Retailer updates head office, store and franchise communications with new broadband technology deployment

Retailer updates head office, store and franchise communications with new broadband technology deployment

Dune, a High Street retailer of affordable luxury footwear and accessories with 42 stores in the UK and Ireland and over 160 concessions in leading department stores, has selected retail communications solution provider, Vodat International to implement a new network across the whole of its estate to help improve communication between stores and head office and drive down costs.

The Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network is already being installed across the new Dune concessions within Debenhams department stores and will be rolled out to its remaining stores and concessions as part of a second phase.

Driving out costs, faster operations

Venn Luscombe-Mahoney, head of IT at Dune, said: “When I joined as head of IT for The Dune Group it was clear we needed to bring our communications into the 21st century. Processes were slow and we needed to drive down the cost of our entire store communications dramatically. All our tills were individually connected to an ISDN line which was proving not only an expensive way to run the business, but also extremely slow. All Chip & PIN pads at the PoS [point of sale] were set up on an individual dial-up so each store had between seven to nine lines and our communications bills were sky high.”

The new MPLS network will also give Dune the opportunity to realise a ‘real-time’ overview of stock held at all stores. Luscombe-Mahoney added: “In the past, if we didn’t stock an item in a certain size, we weren’t able to advise the customer of when that item was due in or whether another store stocked the item. Now we will be able to do so which will result in providing better service to our customers and will improve the overall shopping experience.”

She continued: “Having previous experience of working with Vodat and the option to add EFT [electronic file transfer], VoIP [voice-over internet protocol], IPT [IP telephony] and other retail specific applications to the ‘out of a box,’ with PCI DSS [Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard] network further down the line, made Vodat the obvious choice for us. The company has proven quality of service and knowledge, and are specialists within the retail environment.”