RedRock Technologies Provides Cost Effective Solution to The Body Shop
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Today, the Internet has become an essential communications tool and it is vital for businesses to exploit it to the full if they are able to survive in a competitive market. The ubiquitous nature of the Internet makes it an attractive cost effective communication system between remote locations. Few companies are more aware of this fact than The Body Shop who consider it a very important element in maintaining and increasing their success in the industry.

The Body Shop International, famous for creating an entire market sector for naturally-based products, is a global skin and hair care retailer with more than 1,700 shops worldwide. The Company is committed to environmental protection and social change and actively campaigns for animal protection, human rights and women's issues. It is estimated that in 1997/98 The Body Shop sold a product every 0.4 seconds with over 86 million customers visiting stores worldwide to sample the current range of over 400 products and over 400 accessories.

Andrew Buchan, Intranet Analyst for The Body Shop, was given the task of setting up the infrastructure for making information stored and updated at the company's head office in the UK available via the Internet to all of its stores in 49 countries across the world. The solution was to build an intranet by publishing the data on their Internet web server but limiting access to only authorised personnel.

The project began by installing Microsoft Internet Information Server in-house, which was connected to the Internet via leased line, and provided web access to the data. This facilitated an immediate solution for The Body Shop sites which were already equipped to enable users access to the internet via leased line connections but dial up access to the Internet still needed to be provided for the remaining, smaller outlets, where a leased line would not be economical.

"We tried Microsoft Proxy Server but it was expensive and slow. Also, it did not work very well with the dynamic HTML used in our applications," explains Andrew Buchan. "After two weeks of frustration we decided to look at alternative software. We were looking for a solution that had a comprehensive approach, which would satisfy our main requirements of speed of operation and stability. We searched for proxy servers via www.tucows.com and found RedRock Technologies NetNow!

NetNow! was installed, configured and was up and running within a just few hours. It showed great promise in achieving the results we needed and overcame all of the frustrations we had previously experienced. At this point we called RedRock Technologies for onsite assistance to set up Netnow! in a more complex configuration. Redrock Technologies suggested that we spoke to Trucom, one of their resellers, who would be able to provide the support we required.

We were very impressed with both RedRock Technologies and Trucom's pre sales support and training. Over the next few months Trucom made five visits to The Body Shop site in Littlehampton, West Sussex, and several long phone calls. This also included Trucom taking remote control over some of the international The Body Shop NetNow! servers, in order to configure them properly, and to train the site managers how the whole process would work. It has been our experience that the assistance received from Trucom and RedRock Technologies has been a key factor in achieving the best possible results."

Trucom worked with The Body Shop to assist them in configuring a stable environment that could be easily deployed and supported. A pilot scheme, which ran at several international sites for a period of 90 days, convinced Andrew Buchan that RedRock Technologies' solution fulfilled all of The Body Shop criteria and it was rolled out worldwide to sites that required dial up access to the intranet. The Body Shop was so impressed by the speed of operation, reliability and stability of NetNow! that they have now began assessing one of its other main functions, its Mail Server/Router, for possible use in several of the company's medium sized sites.

"One of the most important attributes of a web server for us is speed of operation and stability," continues Andrew. "NetNow! leaves a relatively small footprint on the server and does not interfere with users' web-browsing experience. An obvious attraction of NetNow! is its price which provides substantial savings compared with its competitors but, more importantly, because it is so easy to manage and configure it also provides a saving in time. Combine this with excellent support from RedRock Technologies and it is clear that NetNow! is an impressive product."

NetNow! has provided The Body Shop with a stable and reliable, low cost solution that has allowed its small offices world-wide, access to the company's intranet. NetNow!'s Proxy Server installed at these sites provides the users with secure shared access to the network via PSTN links. It has also provided the additional benefit of allowing the network administrators to regulate traffic to other Internet based services thereby restricting surfing and it enables them to log usage. RedRock Technologies NetNow! Proxy server is now a vital part of the future plans of The Body Shop.

RedRock Technologies provides messaging software solutions to both PC and network users, enabling them to communicate and leverage more productivity from the Internet. RedRock Technologies' products are available via a world-wide network of distributors, resellers and on-line stores. For additional information please visit RedRock web site http://www.redrock.co.uk

Notes to Editors
RedRock Technologies Ltd., a software publisher, develops fax and internet connectivity software. Founded in 1993, RedRock has grown to become a leading supplier of communications software with offices in United Kingdom and USA. RedRock’s software adheres to three guiding principles of Simplicity, Reliability and Performance. These qualities have recently established the company as a FAST 50 company; an index of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK. RedRock markets it’s software via accredited distributors and dealers world-wide. All RedRock software is available for download and evaluation from Redrock’s web site: http://www.redrocktechnologies.com.

Technical information:
More detailed technical information and product evaluations are available on request from the contact numbers detailed below. Alternatively a copy can be downloaded from our web site. All product shots are available in electronic format from the web site or from the contact below.