TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) and OnX Canada have initiated the conversion of the Co-op’s 1,500+ location network to Cisco Meraki SD-WAN to support their new enterprise wide connectivity strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cisco solution suite has contributed to OnX Canada’s double digit year-over-year growth.
By partnering with OnX to standardize on the Cisco Meraki framework, all independently owned co-ops can provide consistent and secure retail experiences and keep their costs down with seamless, centralized management. FCL home office employees and local co-op location employees can easily access the network from home offices and remote sites to collaborate and serve their nearly 2 million members. The SD-WAN implementation also sets up Co-op retail locations for the digital transformation required to improve processes and prepare for changes in the post-pandemic business climate.
"To succeed in today's highly competitive retail environment, we need to deliver consistent network services, wireless connectivity, and security to sites spread across all four western provinces," said Roman Coba, FCL Vice President of Technology. "Now, add in the complexity of managing thousands of remote workers during a pandemic. We needed a partner with the critical mass, expertise, and financial backing to get the job done, and that's OnX."
As a Cisco Gold Partner, OnX has the experience and resources to help FCL achieve its digital transformation goals. Along with the initial Meraki SD-WAN rollout to support its standardized enterprise connectivity strategy, OnX is working with FCL on a data centre upgrade from legacy servers to a Cisco UCS server environment to improve operational performance. OnX also simplified and centralized FCL's Cisco Enterprise Agreements for Services and Security, integrated its Webex contract, and added Business Critical Services to ensure a successful rollout.
The benefits for FCL include:
- A collaborative approach between OnX certified engineers and the FCL network team that enables quick, successful Meraki SD-WAN deployment to support individual co-op franchises without disruption to end users.
- Improved network and endpoint security with the ability to monitor and control applications, users, and devices across the co-op system.
- Single pane-of-glass management with a mobile-enabled cloud dashboard to monitor real-time network performance.
- Consolidation of Cisco Enterprise Agreements controls costs and provides a flexible, scalable consumption model.
The most significant benefit the OnX solution provides to the Co-op is standardization across their headquarters and Co-op locations, bringing efficiency, better management and security, and greater flexibility. The transition to SD-WAN allows the Co-op to collaborate and conduct business securely from any location on any device to serve its members.
"The pandemic has forced organizations to accelerate their digital transformation efforts,” said Paul Khawaja, President of OnX Canada. "We are proud of the partnership between the Co-op, OnX, and Cisco Meraki that makes it possible to deliver a complete, agile, secure network to keep employees, retailers, and co-op members thriving."
To learn more about how to optimize and simplify your network with SD-WAN, click here.
About OnX Canada
OnX Canada is a leading data center infrastructure and application provider that serves businesses, healthcare organizations, and government agencies across Canada. From unified communications to cloud services and beyond, OnX combines deep technical expertise with a full suite of flexible technology solutions that drive business outcomes, improve operational efficiency, mitigate risk, and reduce costs for its clients. For more information, please visit www.OnX.ca.
