CenturyLink Solutions Featuring:CenturyLink IQ™ Networking Private Port Service

Case Study: Moneytree, Inc.

Customer:Moneytree, Inc.www.moneytreeinc.com

Business Challenge: IT managers decided to migrate from an inefficient, distributed to a centralized processing model. That way, 140 retail stores could easily access the centralized point of sale applications and customer data at the company’s data center.

Solution: After evaluating four tier-1 vendors, decision makers selected the CenturyLink IQ™ Networking Private Port Service. The new multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network connects 140 stores across five western states to the company’s main data center. The company also uses CenturyLink™ Long Distance and Local Dial Tone services.

Benefits and Results:*The MPLS solution delivers greater •value—up to six times more bandwidth at a similar cost

The remote manageability of the •CenturyLink IQ Networking service reduced administration labor hours

The solution’s higher network •capacity and reliability eliminated slow application response times and cut help desk labor hours

Savings in troubleshooting labor •hours have been reallocated to business-building projects

The private, encrypted MPLS •network meets the financial services company’s compliance requirements

CenturyLink technicians delivered •network planning and technical expertise to optimize the company’s network services

CenturyLink’s nationwide MPLS •network footprint facilitates the speedy opening of new stores

Moneytree, Inc.

For some people, an unexpected auto repair can create an immediate need for cash. However, banks often refuse to cash their payroll checks if they don’t have an account. Or they hold the funds for lengthy times until they’ve cleared. So rather than writing a bad check, or backdating a check that a repair shop won’t honor, people seek out a short-term loan to cover unexpected expenses.

That’s where Moneytree, Inc. comes in. The company provides retail financial services to customers through 140 branches across five western states. From check cashing services to payday loans to prepaid long distance and prepaid debit cards, the firm meets the needs of a diverse clientele.

Facing the ChallengesThe company’s IT architecture is currently based on a hub-and-spoke topology. All of the firm’s financial transaction processing is completed at the corporate office data center. Moneytree’s 140, and growing, retail stores do not have any processing power, nor back- end point of sale systems. So they need to access these applications at the data center to function as a store.

According to Hamilton Dutcher, director of information technology for Moneytree, Inc., “The network that we have set up between our corporate offices and our branch locations is incredibly important to us because without that, the stores would not be in business today.”

The company’s previous, distributed processing model caused problems that led to the new architecture. It was inefficient, and each store had its own, independent database. So managers at different branches lacked visibility into customer activities at various locations. “This caused confusion, resulted in customer service issues and potentially cost us revenues to our competitors,” explains Dutcher.

*These results are unique to this entity and should not be considered an indication of the amount of savings or improvements, if any, that may be realized by any other entity subscribing to comparable services.

“The Qwest MPLS service delivers significantly greater value to us in terms of its reliability, manageability, flexibility to

deploy to new stores and competitive pricing. All around, it’s a fantastic efficiency enabler for our business.”

—Hamilton Dutcher, Director of Information Technology, Moneytree, Inc.

Providing a Successful SolutionThe company’s legacy frame relay solution was expensive for the little bandwidth it provided. Moreover, it wasn’t very flexible in terms of provisioning to meet the company’s processing needs.

In response, managers evaluated solutions from four tier-one providers. They compared them on a number of key criteria, including network reliability and the ability to conduct remote management by a small IT staff. Decision makers also considered vendors’ customer service abilities as well as their cost-effectiveness in deploying a network across more than 140 locations.

Initially, the company deployed the Private Routed Network service. When that service performed below expectations managers considered alternatives. Their analysis led them to choose the CenturyLink IQ™ Networking Private Port Service. The MPLS solution replaced fractional T-1s with a full T-1 service to the company’s branch offices. These stores now access applications and data at the corporate data center. Rounding out their services, managers have implemented CenturyLink™ Long Distance and Local Dial Tone services.

Delivering Results*“We chose Qwest because their service is more economical, it’s more flexible, they have a broad service portfolio, and they offer better customer service than what we were getting,” Dutcher said.

Low Cost, High Value

“For a similar cost, we have certainly seen significantly more value in what we receive,” Dutcher said. “We can measure an actual number of staff employee hour savings by having our small team affecting large results remotely to manage the MPLS network.”

Reliability

The CenturyLink IQ™ Networking Private Port Service is significantly more reliable than the company’s legacy solutions. “The measurable impact on our help desk is that we are able to run it with fewer employees than we had to use before because there’s simply more uptime and fewer problems to resolve,” Dutcher said.

Previously, when outages or technical issues happened, store personnel had to work with the company’s small IT staff to resolve them. With those problems no longer an issue, “We can redeploy those folks to have them doing things that drive revenues versus having them doing things to keep up the network,” Dutcher said.

Scalability and Service

CenturyLink’s national footprint allows Moneytree managers to easily turn up new stores around the nation as the company grows. Moreover, CenturyLink IQ™ Networking Private Port Service is scalable to 2.4 Gbps to allow enough headroom for the company’s most bandwidth-intensive applications.

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*These results are unique to this entity and should not be considered an indication of the amount of savings or improvements, if any, that may be realized by any other entity subscribing to comparable services.

To date, CenturyLink personnel have delivered service superior to that of the company’s previous vendor. “The refreshing thing about the Qwest service is that they go about solving problems without finger pointing, and I really enjoy that,” Dutcher said.

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©2011 CenturyLink, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Not to be distributed or reproduced by anyone other than CenturyLink entities.

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