NetScreen Connects 1,000 Korean Retail Sites

October 24, 2002 -- Network security solution developer NetScreen Technologies Inc. (NetScreen.com) announced on Tuesday that Korean convenience store chain FamilyMart Inc. has selected NetScreen products to provide firewall security and VPN connectivity for all of its franchise stores and warehouses.

FamilyMart has already deployed NetScreen-5XPs in 700 of its stores for the processing of real-time orders and examination of sales data. Family mart will continue to install NetScreen-5XPs in its remaining 800 stores through the rest of this year. The company plans to connect all its sites by mid-2003.

"Our main reason for deploying a VPN was to save ISDN line costs, which can add up when you have thousands of stores," says SangShin Park, director of security at FamilyMart. "Since the NetScreen devices enabling virtual private networking have been installed at a subset of our franchise stores, FamilyMart has already seen a significant return on its investment with improved productivity in addition to a dramatic reduction in service costs. And, the VPN easily enables more active communication between headquarters and our franchise shops, allowing us to be more productive."

Through market research, FamilyMart is developing distribution and data exchange techniques to help provide profit opportunities for franchise shops and operational efficiency for the company. Part of this strategy involves migrating to a high-speed secure infrastructure based on VPN technology.