Coles establishes uninterrupted uptime with Cradlepoint 5G

Australian retailer Coles Group (Coles) has announced it is leveraging Cradlepoint’s NetCloud with 5G wireless edge solutions to establish wireless WAN services for all stores and new distribution centres, and for out-of-band access to key store infrastructure, as part of the company’s broader technology-led transformation.

With more than 1700 retail outlets nationally, Coles processes more than 21 million transactions each week, providing customers with products from thousands of farmers and suppliers. The organisation is modernising its supply chain through the development of two automated distribution centres with global logistics automation company Witron. WAN outages at any Coles site can impact the ability to trade, meaning the company needed a failover solution to mitigate network downtime.

In the event of losing wired WAN services to a Coles store, Cradlepoint is enabling better connectivity using 5G to run all store operations including point of sale systems, loyalty programs, stock control and all back-of-house activities. Coles implemented the Cradlepoint W1850 and W2005 5G Adapters in its supermarkets and distribution centres — ultimately choosing the company for its high performance and simplified management via Cradlepoint NetCloud Management. Cradlepoint’s out-of-band management capabilities give the Coles IT team the ability to access and troubleshoot a problematic store router over the air without having to deploy IT personnel to the site.

“The speed of connectivity, centralised management, agility and out-of-band access that we’re able to achieve with Cradlepoint 5G solutions across our stores and new distribution centres ensures constant service delivery to our customers,” said Chrissy Chu, General Manager, Technology Services & Commercial at Coles Group.

“We also have round-the-clock visibility into the status of our back-up links, which optimises maintenance effort for our technical teams. The Cradlepoint solution is an integral part of our success in meeting our digital transformation objectives.”

Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Service powers a comprehensive portfolio of 4G/LTE and 5G wireless edge solutions built for the enterprise. NetCloud enables customers to build and manage Wireless WANs with complete life cycle management, true zero-touch deployment, robust security and SD-WAN traffic management for optimal application performance.

“Reliable and agile network connectivity is fundamental for every aspect of retail operations today,” said Nathan McGregor, Senior Vice President Asia Pacific at Cradlepoint. “Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Service harnesses the power of 4G and 5G to not only connect everything inside stores, enhance customer experience and maintain a competitive edge, but also provide a reliable safety net for retailers in the event of outage.”