The UK's largest distributor of brown and white goods, Connect Distribution, has selected managed services provider, Claranet, to provide a managed application hosting service to support its growing online aftercare, spares and repair service and enhance its key web channel. With over 1.4 million product lines and over 16,000 active customers, Connect Distribution needed to upgrade its existing platform to support its growing online, retail and consumer business and meet with stringent market regulations.
With the success of its e-commerce business model which provides ready-made sites for retailers, Connect Distribution experienced an exponential increase in consumer traffic and recorded 27 per cent growth in its online business this financial year. This unprecedented growth was placing additional strain on Connect Distribution’s hosting infrastructure, and as such, resulted in the company’s decision to upgrade to a new level of hosting service that would manage this increased capacity and service complexity. With its customers dependent on Connect Distribution’s site to order, track and manage various stock lines, the need for a reliable, highly available application hosting service was crucial when selecting its provider.
Processing over 180,000 stock lines per month online, running over 100 spare parts websites and handling repair care for over 40 clients, our mission critical requirements were for a hosting and networking partner who would guarantee that our online business was available 24x7. Our websites are accessed daily by a high volume of customers who place their trust in us to ensure real-time visibility of stock and distribution. This availability is hugely dependent on the reliability and management of the hosted applications underpinning our websites’ functionality. We take this responsibility very seriously and ensure we work with only the most qualified partners to meet the high standards needed to provide a smooth and hassle-free service for our customers.David Payne, Head of Sales at Connect Distribution
By partnering with Claranet, Connect Distribution can now offer its customers a high availability application infrastructure to manage its distribution and stock lines. Furthermore, with Claranet’s unique ability to manage Connect Distribution’s customer-facing application and network, the company is now realising the internal benefits of outsourcing. Connect Distribution now has more resources available to focus on the evolution of its core IT strategy: its retail and consumer platforms.
Claranet’s technical operations director, Paul Court, commented: “As the market leader in its field, Connect Distribution has undergone significant infrastructure development to meet with its customers’ demands. By deploying this advanced managed application hosting service, in addition to key elements of their network, Claranet’s solution will now underpin 60 per cent of its revenue, validating the trust Connect Distribution holds in Claranet to deliver their mission critical services.”
For more information please contact:
Katie Boulton, Amy Bunn and Tony Mangan
3 Monkeys Communications
Tel: 020 7009 3100
claranet@3-monkeys.co.uk