Savvy Law Firm uses Cogent Internet to increase productivity

Williams & Jensen PLLC, a premier law and lobbying firm, relies on their 100 Mbps Internet access for a wide variety of bandwidth-intensive research functions. The 60-person Washington, D.C. office connected to the Internet via a burstable T-1 prior to signing up for Cogent's 100 Mbps service. As a law firm, Williams & Jensen conducts exhaustive legislative searches using multiple search engines and can examine vast quantities of documents online without hindering any other user's connectivity to the Internet. As a lobbying firm, they download massive volumes of Congressional bills and can do so in a matter of minutes as opposed to hours. To stay current on Congressional legislation, the Hill-savvy staff at Williams & Jensen often attends Congressional hearings. Before Cogent, this meant paying $35/hour for professional line wait services for sometimes multi-day line waiting to secure a seat in a packed hearing room. But with Cogent, the firm's lawyers and lobbyists can now watch high quality live Congressional hearings streamed directly to their PCs. In addition to greater efficiency and productivity levels resulting from their 100 Mbps connection, Williams & Jensen also welcomed the simplicity of flat rate billing. Their previous metered billing soared in the fall and winter months, when Congress was busiest, making their overall expenditures difficult to predict. For nearly two years now, Williams & Jensen has been one happy Cogent customer.

Cogent connection supports voice traffic and fast web crawlers.

INPUT helps more than 1,000 clients win more than $45 billion in government technology contracts annually. Staying on top of over $500 billion in both federal, state and local, as well as European Union contract and grant opportunities requires very efficient data systems. The IT team at INPUT recognized early on that part of its competitive advantage hinged on the efficient use of technology. INPUT quickly developed plans for a number of applications that would increase efficiency, but together these apps required significantly more bandwidth than INPUT had in-house, even with a double T1. Enter Cogent. As soon as INPUT realized it had access to Cogent bandwidth, its plans became a reality. Today the company has all of its phone traffic carried over the Cogent network and fast web crawlers that comb millions of web pages daily to report updates on procurement opportunities. INPUT has researchers accessing federal databases to download opportunities, proposals, and requirements and its sales reps typically have up to 20 web demos with INPUT clients at a time. INPUT uses a single Cogent connection to the Internet and a layer 2 point-to-point connection to servers in its data center. In addition to the technical advantages Cogent offers, its IT team reports appreciation for Cogent's responsive install team and simplified billing process.

Service installed 20 times faster than reseller of RBOC services.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, one of the world's most prominent law firms, employs nearly 850 attorneys and staff at its One World Financial Center headquarters in New York City's Financial District. Cadwalader originally ordered a dedicated Internet connection from a reseller of RBOC (Regional Bell Operating Company) services. Cadwalader anticipated no problems when placing the order two months in advance of the date the firm required the service to be operational. But with a series of delays, Cadwalader closely monitored the situation as days turned into weeks. The poor coordination between the reseller and RBOC became evident and neither party was able to assure service installation within the two-month timeframe. With no guarantee of service in sight, Cadwalader contacted Cogent. Cogent's independent fiber network runs directly into One World Financial Center meaning guaranteed installation of any order within 17 days. And to accommodate Cadwalader's needs, Cogent handed off a dedicated Internet connection in less than 72 hours. That's 20 times faster than the 60 days originally allocated for the project!

Gigabit Ethernet supports 300% annual growth in Internet usage.

Meeting the bandwidth demands of the Net-Ready Student Body is no small challenge. By the end of the 2000-01 academic year, GW was faced with undertaking a major connectivity upgrade or implementing usage governors that would severely limit what the students could do on the Internet - an unrealistic option. So, the University went shopping for a connectivity upgrade. GW needed a giant, dedicated and uncluttered pipe to the Internet, stable service, diverse routing and, of course, the right price. The decision turned out to be easy. After initially selecting Cogent based on price and performance, the University quickly appreciated the ease of installation and the overwhelming availability of bandwidth. Today the University continues to increase web-enabled administrative applications, enabling students to remotely check grades and register for classes. As GW watched user demand spike another 300% in the last academic year, it continues to rely on Cogent as its largest and primary bandwidth provider.

Bandwidth boundaries eliminated for a content intensive web site.

Wunderground.com is a classic example of how Cogent bandwidth has enabled a service that otherwise would be cost prohibitive. For over 10 years, Wunderground has been providing in-depth weather services to the general population, including the distribution of real-time and location-specific forecasts. Each year the company took advantage of the latest resources and expanded their website to include zip codes searches, weather warnings and advisories, and high resolution satellite imagery. But with each new addition to their site, they required more and more bandwidth. Ultimately, the company found itself making painful online concessions, eliminating or scaling back features that were too demanding. They took steps to scour their entire Web site, reducing the color and size of every icon, removing a majority of their online imagery and optimizing everything possible. This impacted one of their most comprehensive, yet largest bandwidth online features, their Animated Radar product, a favorite among site visitors. But there was no alternative at the time, as bandwidth was a major expense for the company, second only to salaries. Everything changed when they contracted with Cogent for bandwidth. Suddenly, the sky was the limit. They immediately saw a difference, not only because of the additional bandwidth, but also because it was dedicated and non-oversubscribed. Immediately they were able to restore old Web site features and make plans to add new bandwidth-intensive capabilities--without compromising the speed of their network or site. They were back in business!

Service installed in one day, after two weeks of isolation from the Internet.

Money Management Institute is the national association for the rapidly growing managed account industry, representing the interests of many financial advisors and investors. As with all financial organizations, connectivity to clients and members is critical to their success. Late last year, the Institute moved its employees to new office space, just down the street from its old location. All details of the move were handled, with their Internet provider notified of the move date well in advance. Unfortunately, upon arrival in their new offices, the Institute had no Internet access. Multiple calls to their provider resulted in two more weeks of broken promises and delivery dates. Employees were forced to work from home to get email access and net meetings defaulted to less-effective conference calls. Finally, the Institute heard from a fellow tenant that they were in a Cogent lit building. They placed an order on a Wednesday afternoon and were up and running the next day! Today the company gets multiple times their previous bandwidth for roughly the same price. Their favorite part about Cogent bandwidth? Our quick response time and our outstanding network performance (no downtime!).

Increased productivity evident in Cogent connected offices.

Blank Rome is a growing, national law firm based in Philadelphia. With over 450 attorneys and a total of more than 1,150 personnel in 11 offices spread across the Eastern U.S., bandwidth demands at the Firm's larger offices were sky-rocketing over the past few years. The Firm had previously functioned adequately with T1 connectivity in each office, but sluggish access to centrally run systems was becoming increasingly evident. Technology was not keeping up with the requirements of the Firm, and--in a world of billable hours and tight schedules--there is no room for such bottlenecks. Because Blank Rome was located in Cogent powered buildings in Philadelphia and New York City, they had access to dramatically increased bandwidth for a very favorable price. The choice was obvious. Cogent connected the primary One Logan Square office for Blank Rome, allowing the company to funnel much of their external Internet access through this location. Similarly, the Firm was able to provide faster access to its centralized software applications, such as InterAction, its CRM system, and Carpe Diem, the Firm's time-entry system to its large New York office. Blank Rome reports that it is difficult to quantify the savings they've enjoyed as a result of the additional Cogent bandwidth, but they note there certainly is increased productivity in the Firm's offices connected by Cogent. Today, the Firm's Cogent connectivity is being extended to its Washington, DC office, in addition to the New York and Philadelphia office connections.

Customer shares thoughts about customer service

A letter from our customer...



Dear Cogent:



Allow me to take this time to say thanks to the Cogent team. We went to install our circuits on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. Due to paperwork misfiling on our end, our BGP was not completely setup on Cogent's end. We learned that we may have had to wait until Tuesday in order to get the process finished. This is while our client was in route from their previous colo with all of their servers.



As you can imagine, I was a bit concerned since they were expecting to arrive to a fully tested and redundant network. The Cogent staff went out of their way to help me and to make sure that our service was setup immediately. They worked with our
other provider to get BGP working between the two, they worked with technical support from our hardware vendor, and they were very patient with my being a newbie at BGP and having trouble grasping some things. Overall the setup went great with their expertise and help. This all happened between
the hours of probably 11pm-1am.



For the first time we needed support, it was a great experience and I sleep better at night knowing Cogent's commitment to their customers.



Thank you!



Brian Fisk

President

Fisk Internet Services

BET, Inc., a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc., is the leading African American multi-media entertainment company.

From: Williams, Dale

To: Cogent Communications

Subject: Thanks



I just wanted to thank you for all your diligence in helping us secure a new 100Mbps bandwidth and internet service package. Although it isn't installed yet I'm very pleased with our dealings thus far. I love to complete deals quickly and I was impressed with your ability to provide information and to get your technical resources involved when necessary in order to give me answers, quickly and concisely. I truly appreciate that.



I also believe that the proof is in the numbers. Since I get a ton of solicitations and proposal and sales calls over the course of my work week, I was surprised to find an actual quote in your initial package. The numbers made me look twice and look harder. My curiosity was obviously piqued and I had to give you a call to find out the real story. From there the rest is history.



We were literally days, if not hours, away from signing a 10Mbps deal with another carrier and I'm pleased to know that 10 days later I not only am awaiting installation of Cogent's cheaper solution but a 10x performance increase. As the final cherry on top, it will be installed LONG before the other vendor's commitment date. All things considered: 17-day install, cheaper, and 10 times faster...that's a win-win-win. That's uncommon.



I am looking forward to being a part of the Cogent family.



Dale Williams

Director, Network Operations

BET Interactive

New York, NY 10019