquarters in Phoenix. Hypercom provides advanced technology data communications systems and components to the financial and banking sectors and other Fortune 1000 industries. Hypercom's primary mission is to allow customers to integrate legacy SNA networks and PC/LAN networks into a manageable single resource. Hypercom products are sold in 29 countries and produce revenue of more than $160 million annually.

CONTACT: Ketchum Communications

Nancy Prater, 415/984-6305

or

Peoples Gas System

Joyce Wellman, 813/272-0014