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Kampgrounds of America, Inc. (KOA) Selects Rivetek and Spacenet to Provide High Speed Internet and VPN Access to their Campground Management System
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When KOA needed a reliable connection solution for their locations, many in remote parts of the country-the company selected Rivetek Connections. By combining high-speed "always-on" Internet access powered by Connexstar, secure VPN connection, and Rivetek's 24x7 Network monitoring, KOA, Inc. has an affordable and reliable solution to deliver its campground management system to their locations.
Situation
KOA offers campgrounds and associated services to more than one million campers every year at more than 450 locations in North America. KOA developed KampSight™, a campground management system for reservations and registraitons, provide point of sale services and credit card processing to their campground locations. Over 270 campground locations rely on their connections to connect to KOA's KampSight system.
Business Challenge
KampSight runs on KOA's corporate IBM iSeries platform. This secure platform allows them to centralize application distribution, share camper information with the campgrounds that use KampSight, provide three-second credit card response, and offer an integrated point of sale system.
Their challenge in providing this type of service to multiple locations was to find a connectivity method that was reliable and cost-effective. For years, companies used expensive, dedicated lines to connect remote sites to iSeries servers. All but KOA's largest campgrounds cannot afford such connections. Many campgrounds are just too remote for other connection types such as DSL, cable or fixed wireless.
To provide KampSight connectivity for their remote locations KOA's vice president of information systems went looking for an affordable, "business-grade", secure and high speed Internet connection that would be available almost everywhere.
Technical Requirements
In selecting the KampSight connection solution for their remote locations, KOA had several critical requirements. They needed "business grade" connection reliability. They also needed connections that were secure. They also were seeking a partner who would understand their existing network and back office solutions running on the iSeries platform.
Solution
KOA had researched satellite solutions for several years initially finding bidirectional satellite solutions too expensive. Then they found Rivetek, offering *LINK, powered by Spacenet's Connexstar. The service matched KOA's need for a low-cost, reliable, secure VPN Internet connection that lets locations access the KampSight application. They selected Rivetek because of their many years of VSAT, network, and iSeries experience and because they have delivered iSeries applications VPN over VSAT successfully to other locations.
KOA determined the Rivetek solution matched their need for a low-cost, reliable, secure VPN Internet connection and piloted the solution at three initial sites that were both remote and had harsh weather conditions to see how well the satellite system would hold up.
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| Solution Overview Profile |
Kampgrounds of America, Inc. (KOA) has been providing quality family camping to travelers from around the world for the past 40 years.
Business Situation
KOA needed high speed, secure connections to KampSight, their campground management system, for their locations around North America.
Solution
KOA selected Rivetek to deliver and support high speed business-grade Internet and VPN connection using two-way satellite.
Benefits
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"Always on" VPN connections for KOA applications |
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24x7 monitoring & notification ensures quick problem resolution |
Product and Services
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Rivetek *Link powered by Connexstar. |
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Customer phone, email and web support |
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24x7 network monitoring & notification |
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Corporate portal access |
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Rivetek provided the pre-installation coordination, hardware ordering and configuring. Spacenet, installed the location dish equipment and provides the data transport from the location to the hub facility. Rivetek provided the location network equipment, and provides network monitoring. The traffic is backhauled over a VPN to the KOA network.
Rivetek assisted the locations in connecting their computer equipment to the supplied Cisco router, which in turn routes traffic through the satellite.
Rivetek provides 24x7 network monitoring and notification. They also provide support via phone, email and web form. Rivetek provides KOA with a portal view of their sites to monitor their status during the install period and beyond.
KOA's three test sites did so well that the company began to offer the service to any KOA location that needed connectivity to the KampSight application. Now 21 KOA locations are currently using the *LINK service.
Benefits
KOA depends highly on the 24x7 availability of their computer systems, especially their KampSight system. Using Rivetek's Connections, KOA is able to affordably, reliably and securely connect more of their locations to their KampSight system. *LINK has proven to be a good solution for KOA for those locations that don't have access to more advanced ground-base communications, and can't do without intermittent but frequent exchanges between sites.
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For more information contact:
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Sales
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email:
phone:
fax:
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sales@rivetek.com
(360) 715-1220
(360) 734-3607
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*Spacenet provides two-way, satellite-based, broadband networking solutions for a wide range of organizations throughout North America.
 (SM) by Spacenet is a service providing equipment, business-grade installation, always-on connectivity, ongoing support and maintenance for a low, monthly per-site cost.
 provides Internet and network services to enterprises and their locations. We help businesses connect to their vendors, suppliers and customers. Rivetek designs, develops, supports and markets solutions in the mainframe, midrange, client/server and web-based environments. We have in-house expertise of virtually all major hardware platforms, operating systems and development tools in use today.
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