KIZAN CASE HISTORY
Back to Case Studies As an overseas importer of men's apparel, Kizan International has a critical need for
effective global communications. The company, which sells under the Louis Raphael and Braggi labels to more than 4,000 retail outlets, has to keep an open dialog going with its New York headquarters as well as
with clothing manufacturers and suppliers across Europe and Asia. Kizan International's fully automated warehouse and distribution center in Brisbane, Calif. -- which even includes a mini-factory to put any
necessary finishing touches on garments before they leave the facility -- has been renovated to utilize the most advanced technology available for inventory and order fulfillment. But until recently,
Kizan's Brisbane warehouse was still communicating with its vendors by less than the most advanced methods. "We would check progress with the manufacturers every day by phone and fax," recalled Steven
Lock, information systems operator at the facility. "It was not only expensive, but time-zone differences made it hard to catch people when you needed to talk to them. We realized we had to get the company
on the Internet and using electronic mail." 'Hush-hush' beta test In mid-1997 Lock heard some positive word-of-mouth on a "hush-hush" beta test of a product from FreeGate Corp., a
startup company in Sunnyvale, Calif. So new it hadn't even been publicly introduced to the market yet, FreeGate's Internet Edge Server would combine, in a single unit, all the elements of secure and reliable
Internet access -- including router, Web server, e-mail and firewall -- without requiring any technical expertise on the part of the business user. Liking the sound of the FreeGate box's capabilities, Lock
contacted the company, signed the requisite non-disclosure agreement and arranged for a demonstration. He also did some comparison shopping, first checking into products from several other startups also
offering all-in-one Internet access devices. What he found were software-based products, running on PC hardware, that seemed underpowered for his needs. "One product was very slow, geared more for home than
business use. We have 50 brand-new, very fast Gateway 2000 PCs on our LAN that needed a higher-performance access device. Another product lacked the 'mirroring' capability to back up data if one drive failed. Our
e-mails have millions of dollars worth of significance; we needed to be sure the solution we chose would be reliable." But even the high-end solution, from network market leader Cisco Systems, was
inappropriately complex. "You would have to buy separate routers, bridges and repeaters. The whole setup would operate like a 'black box' with us having no administrative software to control or even
understand how much bandwidth was going to each terminal. Furthermore, I would have had to pay an Internet service provider for services such as creating or deleting mailbox addresses when employees join or leave
the company. With the FreeGate product I can do those things myself." Simple system administration Lock got his FreeGate system in early August. Once the necessary ISDN line had been installed,
the unit was up and running. Managing it was easy. "I simply signed on as system administrator and easily configured everything I needed," he said. "And FreeGate plans to add features that will
let our field salespeople call in remotely to our database or conduct private live chat sessions." The only problem Lock faced was trying to integrate the company's existing internal e-mail system, based
on Lotus' cc:Mail, with the new external e-mail capability provided with the FreeGate system. Ultimately, due to difficulties inherent in cc:Mail, he made the decision to drop cc:Mail and use the mail capability
embedded in the Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers. "The nice thing," Lock said, "was that when I developed all the new user mailboxes, the FreeGate system let me set up mailing
groups -- specific communities of interest that would include maybe five to ten people in one of our departments here plus individuals from our vendors and manufacturers, and even remotely-located employees."
Future plans: hosting an on-line catalog In addition to e-mail, Kizan International uses the FreeGate Internet Edge Server to let employees do research on the Internet about such matters as new product
offerings from manufacturers located worldwide, or competitive products and marketing programs. Future plans call for developing an on-line catalog that will reside on a Kizan Web page hosted by the FreeGate
system. By late 1998, customers will be able to log in using a security code and review product listings, then place orders directly over the Web. (A current, more limited informational site is already hosted on
the FreeGate server.) Support from FreeGate has been "great," Lock added. "As a beta site we expected some of the problems associated with early versions of products, but any minor issues we had
were resolved within 24 hours. FreeGate even helped us resolve our cc:Mail problem and ran interference with our ISP." |
