The cheapest entry into switching was also the most successful.Against the advice of many banks and those claiming hard-learned experience from Coles - who thought Woolworths could do it more cheaply by cutting a deal with an existing provider - Australia's leading retailer ploughed ahead and set up its own switch.Spending estimates vary. Some say less than $5 million; others that more like $10 million was spent, and even a little more.Fidelity National Information Services (known by two acronyms, FIS and FNIS) may have swallowed a lot of Woolworths' costs on its own account.With Woolworths having picked FIS' aging Connex system, the vendor was anxious to use the installation as a regional showcase.Early returns are promising, including 100 per cent up-time over Christmas 2008 and Easter 2009, experiences unavailable with Commonwealth Bank as supplier of payments services.Woolworths established connections with the four big banks and Cashcard over the course of only one year and seems happy to confine its network to switches with volume.