Poundland, the £1 single-price discount retailer has signed a multi-year agreement with NextiraOne. That communications services company is providing Managed Services for Poundland’s Cisco-based network infrastructure.
Included are the company’s Data Centre, voice communications and LAN infrastructure across its HQ, with its two regional Distribution Centres and a nationwide estate of almost 500 stores.
The aim of the agreement – that Poundland’s IT team can concentrate on running the systems. The high street retailer serves 4.5 million customers every week with 3,000 products across 17 shopping categories including food and drink, health and beauty, household, toys and over 1,000 top brands. The company’s core network is handling everything from financial and staff management to the integration of sales and stock information with a 24/7 warehousing operation that despatches 800 million items a year to retail outlets.
NextiraOne says that it has designed its Managed Services to be flexible but comprehensive to support and enhance Poundland’s operations. Managed Services begin with 24/7/365 break-fix support and include performance monitoring, optimisation and flexible additional on-demand services for trading peaks and unforeseen circumstances.
Mark Petty, NextiraOne’s Managed Services Director, said: “By combining technical and operational support with performance monitoring and network optimisation, plus additional on-demand resources, Poundland has the best of all worlds – cost-effective and highly efficient services. We designed the service to be flexible and scalable, so that as the Poundland business grows and new stores or sites are added, the company has sufficient data to understand the infrastructure investments required.”
The contractor’s services provide extra resource to supplement Poundland’s in-house IT team for peak times
“Our business is highly reliant on IT – for orders, stock control, transport & logistics and warehousing. IT resilience is critical as unplanned downtime can quickly damage our business,” adds Mike Gray, IT Director at Poundland. “By putting in place proactive and preventative service measures, we can minimise business impact and ensure a stable platform for our ongoing growth.”
Steven Skakel, Managing Director UK & Ireland at NextiraOne, adds: “We have worked with Poundland for many years and the comprehensive support of our Managed Services portfolio is the next logical step in our partnership. We understand Poundland’s business model, so we can deliver exceptional services that add value to the company’s performance and help it to achieve its desired business outcomes. We are delighted that Poundland has chosen to continue our long-standing relationship, as testament to their desire to work with a partner they know, like and trust.”
Further information is available in a case study, which can be viewed here: http://www.nextiraone.eu/uk/references/poundland/poundland
About Poundland
Poundland has 470 stores in the UK, including Northern Ireland, with a growth strategy of at least 50 new stores every year. In June 2010, Poundland was acquired by Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm. Visit: www.poundland.co.uk
Visit: http://www.nextiraone.eu
