ConAgra Poultry

ConAgra Poultry Doesn't Play Chicken With Its Technology

About ConAgra Poultry Company, Inc.

ConAgra Foods is one of the world's largest and most successful food companies, posting an estimated $27 billion in retail sales. ConAgra Foods has many specialized business units that support its corporate operations and value-chain model.

With such global dispersion and diversified business operations, it has become increasingly important for each business unit to be able to communicate efficiently. One such business unit, ConAgra Poultry Company, was looking to take a technological step forward to optimize its communication efficiency within its voice and data networks.

Customer Situation

Two of ConAgra Poultry's operations, located in Kentucky, had an increasing need for better, more seamless communications. ConAgra Poultry wanted to implement a technology that could meet the following needs within one proven solution: toll bypass, converged traffic, centralized resources, ease of use and administration and integration over a multi-vendor network.

S1 Solution

S1 worked with ConAgra Poultry to formulate a technology plan that met their current needs and positioned them to take advantage of next-generation technologies.

The result of this collaboration was a tuned converged solution that maximized their existing infrastructure by integrating new technologies. The solution was professionally engineered and implemented by S1 and utilized a combination of existing Cisco networking hardware and new Avaya data and voice solutions. S1 provided complete LAN and WAN network assessments. This ensured adequate network performance for Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) applications.

S1's response to the ConAgra opportunity leveraged Avaya's heritage in enterprise voice solutions. The voice network consisted of a Definity G3si Release 9 with an Intuity Audix at the hub and a Definity Prologix Release 9 at the remote location. The Definitys were equipped with Internet Protocol (IP) hardware and software that utilized ConAgra's WAN for the voice transport between the two locations. At each location the voice and data traffic was routed using Cisco routers. The voice was programmed to utilize a compression rate (G729) to maximize bandwidth by minimizing each call.

Any time a VOIP solution is implemented, there is legitimate concern for Quality of Service (QOS). In this specific application, QOS was addressed in the Definity, as well as the Cisco equipment. Each Definity was programmed with its own QOS measures, while the Cisco routers were configured to allow for differentiated service (diffserv). This was a very critical element, as real-time voice in a converged network must have priority on the network.

ConAgra Benefits

ConAgra users now have easy access to centralized voice mail (Intuity Audix) locally and over the WAN, which has enhanced communications significantly.

This S1 solution also reduced ConAgra's operating expenses immediately. Even though the two locations were only 15 miles apart, they resided in different local calling areas, which meant all interoffice calling was long distance. Once the VOIP solution was implemented, all interoffice calls were routed over the WAN, which bypassed toll charges. The hub location provided a long distance T1 for all calls regardless of the origination site. ConAgra benefited as the long distance T1 at the hub location was less expensive, and the rates were subsequently cheaper as more traffic was routed over the T1. The remote Definity had local trunking for outbound calls from either the remote site or the hub site. The resulting savings were substantial from day one.

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