Connectivity to assure service during peak ordering times

Although the business manages a high volume, 24/7 operation throughout the year, for several months that coincide with Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, the business experiences a ten-fold increase on its usual volume of orders. During this peak time, Arena Flowers must lease additional warehouse premises in order to fulfil the increased operational throughput, but often the warehouse space is required at a relatively short notice and as such, the availability of a reliable internet connection can vary depending on what premises is free.

In this instance, the warehouse space did not come with an internet connection, and with the timescale it wasn’t feasible to install fixed line internet services at the site in time. After a site survey revealed that there was a good 4G signal on the site, it was clear that this would be the viable technology and as such, Arena Flowers approached Comms365 to supply a solution that would deploy the required connectivity across the entire site, in time for orders to start being processed.

Comms365 provided Arena Flowers with four Continuum boxes, designed to offer fast and secure internet connectivity over multiple bonded 4G connections, as well as rapid access to cloud, corporate services, email, IP telephony and VPN. Each Continuum box provided connectivity for every area of the business; one for printing, office use, the warehouse production line and another as a backup, as business continuity was the primary objective for the business. From the initial enquiry to installation, Comms365 ensured that the solution was deployed with a rapid turnaround, leaving plenty of time to spare ahead of Arena Flowers’ production line going live.

Due to the nature of Arena Flowers’ offering, a high speed and reliable internet connection is crucial to the success of the operation for numerous reasons. As orders are processed, a stable connection is required to keep track of packages as they progress through the system. The business also does a lot of printing on site, with each package containing a card, packing information and a courier label, as well as offering personalisation for their products. Therefore, the connection provided by the Continuum boxes was essential to keep the business going during the busiest time for the company.

Sandy Reid, Chief Technical Officer at Arena Flowers, stated: “During our peak times over Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, our throughput can increase tenfold, so if we’re trying to process tens of thousands of parcels in a twelve hour period, we can’t afford any downtime at all.

“The Continuum boxes that Comms365 provided were an ideal solution to the predicament we were in; not only did we require a connection to be deployed rapidly in an environment with no connectivity, it was imperative that the connection remained fast and stable at all times. Throughout the peak periods we experienced no outages and the internet connection held up excellently, so we were very pleased with the entire project and would definitely look to Comms365 again in the future.”