High Street baker invests in retail estate communications technology to aid its phenomenal growth
High Street baker invests in retail estate communications technology to aid its phenomenal growth
Greggs the bakers, which employs approximately 19,000 people and plans to add 600 new shops in the next few years, has employed Vialtus Solutions, part of Daisy Group to overhaul its current system.
The baker’s existing shop IT network had reached a stage in its lifecycle where it needed to consider further development to ensure a fast and efficient service that would enable it to compete strongly against competitors.
It was reliant on a dial-up network to email software releases, business information, pricing changes and process orders from the shops to the bakeries, from three to five times a day.
Moving on from dial-up
Greggs head of IT stated: “We felt that our existing dial-up solution presented us with limitations in terms of general service availability. We were also being asked to roll out several initiatives which would require a faster, more reliable and secure network.
“We needed to find a cost-effective solution, which would put us at minimal risk. We also needed to make sure we found a new system which would be up to the same standards of those which other retailers were adopting, including a secure network for chip and PIN transactions as well as being PCI DSS [Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard] compliant.”
Vialtus proposed a reliable, cost-effective private internet protocol (IP) virtual private network (VPN) shop network solution that did not pass on to the public internet, giving Greggs a scalable and flexible network, with a bandwidth that could be upgraded quickly and easily to support future applications, such as voice, streaming radio and IP CCTV.
Ensuring cost-effective change
Will Kennedy, Vialtus’ head of corporate sales, said the work for Greggs is due to be completed later this year. "And we are certain that their new solution will save them both time and money, which is key to the success of any company operating in such a competitive market,” he added.
One of the key results of the project was the savings Greggs achieved by consolidating their voice and data services with Vialtus. This enabled Greggs to roll out a secure broadband network to their shops without the need for additional investment.
Greggs head of IT added: “By working with Vialtus we have achieved our target of deploying a next-generation network that is funded by savings achieved from reviewing our supply chain and selecting a single supplier for all of our telecoms services.”
