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Church's Chicken™ Deploys Netifice VPN Services to Deliver Secure Communication between All Locations and Remote Users; Integrated VPN Solutions increase Reliability and Reach of Company's ERP and Point-of-Sale Applications


Business Wire
February 28, 2006

Netifice Communications, Inc., a leading provider of flexible IP Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions to businesses worldwide, today announced that Church's Chicken™ has deployed Netifice Retail Connect VPN and Remote Access VPN to provide reliable, secure communication between its headquarters, remote workers and all 283 corporate restaurants. Netifice is the leading provider of fully managed VPN and connectivity services for the restaurant and hospitality industry.

"As one of the largest quick service chicken restaurants in the world, Church's Chicken™ requires a highly reliable infrastructure for transmitting critical business information," said Alan Stukalsky, CIO, Church's Chicken™. "Netifice is the only vendor that could securely address all of our data communication requirements, while actually simplifying our network management activities. Not only does the Netifice VPN service deliver a high performance, reliable solution to support our business applications, but the support team is extremely responsive, often alerting us to changes on the network before we even notice."

Founded in San Antonio, Texas in 1952, Church's Chicken™ is a highly recognized brand name in the QSR sector, and is one of the largest quick service chicken concepts in the world. Church's Chicken™ serves traditional Southern and Spicy Fried Chicken with a focus on offering complete meals with large portions at low prices and is positioned as the Value Leader in the Chicken QSR category. As of December 2005, the Church's system had 1,546 locations worldwide in 16 countries plus Puerto Rico, with system sales of almost $1 billion.

Church's Chicken™ is using Netifice's Retail Connect and Workforce Connect services to support its Lawson Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Radiant point-of-sale applications. Netifice has increased the reliability and availability of these applications, enabling remote users to access and share critical information with applications based at headquarters. Specifically, Netifice Retail Connect enables users at corporate headquarters to retrieve inventory, labor, sales and marketing data from each store, so that the company can quickly conduct daily sales and inventory polling of all locations after each store closes for the night. In terms of ERP, Netifice has virtually eliminated slow load speeds and errors due to interrupted transmissions.

"As the leading provider of VPN services for both remote users and locations, Netifice delivers flexible solutions that enable companies, like Church's Chicken™, to implement a single, centrally managed solution to communicate with all of its stores and remote workers," said Greg Davis, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Netifice Communications. "Our fully managed services simplify Church's management and connectivity challenges, while providing complete visibility into all aspects of their infrastructure, so that they are always aware of how the network is performing."

Church's Chicken™ is using Netifice's SmartWorX online provisioning and management system to monitor the entire network and simplify remote IT support for all of its remote users and locations. The advanced SmartWorX Customer Portal enables Church's Chicken™ to easily view pertinent information about their entire multi-carrier network that in the past would have required compiling information from numerous vendors. It simplifies network management by automating the provisioning, monitoring and billing for all sites, regardless of access technology or last mile provider.

Netifice Solutions
Netifice delivers the most flexible IP VPNs available, enabling businesses to integrate all of their mission-critical applications onto a single secure and scalable network platform that spans the entire enterprise. Netifice can tailor a solution that is cost-effective and fits its customers' specific requirements -- whether they need to run performance-sensitive applications between the corporate headquarters and branch offices via the Netifice MPLS fiber optic network, or extend their infrastructure to include numerous other carrier networks, increasing their reach to thousands of remote users and retail sites via broadband, wireless, satellite and global dial access.

About Church's Chicken
Founded in San Antonio, Texas in 1952, Church's Chicken™ is a highly recognized brand name in the QSR sector, and is one of the largest quick service chicken concepts in the world. Church's Chicken™ serves traditional Southern and Spicy Fried Chicken with a focus on offering complete meals with large portions at low prices and is positioned as the Value Leader in the Chicken QSR category. As of December 2005, the Church's system had 1,546 locations worldwide in 16 countries plus Puerto Rico, with system sales of almost $1 billion. Church's Chicken™ is owned by Arcapita, a venture-[capital] firm that is also the parent of Caribou Coffee. For further information, please visit www.churchs.com.

Netifice Communications, Inc.
Netifice Communications is a global provider of flexible IP VPN solutions that enable businesses to lower costs, increase scalability and expand the deployment of enterprise applications and communication systems. Netifice customizes its clients IP VPNs using the widest selection of access, security and communication options, combined with advanced systems for managing and monitoring their IP VPN. Customers can easily deploy expansive networks so that their corporate headquarters, regional offices, remote workers, and retail outlets can communicate with each other as if they were in the same location. Netifice is recognized by customers for delivering the highest quality service and support with industry-leading Service Level Agreements that guarantee site-to-site performance and reliability. For more information go to www.Netifice.com or call 1-877-Netifice.

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