HPE JF414AAE Product Data Sheet
WHSmith introduces
wireless connectivity
Case Study
Objective
Introduce mobility to free sta from
fixed, back oice computing
Approach
Researched wireless network solutions
from main vendors and evaluated them
on technical soundness and cost
IT Matters
• Provides blanket wireless coverage
across more than 600 stores
• Delivers easily managed, reliable
networking with built-in survivability
• Features state-of-the-art
authentication and security functions
Business Matters
• Increases productivity by releasing
store managers from the back oice
• Improves customer service by
providing sta with instant access
to information
• Gives stores a more up-to-date,
modern image
to over 600 stores
HPE Networking solutions combine reliability
with ease of management and high security
WHSmith, a leading UK retail
group, wanted to increase
the productivity of its store
managers and make them
more available to customers
by releasing them from the
back oice. Mobility was the
key but rolling out a fleet of
HP ElitePads required the
Challenge
Restrictive environment
WHSmith is a household name in the UK and
incorporates two business strands – travel
and high street. The travel business operates
over 700 units, mainly in airports, railway
stations, motorway services and hospitals.
The high street business includes more than
600 stores with a presence in nearly every
significant UK town. It sells a wide range of
products including stationery, greetings cards,
reading materials and confectionery.
installation of Wi-Fi in
more than 600 stores.
HPE Networking solutions
was the answer.
On the high street, WHSmith stores
serve some 320 million customers a year.
Supporting this level of business requires the
full commitment and total eiciency of store
sta but managers were not operating to full
potential because they were tied to the back
oice by hard-wired desktop PCs.
Case study
WHSmith
“Because of the fixed nature of the infrastructure, store managers
used to spend a lot of time accessing information in the back oice.
Introducing wireless mobility has increased their productivity and
enables them to spend more time interacting with customers.”
– Steve Wood, head of store operations development, WHSmith
Industry
Retail
Page 2
“The in-store PCs are our main
communication and reporting hub,” says
Steve Wood, head of store operations
development at WHSmith. “Every
communication that requires a store to do
anything – all the trading-related activity,
operational and health and safety work get
sent through the PCs. They also receive the
information needed to do the job such as
planograms, space information, the ability
to print shelf pricing in store and all the
reporting information, both historic and
current. It’s all pushed through those systems.
“Our aims were twofold. The first was to
improve eiciency by simply reducing the
amount of dead time, walking to and from
the oice to get information and the manual
cascade from that, and the second was to
move the time they were spending in the
back oice onto the sales floor, so making
them more available for customer service.”
Solution
Freedom of mobility
Mobility was the key and following stringent
benchmarking, WHSmith decided to equip its
managers with HP ElitePad tablet PCs. Some
1,200 machines were to be rolled out across
over 600 stores with just one machine in
smaller stores and up to six in the larger ones.
However, before this could happen the stores
had to be equipped with wireless networks.
“Previously, the stores had all been hardwired with no store-facing, complete coverage
wireless networking,” says Wood. “Finding
a new solution was very much driven by
the IT team. After considering various
vendors, Hewlett Packard Enterprise was the
logical conclusion it came to, based on the
infrastructure in store. It worked with HPE
directly to come up with the right solution
and obviously at the right cost.”
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