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.”
Case study
WHSmith
Industry
Retail
Page 3
The HPE centralised WAN solution includes
2,452 access points which provide blanket
coverage in over 600 stores, including back
oices and stockrooms. It also features four
HPE 870 Unified Wireless LAN controllers,
two of which are located at the primary data
centre and two at the backup centre, both of
which are outsourced locations.
There are more than 600 HPE Power over
Ethernet (PoE) switches and additional tools
include HPE Intelligent Management Center
(IMC) software, a comprehensive wired and
wireless network management tool; HPE
Network Traic Analyzer (NTA) software
which is an optional IMC module that delivers
real-time and historical reporting on network
application usage and HPE IMC Wireless
Services Manager (WSM) which provides
further reporting capabilities and summarises
performance data.
HPE delivered networking support services
and the actual Wi-Fi installation was carried out
by WHSmith’s partner Omnico Digipos. During
the project, HPE worked with British Telecom
(BT), which built the package to be installed
on the HP ElitePads, and with Microsoft®,
who provided operating system consultancy.
Meetings have also taken place between
WHSmith and the HPE Digital Experience
Team who work with customers to help
them get the most out of their retail
mobility solutions. Possible future projects
could include measuring footfall and
collecting customer analytics to oer
interactive services.
Benefits
Better customer service
The wireless networks have proved to be
stable, reliable and easy to manage. The
HPE centralised WAN configuration provides
a high degree of network survivability with
two pairs of active/standby controllers in
dierent locations, thus minimising failure
points. Encryption provides both central and
local authentication and layered security
features are also included.
“The HPE hardware is pretty reliable and
we are not getting any issues with our
Wi-Fi networks,” says WHSmith project
manager, Faye Sherman. “We have not
realised the full benefit of IMC yet but
our expectation is that it will allow us to
proactively monitor the network.”
Case study
WHSmith
Industry
Retail
Customer at a glance
Hardware
• HPE 870 Unified Wireless
LAN Controllers
• HPE 425 Access Points
• HPE 1910-8G POE Switches
“HPE wireless networks have been very reliable and now
provide blanket coverage throughout our stores both on
the sales floors and in back oices and storerooms.”
Software
• HPE Intelligent Management Center
• HPE Network Traic Analyzer
• HPE Wireless Services Manager
HPE services
• HPE Networking Support Services
– Faye Sherman, project manager, WHSmith
The HPE Wireless LAN has provided a firm
foundation for WHSmith’s mobility project
which has achieved all its initial aims.
“Increased mobility supports eiciency
improvements in the way stores are run and
there are other slightly less tangible benefits
on top of those,” says Wood. “In stores, there
is a feeling of being more up-to-date and sta
like using devices that are similar to the ones
they would use in their personal lives.
“The benefit for customers is that the
salesforce is more available to them,
particularly the managers and this is often
critical. They have the information at their
fingertips so if customers want to understand
about a product and the sta doesn’t know
the answer they can go to the website and
provide recommendations, particularly for
books. If we don’t happen to have a book
in stock, we can order it for them using
customer ordering through the tablet.
Customer perception is improved because
they know sta can access information on
the sales floor, without having to disappear
to the back oice, which neither customers
nor sta like.”
“Managers can also work more eiciently
because a lot of their day is taken up with
reviewing performance and taking actions,
and with the tablets, all the information is at
their fingertips. Also there’s a large amount
of tactical activity and actions. Some are just
the bread and butter of making the store
run and some are promotional changes
where they need to engage with sta
and the tablet provides all information
right at the point of action.”
Looking to the future, WHSmith now plans
to extend mobility and wireless connectivity
into its travel stores and possibly extending
the use of Wi-Fi to include guest and
customer services.
Learn more at
hpe.com/networking
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4AA6-3975EEW, January 2016
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