Benefits of the Vialtus solution include:
- Flexibility and resilience.
- Fast, reliable access with the ability of keeping costs down.
- Enables increased bandwidth on demand.
- Situated in direct line of sight and within a radius of 15km of one of Vialtus’ radio PoPs (Points of Presence).
ABOUT TESCO
Tesco is the UK's leading food retailer, with 2,318 stores throughout the country. It also operates a hugely successful online shopping service, Tesco.com, and, due to successful acquisitions, has a presence in Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Poland and Tokyo. Founded in 1924, the company has grown and developed over the last 80 years to meet the ever-changing needs of its customers. Alongside groceries, it now offers an extensive instore non-food range, including its own clothing brand Cherokee, electrical items, home entertainment, toys, sports equipment, cookshop and lighting and furnishing in its larger stores. In the last few years, Tesco has formed a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland to offer a broad range of financial services, which was closely followed by the launch of the Tesco Visa card, Insurance and other financial services. Tesco Personal Finance, enjoyed by 4 million account holders, now offers a range of 15 different products and services.
THE CHALLENGE
Tesco employs 326,000 members of staff across its stores and head office in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Due to its constant expansion, the company is always looking to improve its methods of communication, which will make it easier for members of staff to communicate with colleagues throughout the organisation. It realises that Internet connectivity is the best way to achieve quick and easy communication between its sites. However, Tesco was becoming increasingly frustrated with the escalating costs for its slow, unreliable dial-up Internet connection. Rigidity in the service meant that when the company reached its bandwidth capacity, it was unable to expand it quickly, easily and at a reasonable price. As a retailer who prides itself on good value, Tesco realised that it had to keep its corporate overheads to a minimum to continue offering its customers highly competitive prices. As a result, Tesco began to look for an ISP who could offer better value for money, as well as a modern Internet connection that would prove to be resilient, reliable and flexible.
SOLUTION
After consulting with several ISPs, Tesco realised that Vialtus Solutions would be able to meet both its corporate and budgetary requirements. Vialtus Solutions is a IP communications aggregator that makes business communications simple. Providing both voice and data connectivity solutions, it offers a complete, integrated service to help organisations communicate effectively, whatever their need. A member of the Network department, Graham Coles is responsible for Internet connectivity within Tesco. He was involved in all of the preliminary discussions between Tesco and Vialtus Solutions and was impressed at the level of support the ISP could offer. Coles comments, "Our old ISP was really expensive and couldn't provide us with flexible, resilient innovative Internet connectivity we actually required, so we decided to look elsewhere for help. After speaking to the sales team at Vialtus Solutions, we realised that not only were its solutions costeffective and modern, but the level of support we would receive would surpass our expectations." Vialtus’ Wireless Access Internet Connectivity service, incorporating a wireless Internet connection and leased line back-up, was chosen as the preferred solution and was implemented at Tesco's headquarters. This would allow 10,000 members of staff located at the production operation in Cheshunt with fast, reliable access to the Internet. Vialtus Solutions has ensured the availability and performance of Tesco's Internet connection by independently guaranteeing and providing back-up to the wireless service with a 2Mbps leased line connection. Operating on an automatic fail over system, the leased line comes on instantly if there is problem with the wireless connection. Furthermore, Wireless Access' Internet capacity is easily scaled up. Bandwidth capacity can be increased at just 24 hours notice, providing flexibility that is not available from a traditional leased line Internet connection. The minimum bandwidth capacity with the wireless service is 2Mbps and goes up to 155Mbps. To take advantage of Wireless Access, Tesco needed to be situated in direct line of sight and within a radius of 15km of one of Vialtus' radio PoPs (Points of Presence) and access point to the Internet.
RESULTS
Tesco has been using Vialtus’ Wireless Access Internet connectivity for five years now and is delighted with the flexible, reliable connection. Coles comments, "Wireless Internet connectivity has been slated by some people over recent years but I am really impressed with its flexibility and resilience. To date, we have had no service issues with the wireless connection and I would certainly recommend it to other business who need fast access to the Internet, but also want to keep their costs down.” “At Tesco, we use the Internet to help us with so many different everyday tasks and it is excellent to know that we have a fast, reliable connection through the air, backed up by resilience through the ground if we need it. Vialtus’ solution also allows us to increase our bandwidth on demand, which again is reassuring." Graham Coles. Coles adds, "One of the reasons we needed to change ISPs was because our old provider couldn't give us the support we needed and our relationship became strained. Our account manager at Vialtus Solutions is constantly on hand to deal with our enquiries and has always been approachable and friendly and any issues have been dealt with quickly and easily. We have an excellent relationship with Vialtus Solutions and have complete confidence in the service they provide." Graham Coles.
FUTURE
Tesco is planning a large Internet project that is expected to take up to three years to implement. During this time, Tesco may choose to upgrade its Internet solution. Delighted with the service it is receiving from Vialtus Solutions, the company is exploring the option of working again with the company.