Oh Polly Transforms Its Operations During The Pandemic
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In 2020, just in time for Black Friday, Oh Polly was building a new, highly sustainable 180,000 square meter distribution center on an accelerated schedule. Then the pandemic hit. Even with the work stoppages, thanks in part to Cisco Meraki, the center opened on schedule.
| Customer Name: Oh Polly Industry: Retail Location: Wirral, England Number of Students: 300 |
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| Challenges |
Pandemic hits during building of new 180,000 sq m distribution center Aggressive schedule in place to meet anticipated Black Friday demand Increased business demand creates additional need for distribution center |
| Solutions |
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| Results |
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New distribution center goes live on time for Black Friday 2020
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Meraki simplicity and scalability proves critical to meeting schedule
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Overview and challenges
Founded in 2014, British online fashion retailer Oh Polly is one of the fastest-growing medium-sized enterprises in the UK, generating over US$100 million in revenue annually. To help support its growth, Oh Polly wanted to build a new, highly sustainable 180,000 square meter distribution center and office location in Wirral, England. To deploy network services to the new site, Oh Polly engaged with Cisco Meraki Cisco Premiere Integrator Protos Networks as its delivery partner. As specialists in managed network services and cyber security, Protos Networks combined their highly skilled and experienced team of experts with Cisco’s industry-leading technologies to meet Oh Polly’s needs.
Oh, Polly had an aggressive schedule in place to meet the anticipated Black Friday 2020 spike in demand. Then the pandemic outbreak hit in the middle of the project, bringing the world to a standstill and greatly impacting site construction. Simultaneously, Oh Polly experienced a business boom, as it adapted its business to sell more casual fashions during the lockdown. This adaptation meant that Oh Polly’s new distribution facility—and the technology it utilized—were even more critical to its operations’ success
“The Meraki MDM is quite intuitive. Various vendor MDMs I’ve used have proved to be quite clunky and awkward to set up. With Cisco MDM, you just scan a QR code, install your profile, and log in. Everything is so much more streamlined, which makes our job here so much easier. So, as the business expands and grows, we can easily add more licenses and more devices, which keeps everything running nice and smooth.”
Steve Hern
IT Team Leader, Oh Polly
Given so much uncertainty around meeting construction deadlines due to the pandemic, taking a flexible approach to building and deploying the network was critical. For instance, the design of the network had to be completed while the warehouse floors were still being constructed—rendering a complete wireless survey almost impossible. The approach was to design a flexible network architecture—utilizing Cisco Meraki—which included deploying cabling and active network equipment in a scalable manner without compromising network performance. As an example, Oh Polly needed its offices up and running before construction on the warehouse could begin. Given Cisco Meraki simplicity and scalability, Gigabit lines were installed to the site while also building out the office network, enabling staff to move into the building on time.
The final network solution features full network connectivity and wireless coverage over three warehouse floors, enabling pickers to use mobile devices to scan stock in and out, significantly streamlining Oh Polly's distribution. In addition, the solution features multi-Gigabit Layer 2 and 3 switching to support hundreds of endpoints, IoT devices, wireless access points, and Meraki MX security appliances providing edge security. In addition, as a Managed Service provider, Protos Networks also manages the ongoing health and security of Oh Polly’s network.