CON-WAY Transportation Services Deploying 5000 Wyse Winterm Thin Appliances Throughout North America

Thin Appliances Help CON-WAY'S 420 Service Centers Access New Corporate Intranet to Improve Customer Service and Reduce IT Costs

San Jose, CA – 04/30/2001 - - Wyse Technology, the worldwide leader in thin-appliance computing, today announced that CON-WAY Transportation Services, Inc. (CON-WAY) has made a major deployment of Wyse Winterm™ thin appliances. CON-WAY has linked its 420 service centers located throughout the 50 United States, eight Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico by deploying 2,600 Wyse Winterm 3350SE Windows terminals. The $2.1 billion freight transportation and logistics company will ultimately deploy a total of 5000 devices.

CON-WAY's intent in this major project was to bring all its employees windows access to operations, finance, human resource and customer service systems. Before deploying Wyse Windows terminals, CON-WAY's employees would access these information systems using IBM 3151 character-based terminals that were located throughout it's service center network, which did not feature a Web browser, nor run modern Windows applications. This prevented one of the nation's largest and most successful transportation companies from providing universal employee access to a robust corporate intranet site.

CON-WAY selected Wyse Technology to provide a solution that Web-enabled the company's desktops while maintaining access to mission-critical information running on legacy systems. The deployment of Wyse thin appliances is expected to improve CON-WAY's customer service and internal communications. Additionally, the thin appliances will provide user friendly Windows-based graphic access to systems and information, which is expected to ease training requirements for new employees that join the company.

"During the past 24 months we have made substantial progress in upgrading our systems from character-based terminals to Wyse thin appliances because our employees required easier access to information such as customer specific rate quotes, images of bills of lading and delivery receipts, and transit time diagrams from the corporate intranet site," said Jacquelyn Barretta, vice president information services for CON-WAY. "We want our employees to have access to the same Web-based information in the exact same display as our customers receive. This enables faster, clearer discussions about service needs as well as problem resolution when issues from the customer(s) arise."

Wyse Gold Reseller CyberNET Engineering, assisted CON-WAY with its installation and configuration of thin clients. In less than a year, the CyberNET project management team inventoried both old and new equipment; trained 3,000 CON-WAY employees on how to use the new system; laid 5,000 cable runs and installed the thin appliances, while taking special care not to interrupt CON-WAY shipments and day-to-day processing.

"Our teams traveled to each CON-WAY facility for site implementation and training. The teams also updated a real-time web site with documentation that included the inventories, various signoffs and pictures so that the client had a daily update on the progress of the project," said Paul Blossom, CyberNET senior vice president of operations.

CON-WAY chose the Wyse Winterm 3350SE Windows terminals to bridge the technology gap with their internal customers. An additional benefit that has come from the deployment of the Wyse thin appliances is that they can be managed remotely by CON-WAY's IT department, which is located in Portland, OR. This eliminates the need to visit each desktop separately.

In June this year CON-WAY will roll out its new customer relationship management (CRM) system that will also be Web-based. The Wyse thin client system will enable delivery of that system to all employees having contact with their customers. "Customer relationships are important in any business, but in a service business customer relationships are critical," said Barretta. "We're excited to now be able to deliver improved information using Wyse Technology's thin appliances to our internal customers."

Modernizing 420 Service Centers is Hassle Free

As freight companies such as CON-WAY expand and open new service centers, their CIOs are presented with the challenge and opportunity to modernize their enterprise. Improved tracking of shipments, adjusting orders and relaying up-to-date information via e-commerce connections to customers often requires modern Windows applications. Wyse thin appliances provide optimum performance in a server-based computing environment such as CON-WAY's, where information and mission-critical applications can be managed centrally. Wyse Winterm thin appliances enable CON-WAY to deploy future-proof, easy-to-use desktop devices that provide a PC-like experience without requiring any local management or administration.

"Thin appliances are the ideal server-based desktop for transportation and distribution companies that have employees and customers consistently collaborating on the status of shipments," said George Skaff, vice president of worldwide marketing for Wyse Technology. "Unlike PCs, Wyse Winterm thin appliances are built with no moving parts that can break down or lose data, which is perfect for freight terminal environments, such as CON-WAY's. In addition, Wyse thin appliances are 'install once, visit never' devices, and appeal to the IT department's desire to drive down IT costs without sacrificing reliability, quality and customer service."

Wyse's Proven Success in Customer Service

Wyse thin appliances have significantly improved the performance of customer service departments at transportation and distribution companies such as FedEx, Old Dominion Freight Line, TIP Trucking and Emery Worldwide. Winterm thin appliances are economical, easy to set up and use, and offer customer service departments information when they need it, where they need it. CIOs have exponentially reduced their enterprise IT costs and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for their company with the installation of Wyse thin appliances.

About CyberNET Engineering

Founded in 1989, CyberNET Engineering has become one of the most successful and highly visible implementers of state of the art information technology. CyberNET Engineering's skills focus on software applications deployment, server-based computing, web databases and applications, and browser enablement. Their substantial e-Business consulting practice and particular expertise in thin client network and ASP design and deployment, has allowed them to be a leading global solutions provider. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, CyberNET Engineering has locations in New York, Tampa, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

About Wyse Technology

Wyse is the #1 vendor the world's largest businesses and institutions trust for scalable thin-client computing solutions. Wyse provides the hardware, software, and services that shift computing complexity to the network, reducing cost, liberating IT departments from unnecessary support and maintenance functions, empowering users to be more productive in their jobs, and protecting and improving access to critical information and business applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California with offices worldwide, Wyse has been #1 in thin-client market share for the last eight years, enjoys a close partnership with Citrix Systems, and has been named Microsoft "Embedded Partner of the Year" for three years. Wyse customers include FedEx, Best Buy (Canada), Quaker Foods, and Gold's Gym.

For more information, visit the Wyse website at http://www.wyse.com or call 1-800-GET-WYSE