Service Beyond Expectations – Zen Internet and Booths
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Case Study Service beyond expectations – Zen About Booths Booths continues to grow and Internet and Booths develop. At present they have over 3,000 employees around 30 stores, its own manufacturing, distribution This thriving supermarket chain has succeeded by putting customers first. and maintenance facilities, together When it needed its network restructured, Booths found a partner with the same with an award winning central office approach – and the perfect IP VPN solution. building. Booths focuses on building strong, Founded in 1847, E H Booth & Co Ltd has grown from a single Blackpool tea shop lasting relationships with regional into one of Britain’s best loved supermarket chains, employing over 3,000 people in producers and provides a customer nearly 30 stores. service that is second to none. Booths Proud of its Northern heritage and strong roots in the local community connections, aim to exceed expectations to create a true ‘customer experience’ that’s very Booths remains a family run business, committed to its founder’s original mission: personal and knowledgeable. “to sell the best goods in shops staffed with first class assistants.” Booths now has its own manufacturing, distribution and maintenance facilities, Project Overview all run from an award-winning central office in Ribbleton, Preston, with a customer experience that is second to none. They know that its customer experience sets Business Requirement • Eliminate bottlenecks them apart. The company focuses on getting to know its customers to exceed • Increase connectivity speeds their expectations, without compromising on service or quality. Perhaps that’s why • Improve managed services Booths looked to a provider with the same customer approach as themselves when it • Create cost efficiencies reviewed its corporate network. Solutions • Ethernet The Challenge • High Speed Connectivity • Managed Security Booths relies on a traditional ‘hub and spoke’ network used primarily to transfer • IP VPN EPOS data from each store back to the central office. The central office connected • MPLS to the host network via an Ethernet solution, with the supermarkets connecting • Data Backup through ADSL. Unfortunately, core outages on the host network were responsible for bringing down a large number of stores, sometimes for substantial periods of Business Value time. As the host network was managed by a third party, fixing these issues wasn’t • Improved performance, productivity always a quick and easy process. and confidence What’s more, Booths ISDN backup solution could only serve two sites • High speed connectivity simultaneously, it was clunky and required a manual reboot before it started, • Increased stakeholder relationships making it extremely challenging to manage across all stores. The Network Manager • Security had to travel to stores and provide on-site assistance, or he had to guide a non- technical member of staff over the phone. The whole approach was time consuming and ineffective, and meant that the Network Manager didn’t have time to spend on Zen’s approach at pre-sales and new projects that would positively impact the business. design gave us confidence in the Booths new Infrastructure Manager, Daniel Johns, felt it was time to regain control solution. by improving network visibility, making the backup process more effective and consolidating the supply chain, by working with just one technology partner. As luck Daniel Johns,That’s Infrastructure Zen thinking Manager would have it, just as Booths was looking to renew its network, the company was Booths contacted by Zen Internet. Case Study The Solution Zen understood that Booths needed a highly scalable and resilient network to address its backup issues, and wanted a closer working relationship with its chosen technology Zen Internet partner. Like Booths, Zen prides itself on a customer focused approach, and on providing a quality of service and support that is second to none. “Its approach at pre-sales and design stages gave us confidence in the solution, meaning less time was wasted,” notes Daniel Johns. Product Portfolio Zen recommended an IP VPN solution to provide Booths with a private, fully-managed Our portfolio provides organisations Wide Area Network with complete visibility, advanced security and complete with the ability to communicate, performance control. operate and transact with confidence. Booths’ individual stores now connect to Zen’s state-of-the-art Multi Protocol Label We provide the application delivery Switching (MPLS) network through ADSL connections, they also have 3G wireless backup infrastructure required to compete in for resilience which was provided by a Zen Partner. Meanwhile, central office connects today’s highly connected world with through a 10MB Ethernet solution. a range of service options that scale from micro businesses through to All Internet access is now delivered through Zen’s Data Centre, where it’s secured and controlled by a pair of fully managed Fortigate Firewalls. Meanwhile, Zen provide 24/7 enterprise and multi-site operations. monitoring and support. For Booths, this solution provided the optimum combination of In addition to Business Broadband, cost-efficiency, resilience, security and scalability. Fibre Optic Broadband, Business Talk, From this initial scheme, Booths has moved on to adopt a Zen Managed Enterprise Server, IP VPN, Leased Lines and Ethernet, our which the marketing team use to host Booths’ website. Plus, a 1GB Ethernet private portfolio also includes: line now connects Booths central office and a disaster recover site in Preston to form a resilient loop in the IP VPN. Should head office suffer a critical failure, servers based • Managed Firewalls at Preston take over the workload and traffic from the stores is routed there, enabling • Domain Names business to continue as normal. • Web Hosting Finally, a further 29 connections - Fibre and ADSL - connect CCTV systems in the stores • Dedicated Servers to enable the Loss Prevention Team to have remote access to any camera in any store. • Colocation These dedicated lines have helped them maintain security without overloading the main store ADSL connections. • Data Backup • Managed Cloud Hosting • Voice Following a network restructure, Zen has introduced a stable and “reliable IP VPN platform to Booths infrastructure. This reliability and redundancy has provided immeasurable benefits to our business and its systems delivery.” Daniel Johns, Infrastructure Manager Booths The Benefits The vastly improved reliability of the revised network has made a significant difference to Booths. In the past, any issues with back office processes were routinely attributed to poor connectivity between store and central office. Now, Daniel Johns explains, this isn’t the case. “It’s generally the last thing people check or think of given the reliability. What’s more, this robust connectivity has given stores the confidence to embrace new web- based solutions for stock ordering and replenishment.” The new backup system with is much easier to manage, while the robust disaster recovery system provides a new level of resilience, both giving Daniel Johns the time and peace of mind to focus on new projects that could help Booths operate even more efficiently. Wherever this takes Booths in the future, he knows that he can rely on Zen. “The support from Zen has always been excellent” he adds. Zen Internet Sandbrook Park, Sandbrook Way, Rochdale OL11 1RY Tel: 01706 902000 Fax: 01706 902005 Email: [email protected] Web: www.zen.co.uk ©Zen Internet Limited 2014. All Rights Reserved v1 17.09.14.