Chris Chambers, IT Manager at Julian Graves, comments, “We are currently undergoing a full EPOS upgrade across our entire estate, consisting of 300 stores. The first phase of this was to implement a MPLS network between our head office in Kingswinford, West Midlands, and initially a selection of our branches.”
Previously Julian Graves had depended on a modem dial-up to poll stores for sales data from the tills. This method, however, soon became susceptible to a number of widely-recognised problems associated with dial-up connections, such as connection speeds and reliability. With the new MPLS network in place, Julian Graves is able to realise real time sales information and improve the communication between stores through email, increasing the vital flow of information.
Chambers continues, “We selected to implement Cisco hardware due to its reputation and reliability, and we needed a supplier that would deliver the hardware on time and within budget, together with the backup support when needed. s2s ticked all those boxes.”
Once all stores are upgraded onto the new EPOS system, Julian Graves will be able to automate many manual processes achieving significant time and cost savings. There are also longer-term plans to implement VoIP technologies to further improve efficiency and achieve even further cost savings.
“Once this new hardware system is fully operational, we plan to develop additional processes for all our stores to utilise the system, in turn making it much more effective for them and ultimately for our customers. I have found s2s to be extremely professional, highly efficient and very effective. s2s is always available to assist us” Chambers concludes.