Macquarie Telecom’s partnership with City Beach leads to its most successful peak retail season, in line with record-breaking online sales across Australia.
Macquarie Telecom launched SD-WAN services in 66 City Beach stores, providing a stable and scalable network, allowing it to focus on technical innovation rather than focusing on system problems.
City Beach, an Australian youth clothing retailer, opened a Queen Street Mall store in Brisbane in 1980 to capitalize on emerging trends.
After several system outages that occurred in 2020, City Beach decided to roll out SDWAN and better NBN connectivity to meet the demands of customers and employees.
Macquarie Telecom group executive Luke Clifton said: “Just as we have abandoned certain clothing styles in the past, it is also necessary for organizations to let go of outdated technology to serve customers well and ensure that staff has the tools and speed. Has to do their job properly,”
“This is another example of two Australian companies coming together to deliver on this vision and ensure a better experience for everyone,” said Clifton.
Rhian Greenway, City Beach’s chief information officer, said eight years ago, the company recognized that the custom set of systems that have served City Beach since the 1980s were not equipped to meet the changing demands of customers and team members.
“It was clear that our technology stack lacked the stability and scalability needed to meet customer expectations for reliability and efficiency, as well as the needs of our workforce,” said Greenway.
“SD-WAN stability allowed for a much more stable peak period in the retail network. He said this was important as Australia registered an unprecedented spike in online sales.
City Beach will also introduce Microsoft Teams to its workforce and Click and Collect services to its customers over the next six months.
The company also plans to provide headsets to employees that can scan customer orders and instantly retrieve information about aisles and pit locations. This allows staff to deliver faster and avoids errors during the packing and picking.
The Macquarie rollout was cost-effective and provided City Beach with a stable and flexible technology base that allowed it to thrive in the modern environment, Greenway added.
Bruce Bennie, Vice President and General Manager of Juniper Networks A/NZ, says this is another example of an Australian name reaping the benefits of our AI-powered solutions and industry-leading switches.
“We’re excited to see how City Beach uses its access to a trusted network, customer experience insights, and digital engagement and analytics platform to improve its processes in the future,” said Bennie.
In fiscal 2021, 9.1 million Australian households shopped online.
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