The challenge
River Island's ability to process and deliver orders quickly
has been key to its success in retail, but with the sector's
increased focus on digital technologies and the omni-channel
customer experience, its IT infrastructure was no longer able
to support the retailer's changing strategy. With overloaded
and overworked networks, River Island declined the opportunity
to renew its contract with its incumbent supplier who could
not offer the retailer the long term flexibility and reliability
it needed.
Doug Gardner, River Island's CIO, explained:
"Like most other retailers, we are increasingly dependent
on web services to our stores – lots of the capabilities for
generating revenue depend on having access to the web.
A couple of years ago, connectivity issues were problematic,
but now downtime is just impossible to deal with.
"An omni-channel approach, for which you need real-time
access to data, and our initiatives like Click-and-Collect and
next day delivery need increased connectivity to function
properly," Doug continued. "When the successful delivery of
orders hinge on very short time windows across the supply
chain, a small network problem at any stage can create
significant delays, and could have harmful consequences
for our reputation and revenue-generating capabilities.
"Moreover, we were acutely aware that our network wouldn't
be able to cope with the plans we had to drive engagement
within our stores. We are moving towards a more social and
faster way of communicating with our staff and interactive
ways to speak to our customers, which will see our networks
taking on a considerable amount of traffic. In short, we
needed a network that was future-proof."
River Island
Operating globally as an ecommerce retailer and a high
street fashion brand with over 350 stores internationally,
River Island is a forward-looking company building on 60
years of heritage. Still privately owned by Bernard Lewis
and his brothers in London, River Island wanted to ensure
its historical brand leads trends in retail by introducing
digital technologies into stores to improve overall
customer experience.
Claranet case study River Island
Claranet's managed network measures up
to River Island's growing demand for digital
Key services:
•
Managed Networks and MPLS
•
Mobile Broadband
•
Email Security and Encryption
