casestudies

DSL to MPLS

Growing Casual Dining Concept Achieves Improved Security, More Bandwidth and Ease of Management with Minimal Cost Increase.

Customer Type: Restaurant Chain
Overview: 65 Locations, Corporate HQ

The Situation:

OCx originally helped a small chain implement its first DSL based wide area network, a combination of ADSL and IDSL with a dial backup for disaster recovery. The client maintained 5 phone lines at each location with the 5’th dedicated to disaster recovery. The client managed its own network, and was experiencing 98.5% up time with a mean time to repair of 48-72 hours. Management changed, and the new leaders wanted greater reliability, improved network security and more bandwidth to support growing applications. But being a small but growing chain meant all available capital was to be allocated to growth. The challenge was to add bandwidth, improve network stability and security while easing the burden of network management, all at little to no cost increase.

OCx Solution:

3 years after implementing their first network, new technologies just came available that were not previously on the market. OCx immediately proposed a move to Integrated Access. The key was to offset local telephone service costs by routing local calling over a “Flex” T1. With this technology, the customer was able to dedicate 4 lines to local telephone service with the remaining bandwidth allocated to data. One line was kept out of the T1 for redundancy/disaster recovery. The added benefit was that the data travels over an MPLS network, offering greatly improved network security, reducing the client’s exposure to PCI compliance risks. OCx fully negotiated industry leading pricing and terms for the client, fully managed the migration, and performs ongoing telecom support services, free of charge to the client.

OCx Results — Itemized 3 year savings:

  • Increased Network Up-Time from 98.5% (5 days unavailable) to 99.999% (less than one day unavailable)
  • Improved network security as data travels over a private (MPLS) network
  • Network management shifted from the client to the carrier.
  • Reduced exposure to PCI breaches, as there is no direct internet access at sites, and store vs. customer provided WIFI traffic is segmented.
  • Mean time to repair reduced to 4-6 hours from 48 hours
  • Greatly reduced the burden to manage network
  • Speeds were increased at some locations as much as 10 times due to distance sensitive DSL limitations.
  • Monthly Recurring Cost Increased only $30.00 per month.

Soft Cost Savings. OCx fully supports the solution, from migration to service moves, adds changes and disconnections.

Client Testimonial:

“When I took over operations, honestly, I was going to clean house of most of our vendors. But when I met with OCx, I had to think twice. The solution and the price point were exactly what I was looking for. As for how OCx works, I kept asking…What’s the catch? I seems impossible that a company can do so much for its clients without billing them for their services. Then I started to ask ‘why would I fire someone I don’t have to pay?’ Since that time, we’ve come to rely heavily on OCx – it’s nice to have such a strong relationship with fun, talented folks.” - CFO