Aurora Fashions
Aurora Fashions is the parent company of some of the UK's most respected women's fashion brands including Karen Millen, Coast, Warehouse and Oasis.
The strategy of the company is to develop strongly differentiated and independent brands leveraging shared skills and infrastructure backend systems for services such as distribution, property, IT systems and accounting. The individual brands are managed as distinct businesses, each with its own team supporting product development, merchandising and retail operations.
In their home market of the UK, these niche brands are positioned in the upper-middle market and trade at different positionings from one another. Each brand has a strong personality and is differentiated by its product range, store environment and customer service.
Streamlining communication between stores
With 650 stores across the UK, Aurora needed to ensure a highly resilient IT infrastructure as staff were dependent on accessing online sales information. Originally this had been carried out by utilising ISDN lines, but it was recognised that a broadband network would provide a more resilient, cost-effective and future-proof solution.
John Bovill, IT director at Aurora, said: “We wanted to take a fresh approach to our network and streamline communication between stores. A broadband network would provide the speed of delivery of sales data, transactions and applications and open up communication links between our different brands and sites, making each brand more efficient in its working practices.”
Next-generation network
After a rigorous selection process, Aurora chose Vodat International and Thus to deliver a managed solution. Stockport-based Vodat are the only communication solution provider specialising in retail environments. Their innovative and cost-effective solutions enable retailers to utilise broadband technologies to add value and deliver real bottom-line benefits to their organisation. With over 20 years experience of providing solutions to the retail sector, they are now the largest supplier of private, managed broadband networks to the UK retail market, overseeing communication systems in thousands of stores across the UK and Europe.
The Vodat strategic managed communication platform provides fixed-cost technologies that not only enable information to be shared between locations, but also offer the capability of additional profit-enhancing applications. Such as:
- Free telephone calls between stores (VoIP)
- On-line training for staff
- In-store TV marketing
- Video conferencing
Bovill commented: “Vodat and THUS were selected based on their experience in the retail sector and their ability to provide a next-generation network (NGN) that will underpin Aurora's IT strategy of shared communication.”
Working closely with Aurora's IT staff Vodat deployed an MPLS network and high-speed Internet connection, linking their 650 sites across the UK, Ireland and Europe. The central network pipe into Aurora's London headquarters at Stanton Court is via a 100MB Ethernet connection, providing 34MB of capacity for the MPLS network and 10 MB for Internet access. The network can be upgraded by Aurora at any time to accommodate more bandwidth and applications.
Future-proof implementation
Network installation started in September 2006 and delivers more resilience and security than the ISDN line it replaced. The inherent flexibility of the new broadband network enables Aurora Fashions to do more than just send data. The class of service on the network can guarantee bandwidth for critical traffic and the low contention ratio of the NGN is perfect for data and video streaming.
Designed from the outset to support VoIP as well as the large volumes of retail data being transferred between stores, the solution is already beginning to deliver cost savings on telephone charges. The platform is also flexible enough to accommodate any future networking requirements and handle the growth of the company. This will cover applications such as video streaming, CCTV streaming and e-learning for the stores when this functionality is required in the future.
Mike Bielinski, managing director at Vodat, said: “Vodat and THUS are providing a fully managed broadband solution that supports Aurora's voice and data requirements now and in the future. The solution allows Aurora to reduce operational costs while increasing profitability and productivity. The flexibility of the THUS network also supports connectivity for remote offices, backup requirements and home workers.”
Professional partnership
Phil Male, Chief Operating Officer at THUS, concluded: “By deploying a next generation network, Aurora can deal with today’s requirements as well as being scalable to meet those of the future. Vodat understands the challenges of the retail sector and by working together we are well positioned to provide solutions that meet our customers’ needs and provide them with a competitive edge.”
Commenting on the success of the implementation, John Bovill said: “There has been a good marriage between Vodat and THUS, with both parties being highly professional in their management and delivery of the network.”
To find out more about fixed cost managed Next Generation Networks (NGN) that guarantee bandwidth for EFT processing and VoIP, please call Vodat International on 0161 406 1820 or please contact us by e-mail.
Added: 30/06/2008 13:19:20
