In an effort to save money and tie together its widely scattered groups, Russ Berrie and Co. is turning to high-speed IP VPNs to augment its existing frame relay network connections.

In the past, the Oakland, N.J., manufacturer of gift items has relied on frame relay to connect its primary overseas sales offices to corporate headquarters. But frame relay is expensive - too expensive to let Russ Berrie connect all its remote offices, says Renee Steinfeld, network administrator at the company.

Frame relay's high price tag meant many satellite offices were without a direct link to headquarters. Russ Berrie's product-development personnel and manufacturing subsidiaries are scattered throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Enter IP VPNs, which let the company deliver more bandwidth to its remote offices for less money than frame relay would, Steinfeld says. To outfit its Seoul, South Korea, office, Russ Berrie priced a 128K bit/sec frame relay circuit at $3,000 per month, compared with $100 a month for a 768K bit/sec VPN setup.

In this case, going with IP VPN was an easy decision for Russ Berrie. The Seoul office had no link to corporate headquarters, so users there are happy to have any connection, she says.

But the decision to deploy IP VPNs is not as clear-cut in remote offices that are accustomed to frame relay services, Steinfeld says. IP VPNs are new and have a reputation for not being as reliable or stable as frame relay circuits. The possibility of worse performance has Russ Berrie in no rush to completely swap existing frame relay circuits for IP VPN. At least not yet, she says.

Meanwhile, for its new connections, Russ Berrie is working with Cisco IP VPN equipment.

This spring, Russ Berrie activated its first two VPN links at the company's home goods division, called Russ Home, in Mount Juliet, Tenn., and the Seoul office. Showrooms in Chicago and throughout the U.S. eventually will be linked via VPN, too, Steinfeld says. Plus, two sites in China will be ready to be activated as soon as local ISPs in China get their lines stabilized, she says.

"I've already configured the routers," Steinfeld says. "To be honest, it only takes me about an hour to configure a VPN router and send it out, as long as I have the ISP's information. It's very simple."