Shoe Zone upgrades its network
Footwear retailer puts best foot forward
Footwear retailer Shoe Zone is implementing a new wide area network (Wan) to connect more than 390 outlets with its head office in Leicester.
The new network will allow the company to roll out new chip-and-PIN enabled tills during the first quarter of this year.
IT and logistics manager Nigel Humphries says the two rollouts will combine to allow real-time information to be shared across the firm's entire estate for the first time.
‘We required a network that was reliable, scaleable and long term would prove cost effective,’ he said.
‘We looked at a number of broadband suppliers but chose Vodat because of the calibre of their staff, their existing relationship with our till providers and their expertise within the retailing environment.’
The network will allow Shoe Zone’s 2,500 staff to communicate via the fixed cost network rather than sending data by the company’s current dial-up system over the national phone network.
As well as processing till transactions over the network, other potential benefits include the possible deployment of an intranet and voice over IP.
Shoe Zone also plans to use the network to improve company-wide communication, expand its CCTV security and aid in-store promotional activities. Vodat manage the private network 24-hours-a-day so that potential problems can be identified and dealt with quickly.
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