Acurus assists Bakers Delight to deliver a centrally managed, secured SD-WAN network to support the current and future operational needs of the organisation.
Bakers Delight engaged Acurus to assist in the solution architecture of their digital loyalty platform and the design and delivery of a new secured SD-WAN network solution. Being a customer centric organisation for 14 years, Acurus continues to give customers what they need, allowing us to cultivate many strong working relationships. Acurus understands that the most critical part of a program such as this is to choose the right technology, that is fit for the organisation.
Prior to deploying the new digital customer loyalty platform, Bakers Delight needed to update its network solution across nearly 700 sites internationally. This new network needed to introduce SD-WAN capabilities to ensure that POS and digital customer loyalty transactions could happen in real time, while enhancing its security across all sites, improving centralised management and overall security visibility.
Bakers Delight needed confidence that they were picking the right technology and vendor and engaged Acurus on a market review and proof of concept. The development of a Software Defined – Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) proof of concept took this research and approach to a new level. Effectively shortlisting from 10 technologies to three, then running those three technologies in parallel across 30 active bakeries within their global network.
Acurus tested each of the three shortlisted vendor’s technology across 10 Bakeries per vendor, spanning three countries. The proof of concept had no negative impact on the operations of any Bakeries or Corporate Systems. Acurus tested the SD-WAN functionality of each vendors product, analysing their ability to improve network performance and reliability for key Bakers Delight systems and applications alongside reviewing the advanced security features.
The proof of concept delivered a full capability and commercial scoring matrix which validated Fortinet as the leading vendor to be approved by Bakers Delight for a full roll out across their data centre and bakeries.
With the acceptance as Fortinet for a vendor, Acurus ran the full rollout project in coordination with Bakers Delight and their on-site support team. The project delivered the design, setup, configuration and roll out of the Fortinet-60E devices to approximately 700 bakeries across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. The rollout task was completed using Acurus’ 24/7 helpdesk service which was highly adaptable, working within Bakers Delight’s parameters and proposed timeline of 5 months while ensuring seamless cutovers, leaving no impact on customer interactions across all sites.
Throughout the rollout process Acurus introduced new SD-WAN policies, updated unified threat protection, and centralised all security logging into a centralised FortiAnalyzer. This project left Bakers Delight with a ‘single pane of glass’ network threat assessment capability across all sites globally. Acurus bolstered this solution by partnering with Bakers Delight to provide a fully managed service, ensuring a seamless transition to operations and allowing Bakers Delight staff to focus on other important initiatives for the business.
A new modernised secured SD-WAN solution backed by a fully managed service was the essential foundation which would provide peace of mind to the business. This has allowed Bakers Delight to improve overall security, visibility, operational improvements and rollout new and exciting services such as the new digital customer loyalty program.
Acurus had recently completed a five-year managed service agreement, delivering high quality support for the Bakers Delight Corporate Network, and Bakers Delight Global Bakery Networks. Following a successful design and implementation of the new SD-WAN solution, Acurus will continue to support the Bakers Delight business, by not only ensuring the secure delivery of existing POS, Loyalty, Wi-Fi and operational services, but allowing for future services and applications to be implemented securely.
“Running a three-vendor proof of concept across our production bakery network was a challenging approach, however the success criteria and learnings from the project enabled Bakers Delight to choose the right vendor and technology to provide a solid and secure foundation for today and for the future. As always, the technical and delivery leadership the Acurus team demonstrated, was critical to the success, including the design, approach and transition to the new global secured SD-WAN network”
Dragan Panjkovic – PMO Manager