Dallas Cowboys Tackle Voice Communications Using 3Com

Storied NFL Franchise Deploys Scalable 3Com Phone and Call Center Systems to Support Football and Merchandising Operations

The Dallas Cowboys, one of America's legendary sports teams, is using Internet protocol (IP) telephony solutions from 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) for all of its business-critical voice services and to support the growing demand for Cowboys-branded products. With 3Com® SuperStack® 3 NBX® IP Telephony Solutions and the 3Com eXchange Call Center Solution, the organization leveraged its wide area network (WAN) into a scalable, enterprise-wide phone infrastructure, enabling it to easily provide voice and data to the entire enterprise.

"3Com augments our IT strategy of providing voice and data across our enterprise networks enabling the Cowboys to seamlessly add phones and data connections in support of training camp, and implement call centers to support ticket sales, suite sales, merchandise catalog sales and Internet catalog sales while reducing data acquisition and communication costs," said Jerry Jones, Jr., chief sales and marketing officer for the Dallas Cowboys.

"Our entire organization, including coaches, merchandising, sales, marketing, administrative and executive personnel, now has the function-rich telephony technology needed to succeed both on and off the field. Our highly scalable voice and call center solutions permit us to grow our merchandising operations while sustaining the highest quality of customer service. 3Com solutions are easy to manage and reduce our communications cost by routing calls over our WAN rather than the costlier public phone system."

The team's need for a new phone system stemmed from growing demand for its lines of clothing and products, ranging from sports apparel for men, women and children to the Dallas Cowboys Weekly newspaper publication, a newsletter for fans. To meet the demand, the organization had to equip its merchandising warehouse with additional telephones to fulfill orders and support a 15-seat call center that handles customer service calls. Its legacy private branch exchange (PBX) platform, however, lacked the scalability to support more handsets without substantial investment.

"Phones are essential for processing orders for Cowboys merchandise, and as sales increased, we needed to add staff and handsets," explained Jones. "Because our old PBX system was no longer meeting our communication needs, we decided to acquire a voice solution that expanded easily and economically to meet growth. After reviewing a variety of available platforms, we found that 3Com products offered the scalability and capabilities we wanted more affordably than competing vendors. Professional football is a very competitive business, so the cost-savings offered by 3Com IP telephony was a winning strategy."

The Dallas Cowboys' multi-site deployment features a network of 3Com SuperStack 3 NBX devices and more than 350 3Com IP phones at Texas Stadium, where it plays its home games, at Valley Ranch, where the team practices and coaches and staff have offices, and at the Cowboys' merchandising warehouse networked via a 3Com IP router network. The implementation is scalable up to 1,500 users, so it can easily grow to meet the team's IP telephony needs well into the future.

To ensure its call center integrated seamlessly with the 3Com NBX system, the Cowboys deployed the 3Com eXchange Call Center Solution at its merchandising warehouse. The application provides comprehensive call center functionality that allows administrators to control and optimize the distribution, handling and reporting of all calls. Because the 3Com solutions converge voice and data traffic, call center managers can monitor real-time graphical information about the operation's call flows and calls-in queue for greater oversight. Additionally, the platform is modular and scalable, allowing the team to incrementally expand its call center up to 250 seats.

"3Com's call center solution is an ideal complement to our 3Com NBX systems because they all scale so simply and affordably," said Jones. "Like our phone platforms, it's easy to operate, reducing cost of ownership, and its many capabilities will allow us to manage customer relationships more efficiently."

Thanks to their ease of management, the 3Com voice solutions play an important role in the team's strategy to contain expenses. "We now manage our phone system in-house, eliminating the cost of hiring third-party vendors for modifications or just moving and adding handsets," said Jones. "We project significant cost savings by the end of the year and we also expect to reduce our long-distance tolls by routing calls between our facilities via IP."

Additionally, the team relies on the 3Com GuardianSM maintenance service for comprehensive on-site support; helping to ensure business-critical voice services are always available. "Our 3Com systems have proven to be a cost effective integral business tool," added Jones. "When we first deployed our 3Com IP phones, 3Com provided technical support during the NFL draft to make sure our coaching staff and executives could communicate with our representatives in New York. Everything worked perfectly."

About the Dallas Cowboys
Headquartered in Irving, Texas, the Dallas Cowboys Football Club has become one of the most successful members of the National Football League. Founded in 1960, the Cowboys have appeared in eight Super Bowl Championships, winning five and captured 19 division titles. To learn more, please visit www.dallascowboys.com.

About 3Com IP Telephony
3Com has been a major contributor to the convergence industry since the introduction in 1998 of the world's first IP-PBX, the 3Com® NBX® system. The company developed an architecture for a distributed softswitch for AT&T and brought the first commercially deployed carrier softswitch to market in 1999. The 3Com® VCX™ IP Telephony module was first introduced in 2003 for large enterprises. Today, the company combines these products under the 3Com Convergence Applications Suite, which includes IP Telephony, IP Messaging, IP Conferencing and IP Contact Center capabilities. For further information, please visit www.3com.com/voip.

About 3Com Corporation
3Com is a leading provider of converged voice and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. 3Com offers a broad line of innovative products backed by world-class sales, service and support, which excel at delivering business value for its customers. When customers exercise choice, their choice is 3Com. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.

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