CASE STUDY

Sofology

With ambitious growth plans in place and future innovations coming over the horizon, Sofology needed to move away from its existing wireless network to a more modern solution. Equally, with much of its existing estate operating on legacy security standards, the business was exposed to vulnerabilities that needed to be addressed.

Sofology kicks back with a comfy new wireless network

Sofology is the UK’s largest sofa specialist and part of the DFS Group. They have an enviable 40-year heritage in furniture retail, and a reputation as a trailblazer, having long recognised the value technology can play in helping to craft a memorable and effective in-store experience.

With aggressive expansion plans and the ability to show off 250,000 product variations, wireless connectivity is critical to the customer journey and staff experience across their 50+ stores nationwide.

Industry:

Retail

Organisation size:

50+ Stores

Solutions:

Cloud solutions, data centre & networking

The challenge

Wireless network connectivity is critical to Sofology’s in-store experience, with personnel relying on custom applications and mobile devices to lead customers through 250,000 product variations.

However, as an early adopter, the wireless technology being used in many stores was dated, disparate and poorly performing. The reliance on Wi-Fi had emerged so quickly that there had been little time to settle on preferred standards, resulting in a mixed wireless network estate that was outdated, hard to manage, and no longer offering the performance or coverage needed.

Much of the existing wireless network was operating on legacy security standards, representing a vulnerability that needed addressing. With ambitious growth plans and ideas for further innovation on the horizon, the IT team recognised that the wireless network could hold the business back

The approach

As a long-term solutions partner, Sofology turned to Advania for guidance and help assessing the market for solutions. When they first saw a demonstration of Cisco Meraki, they were impressed and quickly realised it could meet much of what they were looking for.

With Advania’s help, the team continued to review competitive wireless offerings but found that Cisco Meraki offered much greater deployment flexibility with a more intuitive management interface than alternatives.

The cloud-managed solution would provide visibility into network users, their devices, and applications through an elegant browser-based dashboard, enabling administrators to quickly create access control and application usage policies whilst optimising both end-user experience and network security.

The solution

Advania delivered wireless network modernisation including:

Cloud-managed wireless networking using Cisco Meraki with a browser-based management dashboard providing complete network visibility.
Zero-touch network provisioning enabling access points to be configured remotely and deployed by non-IT personnel during store rollouts.
Enterprise-class access points with powerful transmitters ensuring superior Wi-Fi coverage across all store locations.
Enhanced security features including built-in threat scanning and protection, enabling secure guest access for customers.
Rich analytics and location intelligence to help improve customer engagement and understand store hotspots for future innovation.

The project was supported by a commercial financing solution, securing a 3-year, 0% interest finance deal to help budgets go further for other planned projects, while still getting Sofology access to cutting-edge networking technology.

The outcome

The wireless network modernisation delivered exceptional results:

Achieved complete network visibility for the first time, providing a unified view of performance and operational health across the entire store network.
Dramatically reduced deployment time from several days to minutes for new store setup through zero-touch provisioning.
Enhanced in-store performance with staff reporting applications running faster and technology positively contributing to performance.
Improved security posture through modern network standards and built-in threat protection capabilities.
Enabled future innovation with rich analytics and location intelligence capabilities ready for advanced customer engagement features.
Delivered commercial flexibility through 0% interest finance arrangement supporting broader IT project portfolio.

Access points now automatically join the network and appear on the dashboard instantly, with complete control over connecting devices, bandwidth throttling, and application blocking capabilities – all contributing to Sofology’s continued growth, as new stores can be brought online in minutes once access points are delivered.

"Managing our wireless networks was really difficult. The mixed bag of solutions in place meant we had poor visibility over what we had and how it was functioning. We wanted to standardise on a common solution across all our stores that would live up to the demands of today but also offer us a platform to build on into the future. It was important to take the time to deliberate between products and find one that would fit our business and that met our performance requirements. With Advania’s help we found that Cisco Meraki could give us what we needed.”

Gavin Nickerson

Head of IT, Sofology

The future

Following the successful network modernisation, Sofology is well-positioned to continue their aggressive expansion plans with a future-ready wireless infrastructure that can be rapidly deployed to new stores.

The rich functionality of the Cisco Meraki solution provides a platform for continued innovation in customer experience, with location analytics and advanced engagement features ready to support the next phase of in-store advancement.

Our impact

Zero-touch setup

Zero-touch cloud provisioning enabling remote access point configuration.

Unified visibility

Complete network visibility through single management dashboard .

Rapid deployment

Deployment time reduced from several days to minutes for new stores.

Smart finance plan

3-year, 0% interest finance deal secured to support budget optimisation.

Looking to modernise your wireless network?

Contact us to discover how our expertise in cloud, platform and network solutions can help you to deliver your retail objectives. 