New instore networking capabilities is helping shoe retailer serve more customers, more quickly

New instore networking capabilities is helping shoe retailer serve more customers, more quickly

Brantano, the chain of retail stores specialising in footwear for men, women and children, has selected communications company, Vodat International to implement a fully managed broadband network across its 150 stores in the UK, in order to improve customer throughput at the tills.

Brantano is already realising the benefits – including greater bandwidth and faster store payments and transactions – which have resulted in a significantly higher rate of customer throughput. The new broadband network provides fast electronic funds transfer (EFT) access to the electronic point-of-sale (EPoS) system, and gives Brantano the opportunity to provide up-to-date information on all completed sales transactions.

Rapid roll out pays dividends

Tom Decaluwé, IT manager at Brantano, commented: “All of Brantano’s stores are connected via ADSL with a 3G emergency backup, it’s vital that if a problem develops, the network is backed up and running quickly to avoid sales losses. If a store’s connectivity goes down, Vodat can promptly respond and dispatch mobile 3G units to the problematic store so that they are back up and running the very same day – a service that no other provider was able to offer us in a cost-effective way. Vodat has also been very prompt in getting us transferred to the new network; in fact, the roll-out at our stores is already 99% complete.”

Previously, Brantano had a network in place that managed all connectivity between its stores and the head office, but the network had no internet connectivity and there was simply not enough bandwidth on the lines. Brantano therefore required a provider that could connect the payments over the network in a cost-effective and reliable manner. Vodat is meeting these expectations by delivering a fully Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant network for all instore transactions. Vodat migrated over Brantano’s network from its previous supplier, and even added router upgrades, while the roll out was taking place.