"Essentially, our previous provider was actually engineering services that would not meet our needs," says Fred Dreibholz, chief financial officer for Champps. "We didn't have data flow, and we knew the provider wasn't going to be around for much longer. We needed a quality replacement in short order."

Champps? main criteria for its new provider, says Inflow, were technical expertise and long-term stability. The company learned of Inflow through an existing customer.

The company now receives colocation, managed frame relay connection services and VPN connection services from Inflow. As part of the agreement, Inflow says it helped engineer Champps? entire telecommunications network and led a three-month migration from its previous network to the new architecture. Inflow remotely configured routers at each Champps location and moved the company?s centralized equipment from the former provider?s facility.

Since the first site was implemented early this year, Champps has launched six new restaurants. "We are growing 20 to 25 percent each year," says Dreibholz. "Scalability is very important to us. It wouldn't matter now if we had 36 restaurants or 300 - with Inflow, we know we can grow as fast as we need to."