Consolidated Communications in Manchester recently assisted Associated Grocers of New England (AGNE) in Pembroke by quadrupling its bandwidth through an expedited order and enhanced equipment. Why? Employees needed to stay connected to grocery retailers and colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AGNE is the largest retailer-owned wholesale distribution center in New England, serving more than 600 supermarkets and convenience stores across the region. At a time when consumers are clearing supermarket shelves, AGNE needed increased bandwidth to enable employees to work safely at home and to maintain its essential platforms, keeping trucks rolling and shelves stocked with essential products.
Dan Kaplan, AGNE’s director of IT, says the timeline to install the necessary high-performance managed router upgrade bandwidth was initially several weeks. In the meantime, he implemented plans to cut bandwidth use, including nightly system backups to reserve bandwidth for other applications and remote work. Consolidated’s expedited order process, coupled with rapid procurement and installation of the router, quickly boosted AGNE’s bandwidth in a matter of days instead of weeks.
“The grocery supply chain is even more critical during this time due to the closure of other food outlets, such as restaurants and schools,” says Cindy Caldwell, vice president of finance and IT at AGNE. “The food needs are normally dispersed among many entities, but now more than ever, consumers are relying on grocery stores like ours and we’re doing our best to meet those needs.”
“As a critical infrastructure provider, our responsibility is to provide reliable products and stable services to meet our customers’ communications needs especially during a time of crisis,” says Bob Udell, president, and chief executive officer at Consolidated Communications. “I’m incredibly proud of our teams that continue to work tirelessly during this unprecedented time to support our customers and ensure reliable services.”
Tom White, chief technology officer at Consolidated, said the company’s network continues to perform well under the increased demands of data and voice traffic. "Our network is designed to scale with the bandwidth needs of our customers and we continually monitor and augment our network to support their needs,” White says. “Our fiber backbone and built-in redundancy combined with our 24/7/365 monitoring and proactive support help customers maintain business continuity.”
For more information, email CCI.business@consolidated.com.
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