The company, 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 Plc and an expert in the telecoms field, to overhaul its current system.
The bakery’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 and enable it to stand strong against competitors.
The bakery giant 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.
Greggs Head of IT, said: “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-Data Security Standard compliant.”
With a proven track record of delivering internet and IP-VPN services, Vialtus was brought on board.
Vialtus proposed a reliable, cost-effective private IP-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 IPCCTV.
Will Kennedy, Vialtus’ head of corporate sales, said: “Greggs recognised that to ensure continued growth and success they needed to update and invest in technology to help facilitate this growth”.
“We are delighted they gave us the opportunity to carry out the work, which 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.”
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 said: “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.”