FoodWorks

The challenge

Aussie Broadband is the chosen telecommunications solutions partner for the FoodWorks group. With over 370 stores trading under the FoodWorks brand, Australian United Retailers Limited (AURL) is Australia's second largest leading independent supermarket retailing group.

Brad Slater, head of technology at FoodWorks, spoke about the key problems shops face each day, and how Aussie Broadband solutions have made an impact on those stores that are already integrated.

“I constantly hear about line dropouts, poor service, slow Internet connections and virus attacks from stores with different internet service providers (ISPs)", he explained.

One of the main reasons for these problems, he suggests, is the fact FoodWorks cannot mandate a particular broadband solution for all stores - each store owner makes that decision at their discretion. Further adding to this complexity, is the fact that organised hackers are now more frequently targeting small businesses, taking advantage of their vulnerability when they’re not part of a holistic managed system.

With nbn® replacing outdated copper-based legacy voice and data services, FoodWorks stores were front and centre of a technological shift rolling out across the country.

For those stores that were not part of the current agreement between FoodWorks and Aussie Broadband, it was difficult to coordinate their migration onto the nbn® network.

As part of the initial scoping process to find the right solution provider, FoodWorks highlighted these key challenges as areas that needed to be addressed by their new solution.

The solution

To allow FoodWorks stores to function as normal, even when there is a system dropout, Aussie Broadband's connectivity solution, including 4G failover, serves as an effective failsafe.

In the event of a network outage, the automated 4G failover will allow the store to continue to operate while the primary service fault is being investigated. Once the primary service is fixed, the Aussie Broadband solution will automatically failback.

Previously, each minute a store was offline would result in financial loss. FoodWorks stores using Aussie Broadband's solution benefit from the fact that the store can function normally and continue to trade.

The result

Brad Slater says FoodWorks and Aussie Broadband worked together to meet the challenge of migrating over 100 stores from another vendor over the course of six weeks.

“Aussie Broadband's strong project management of the migration process itself has been one of the key benefits for FoodWorks,” said Brad Slater, Head of Technology at FoodWorks.

"Every FoodWorks store needs to be online to function at full capacity, The Aussie Broadband - FoodWorks solution mitigates the risk of a network dropout with a backup 4G service.”

Aussie Broadband selects the right connectivity options that are suited to each individual store location.

Aussie Broadband offer FoodWorks store owners’ priority support through their own dedicated 1300 FoodWorks Support Hotline; reducing wait times and providing support with an in-depth understanding of the business.

The collaboration between FoodWorks and the Aussie Broadband team not only offers a reliable connection, but does so in a way that is profitable for business operations.