Established in 1875, the client is a world-renowned luxurious retail boutique. Located in the West End of London in the iconic Tudor-revival building, the client is famed for its dedication to design and supporting young designers at the start of their careers.

The retailer started working with Natilik in 2017 when the team deployed a switching and routing refresh across its three core sites, including the retail store, HQ and warehouse and distribution centre. Following the success of the deployment, the client approached its trusted Natilik team in 2018 to discuss improving its wireless after recognising that their Wi-Fi was becoming more and more important to the operational success of the business.

  • Challenge
  • Solution
  • Outcome

Challenge

With the expertise from Natilik, the client wanted help transforming their wireless across their London HQ, London store and Derbyshire warehouse. The aim was to provide wireless access for employees in its offices and store, provisioning customer guest access, wireless roaming for voice, customer footfall insight, SIP phones and mobile tilling. Outside of London, the warehouse also needed the infrastructure to support wireless devices such as scanners to ensure the smooth running and improve the operational efficiency of the facility.

Understanding the requirements, the Natilik team started by surveying all three locations to get a picture of the space, including interference factors such as nearby Wi-Fi, building materials and other devices. Designs for each location were then shown to the client, with Cisco Meraki presented as the right technology choice to meet the required outcomes.

Solution

The designs were approved, and the Meraki solution was deployed across all three locations. Comprising of a range of devices, including MR52, MR42, MR74 and MR84s access points, also used were MX250 devices to provide SSID tunnel functionality for public and guest wireless networks, preventing private corporate network access from guest and public users.

The client also took out a managed service contract with Natilik to support the ongoing management of the new wireless infrastructure, which has helped ensure the smooth running of the Wi-Fi since 2018. The managed service ensures the Meraki APs are updated, that intermittent surveys are carried out to check everything is working as it should and access to the client’s Meraki dashboard means any issues are spotted and dealt with before they become a problem. With wireless supporting critical parts of its daily operations, from the scanners in the warehouse to the tills in the retail store, the client has peace of mind knowing the Natilik Tech Support Team is constantly monitoring and tweaking the infrastructure.

Outcome

The client has smooth-running Wi-Fi that can support its tills in the retail store and the scanners in the warehouse, enabling the heritage brand to benefit from new technology that helps to provide a slicker and improved user experience.

Having recently expanded operations with a new presence in Milan, Tokyo and New York, the client is looking to take the successful Meraki wireless solution it uses in the UK and replicate it across all its global locations.

The benefits for the client using a Meraki solution provisioned and managed by Natilik included:

  • Reliable wireless that supports business-critical operations
  • Peace of mind with a managed service that keeps the infrastructure running smoothly
  • A joined-up solution for three differing locations, all visible from one dashboard