The Customer
The food retailer has an inventory system that automatically restocks the shelves. It works by sending product distributors to the required locations when inventory data from headquarters indicates low stock. Inventory details are collected from checkout counters during customer purchases and from mobile scanners carried by employees; this data is then sent to headquarters via a T1 connection provided by the telecom provider and installed at each site. After more than a century in operation, some of the infrastructure is quite old. The only way to transfer this large volume of data in real time depended on a T1 connection, unlike today’s fiber technology.
The food retailer has an inventory system that automatically restocks the shelves. It works by sending product distributors to the required locations when inventory data from headquarters indicates low stock. Inventory details are collected from checkout counters during customer purchases and from mobile scanners carried by employees; this data is then sent to headquarters via a T1 connection provided by the telecom provider and installed at each site. After more than a century in operation, some of the infrastructure is quite old. The only way to transfer this large volume of data in real time depended on a T1 connection, unlike today’s fiber technology.
Business Challenges
A key element of this inventory system is how inventory information is sent to headquarters. Each site has a small router device that connects the store’s internal LAN to the local telecom T1 connection. These routers translate the inventory data collected on each store’s internal LAN and transmit it over the T1 cable as raw data. Recently, the router device provider announced that it was discontinuing its product, along with its support and maintenance. This put the retailer in a difficult position, as it could no longer rely on its provider for future support or the purchase of new products. It then had to choose between finding an alternative router solution or replacing its entire infrastructure with a complete fiber solution for its 2500 sites.
Sangoma Solutions
The retailer turned to Sangoma Technologies, which has extensive experience providing data networking and PSTN connectivity solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises. Sangoma offers a range of telephony cards, called A‑Series cards, designed to connect to T1 networks, enabling the transmission of voice as well as raw data. They are compatible with most commercially available servers and come with an advanced driver and API suite, ideal for custom integration. The retailer appreciated the flexibility of the A‑Series cards, which can be easily configured to transmit raw data by dedicating all channels of the T1 connection to data transmission in the required format. This means they can transmit 1,544 Mbps of data per T1 connection to headquarters, meeting their needs. They adopted A‑Series cards as an integral part of their new solution and created their own router device to replace the solution currently deployed. Each router device included 1 x Sangoma A‑Series card in a third-party commercial server, a Linux operating system, and a custom WebGUI interface. They deployed one instance of each device at every retail site and simply replaced the cabling of the original solution with this one.
The retailer turned to Sangoma Technologies, which has extensive experience providing data networking and PSTN connectivity solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises. Sangoma offers a range of telephony cards, called A‑Series cards, designed to connect to T1 networks, enabling the transmission of voice as well as raw data. They are compatible with most commercially available servers and come with an advanced driver and API suite, ideal for custom integration. The retailer appreciated the flexibility of the A‑Series cards, which can be easily configured to transmit raw data by dedicating all channels of the T1 connection to data transmission in the required format. This means they can transmit 1,544 Mbps of data per T1 connection to headquarters, meeting their needs. They adopted A‑Series cards as an integral part of their new solution and created their own router device to replace the solution currently deployed. Each router device included 1 x Sangoma A‑Series card in a third-party commercial server, a Linux operating system, and a custom WebGUI interface. They deployed one instance of each device at every retail site and simply replaced the cabling of the original solution with this one.
The Results
The retailer was very satisfied with the performance of the new solution and the high compatibility of the A‑Series cards with its infrastructure. Deployment was rapid thanks to the preconfigured driver installation options for the A‑Series cards and the user-friendly API for interfacing with their WebGUI. The retailer continues to adopt Sangoma A‑Series cards for its new stores as well, as a backup solution when a fiber inventory system is installed. Ultimately, Sangoma offered the most cost-effective solution for the customer’s needs.
The retailer was very satisfied with the performance of the new solution and the high compatibility of the A‑Series cards with its infrastructure. Deployment was rapid thanks to the preconfigured driver installation options for the A‑Series cards and the user-friendly API for interfacing with their WebGUI. The retailer continues to adopt Sangoma A‑Series cards for its new stores as well, as a backup solution when a fiber inventory system is installed. Ultimately, Sangoma offered the most cost-effective solution for the customer’s needs.