Put Network Issues To Bed

When your network infrastructure experiences frequent and lengthy interruptions, you're at the mercy of your provider to solve the issue. But when your provider does not return your calls, or is untimely in its attempts to remedy your problem, it's time to look for a new provider. The Sleep Train, a mattress retailer, operated its 235 stores on seven different networks, and experienced problematic customer service issues with several of those providers. Marc Tseu, director of information systems there, had to replace the retailer's disparate networks with a single-provider network and improve customer service response time.

Disparate
Network Providers Create Installation, Billing Problems The Sleep Train is the largest mattress retailer on the West Coast. Recent acquisitions, including the purchase of 54 Mattress Discounters stores and the acquisition of the 55-store Sleep Country USA chain, left The Sleep Train's 1,300 employees with a disparate network spread across seven providers. "Because of our acquisitions, we ended up with a hodgepodge of networks," says Tseu. "Our portfolio of stores had seven different provider vendors, and The Sleep Train had its own separate network provider with whom we were having serious customer service problems." For instance, Tseu recalls an instance when he contracted one of the seven vendors to conduct a network infrastructure installation in a new store location. After the initial call, he didn't hear from the vendor for 30 days. Despite repeated follow-up calls to the vendor to inquire about the installation, Tseu did not receive a return phone call for an additional two weeks. "Even when we did get firm installation dates, the vendor would go to the wrong location or show up at the wrong time," says Tseu. "At the same time, they were billing us for these circuits that we weren't even using, because they weren't set up yet."

Do You Know Who Your Account Manager Is?
With so many vendors to manage, the company's IT department was plagued with complex service-related issues. When a circuit was down or when the retailer needed service for a new store location, The Sleep Train's first challenge was navigating through their many phone trees to determine the account manager with that particular vendor. The lack of dedicated account managers caused The Sleep Train to experience an overwhelming lack of reliability and responsiveness, causing issues to take up to 4 days to resolve. "I dealt with time-consuming circuit issues in some capacity every day," says Tseu. "We were tasked with resolving all network issues, which robbed us of time to work on other IT-related issues. We lacked visibility on how each store's network was operating on a daily basis. We needed a tool that provided us with such data."

The retailer's accounting department also struggled with managing so many bills and, specifically, verifying bill accuracy. "I would spend days wading through the various bills we had from our multiple vendors, trying to make sense of what we were being charged for," says Tseu.

The Sleep Train's contract with its own vendor was ending in 2008. Tseu had to choose between resolving the retailer's issues with the existing vendor and switching to a new one. He contacted several companies for consultation and met with referrals to discuss satisfaction level and benefits. Based on these meetings, Tseu chose New Edge Networks MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) network to design and manage the retailer's network companywide. "The MPLS network allows us to have all locations under one vendor," says Tseu.

Rely On A Web Portal To Check Connectivity Status
In addition to a single-provider network, New Edge Networks provided The Sleep Train with MyEdge, a Web portal that offers 24/7 centralized access and management to all of the retailer's network data and account information, including order servicing, payments, trouble tickets, and installation monitoring (see sidebar on page 20). MyEdge has an API (application program interface) with indications about every store, detailing when a store's connectivity is up, down, or experiencing problems. The portal automatically creates and manages electronic trouble tickets when a connectivity problem has been detected, so Tseu does not have to call in the problem. "As soon as a store location experiences a connection issue, New Edge Networks is alerted so they can begin solving the issue," says Tseu. "Simultaneously, we receive a notice in the MyEdge portal stating the issue and its status."

Choose DSL Or T1 High-Speed Bandwidth
New Edge migrated The Sleep Train's disparate circuits to a private MPLS network using a blend of access elements — T1 and business-class DSL access. The Sleep Train worked directly with a dedicated New Edge project manager who coordinated the installation of The Sleep Train's circuits. This freed up The Sleep Train's IT staff to focus their efforts on a separate corporate initiative to relocate their data center. New Edge Networks worked on-site to install circuits. In fact, the same installer was sent to conduct most installations, giving Tseu and the IT team one point of contact. "Our data center used to live at our corporate office," says Tseu. "It was a coincidence that we were able to finish moving that data center to an off-site facility and relocate the host circuit to that location. So, we had to juggle two unrelated projects at the same time. But New Edge Networks was able to relocate the host circuit to the new data center without issue."

Representatives from New Edge Networks spent time with Tseu to understand the applications the retailer deploys on its network. This enabled the vendor to determine the level of bandwidth needed by each store. To determine appropriate bandwidth, New Edge Networks uses a prequalification tool that provides a list of access elements that are available to the retailer. A customer will typically choose DSL, because it is the most cost-effective option. If DSL is not an option due to the store's location, New Edge Networks will prescribe evolution data only (EVDO), a standard for high-speed wireless broadband, or a T1 line. The Sleep Train uses either DSL or T1 access elements companywide.

The upgrade to MPLS technology has resulted in fewer demands on The Sleep Train's IT resources without increasing their overall network costs. Today, The Sleep Train's MPLS network gives the retailer the capacity to manage its full suite of applications including a POS system and Citrix ERP (enterprise resource planning) application, which are hosted remotely at their new data center. All disparate provider networks have been eliminated, as the entire enterprise operates on New Edge Networks MPLS technology. Billing issues are easily resolved, because The Sleep Train works with one account manager. Also, The Sleep Train can add new business locations to their network without concern for interruption, as the network is now scalable. Tseu reports that customer service response time has decreased from 4 days to 1 day. "I spend far less time managing the operation," says Tseu. "The MyEdge Web portal provides data usage reports, visibility across the enterprise, and billing is straightforward — features we've never had before."

Network reliability becomes critical when employees depend on your connection to complete sales transactions, without which your business would be negatively impacted. As The Sleep Train discovered by choosing a single MPLS network provider, you can boost your productivity and bottom line, optimize your bandwidth usage, and eliminate costly problems associated with downtime.