Retail Apparel Group (RAG) is one of Australia’s leading clothing retailers with more than 500 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. Looking to accelerate its in-store digital transformation and customer experience initiatives, RAG needed to upgrade its store networks and communications infrastructure.
The challenge
A complete network and security upgrade across Australia and New Zealand prepares leading clothing retailer for the future
RAG has experienced consistent growth ahead of industry averages since the group was formed in 2007, a testament to RAG’s commitment to continual improvement and leading the way in product, retail, innovation and technology.
With RAG’s managed network services contract approaching expiration, the group issued an RFP for a complete store and head office network overhaul, communications and security refresh across Australia and New Zealand, and managed services to support the new environment.
The solution
Nexon was awarded the network upgrade project and managed network services contract after proposing a centralised and standardised solution covering all Australian and New Zealand stores
Nexon deployed a secure managed voice and data network based on Cisco and Cisco Meraki technologies and managed the transition of RAG’s stores to the nbn™ network. The majority of stores were cutover in nine weeks just before the peak Christmas trading period, with the remaining stores completed by the end of January 2020.
The benefits
RAG now has a simplified and standardised architecture for all stores, which has made it far more efficient to manage and secure, and to add new stores to the network. For the first time, Australian and New Zealand stores are on the same voice and data network, improving the communications, connectivity and management across both countries, reducing overall costs and simplifying and streamlining support arrangements.
Another first, RAG has built-in network redundancy at all stores, with 4G failover services available via its in-store Cisco Meraki routers.
Ultimately, RAG’s ‘always on’ connectivity is the platform for the introduction of innovation and new technologies in its stores, and further improvements to the group’s IT infrastructure, including the adoption of more cloud-based and hosted services.
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