Managed Network Solution Ellerines

The Business Challenge:

Ellerines has almost 600 stores around Southern Africa under a variety of well known brands. It needed to upgrade its network to improve existing business processes (synchronisation, communication, store data transfers), as well as to support advanced inventory and store management systems it has planned. Many of the stores are in far-flung areas, where access to network infrastructure is limited.

UCS Solutions developed a network architecture based around its RetailNet value added network. Using satellite links provided by Sentech, UCS Solutions provided Ellerines with fully managed links to all of its stores, as well as a robust, redundant backbone network between various datacentres.

UCS Solutions` RetailNet provides a managed environment with defined service levels and 24x7 support through the UCS Solutions contact centre. Ellerines gets connectivity to its stores without having to spend valuable resources managing or maintaining the network, or in managing the satellite services provided by Sentech. Ellerines stores are now in real-time connection with head office and each other to improve the efficiency of inventory usage and store operations.

The Ellerines Group operates in the retail furniture and appliance sector trading out of 594 furniture outlets. Two of the brands, Ellerines and Town Talk, target consumers in the traditional entry level. There are currently 301 Ellerines outlets and 156 Town Talk outlets in the Group. The FurnCity brand consists of 137 outlets with four superstores, targeting the mid to upper income groups. Ellerines also recently acquired Wetherlys Decorating Warehouse, Osiers Cane and Linen (luxury items) and Roodefurn (furniture manufacturing). Financial services revenues are generated through insurance products through the Group`s trading activities, together with the 50 Rainbow Loans (term loan outlets). The strength of the Group lies in its strategic coverage and penetration of both the rural and urban areas across six countries in Southern Africa, namely SA, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.

Ellerines Holdings, one of Southern Africa`s largest furniture retail groups, has contracted UCS Solutions, South Africa`s leading provider of business and technology solutions to the retail industry and part of the JSE-listed UCS Group, to implement powerful new communications technologies for real-time retail and merchandise management in a deal worth tens of millions of Rands over three years. Ellerines will be one of the first major corporates in South Africa to use satellite network facilities of the newly deregulated wireless signal operator, Sentech.

Ellerines Holdings has almost 600 stores across South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia, featuring such well known outlets as Ellerines Furniture, Furncity and Town Talk. The new systems will bring Ellerines stores into real-time contact with each other and the head offices to improve the movement and management of stock, and to give the group`s companies a range of communications and collaboration tools to make the business more profitable, with better customer services.

"Ellerines is looking for new ways to get closer to our clients, and to manage our business more efficiently," explains Dennis Mauer, IT Director of Ellerines. "Using our existing network that often relied on unsatisfactory dial-up links, Ellerines was not able to take advantage of many new technologies and best practices - functions as basic as internal communications for orders or promotions were being done by fax and telephone. We wanted to move to a technology platform that would allow us to build an efficient, modern management system to reduce our costs, and give us happy customers that received great service."

"Managing inventory effectively is key to maximising profitability on stocks, and ensures that customers get exactly what they paid for," explains Grant Wellbeloved of UCS Solutions, "The brief from Ellerines was for UCS Solutions to provide a networking platform that would support real-time communication between stores at minimum cost, that could be centrally managed with clear service levels, and would support the advanced inventory and merchandising systems that it has planned."

The core of the project is the new satellite-based network, which is managed as part of UCS Solutions` RetailNet value-added network offering. The individual stores will be connected into RetailNet through Sentech wireless satellite links (with the exception of Namibia, which will use their national fibre system, and Zambia, which will use the PalmTree satellite network).

The network backbone is redundant, with high speed links connecting the UCS data centre with Sentech`s network, as well as to Ellerines head office and data centres managed by UCS Software. Ellerines` head office servers are hosted at the UCS Solutions data centre at Megawatt Park.

Each store has a low-bandwidth link, with UCS Solutions designing the system to allow efficient synchronisation with head office, as well as value-added services such as Electronic Funds Transfer, email and electronic faxing to the stores.

UCS Solutions provides a complete managed solution, from initial network design through to installing and managing the satellite equipment at each site. It provides Quality of Service and network management through RetailNet, giving Ellerines defined service levels. UCS Solutions also provides valuable retail business and technology expertise along with additional value in managing Sentech as a service provider.

UCS won the bid against an internet service provider consortium, as Ellerines needed more than simple data pipes - it needed a fully managed network. The rollout plan calls for connectivity to be provided to SA sites by mid October, with Sentech installing the satellite equipment in each store.

Ellerines went for a satellite-based network solution for the stores as it provides ease of implementation, and is not affected by lack of infrastructure in outlying areas or the danger of cables being stolen. The remoteness of some stores means cabling infrastructure is effectively not an option. The key to the successful use of satellite lies in managing and sharing the bandwidth to control costs. By using carefully designed synchronisation and queued communications, bandwidth usage can be optimised.

Previously Ellerines had to use a dialup network, which posed massive reliability and management issues, and prevented real-time updates. UCS Solutions is also providing contact centre support to the Ellerines stores for the first quarter during the switch over to the new online systems.