Cisco Systems

Established in 1984, Cisco Systems is the world’s leading provider of network solutions for the Internet. The company, based in San José, USA, employs a worldwide staff of more than 61,000. Under the leadership of John T. Chambers, CEO and president of the company since 1995, Cisco helps its customers to develop e-business strategies for increasing productivity, reducing operational costs and improving customer satisfaction. Its products include routers and switches, as well as solutions for wireless networks (WLAN), unified data, voice and video communications, digital signage and video surveillance. Cisco also provides security management and network management.

Networks have become a key technology component in the world of business and everyday life. They have an increasing influence on the way people work, live, play and learn. Cisco’s secure, integrated networks provide users with made-to-measure solutions. The company offers highperformance platforms that serve as a basis for synchronizing data, voice, video and mobile-device traffic.

Innovative technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and network solutions are also growing in importance in the retail sector. At the same time, global supply chains are becoming more intricately networked. This opens up additional market growth potential for IT technologies that offer high compatibility with other systems. Cisco identified this trend at an early stage and has made a point of cooperating with the retail industry in projects such as the METRO GROUP Future Store Initiative. Cisco’s goal is to continue developing its own technologies and adapt them to the needs of the retail industry.

Cisco implemented its innovative technologies in a supermarket for the first time at the original Future Store in the German town of Rheinberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. The solutions improved staff communication, boosted the cost-effectiveness of the supply chain and allowed diverse shopping, payment and interaction models. Today, Cisco’s experience and know-how is being applied at the real,- Future Store in Toenisvorst, near Krefeld, Germany.

Cisco Lean Retail Architecture (LRA) helps retail businesses reduce the complexity of the IT infrastructure in their stores while simultaneously lowering running costs. This innovative solution allows stores to use the applications and technologies they require from a central data center with no loss of performance. Furthermore, LRA allows a considerable reduction in the time required between the planning and rollout of a service. In effect, the network itself becomes a platform for innovative services. Cisco has applied this concept at the real,- Future Store in Toenisvorst on the basis of its Integrated Service Routers (ISR).

The term ‘digital signage’ describes multimedia information and advertising at the point of sale (POS) – in other words, the place where the customers make their purchasing decisions. Cisco offers a high-performance system architecture that can be flexibly adapted to the needs of the retailer and can be applied at the store without additional computers or servers. The Digital Media System (DMS) allows the direct transfer of information to output devices such as flatscreen displays. Businesses can thus make considerable savings on the maintenance of hardware and software.

Cisco IP telephony enables effective communication in an intelligent network and is already being used in many retail stores. Voice transmission takes place over the same Internet protocol (IP) that is used for data transmission. In this way, the technology unifies different communication channels and retailers benefit from a centrally managed telephony environment. The Cisco IP telephones implemented at the real,- Future Store are equipped with large touchscreens which allow the staff to operate the doors of the visitor center as well as providing other functions. In the future, tasks such as time recording, shift scheduling and holiday planning will be efficiently performed by telephone.

Thanks to Cisco’s Unified Wireless technology, consumers can use their smartphones – mobile phones with advanced functions – as Personal Shopping Assistants. The technology will be tested as of fall 2008 in the real,- Future Store.

Cisco TelePresence lets business partners participate in virtual conferences. The application includes high-definition screens, video cameras and loudspeakers. The picture is so life-like that the participants really have the impression of being in the same room. Both verbal and nonverbal communication is possible. The effectiveness of virtual meetings is rising, as it can reduce traveling times and flight costs. Many retailers and consumer goods manufacturers use TelePresence to communicate with offices and industry partners in other countries. The system is also in operation in the visitor center at the real,- Future Store.

Volker John
Head of Vertical Retail,
CPG & Transportation European Markets
Phone: +49 211 5202 9139
E-mail:  vjohn@cisco.com
 www.cisco.com