Gruppo Poli: Stable Network for Smart Retail

Background

Gruppo Poli is a leading retailer from Trento in South Tyrol. Founded in 1938, the company has always been active in retail and has close ties to the region. The distribution network covers the whole of Trentino, where the group has a market share of almost 40 per cent with its supermarkets and smaller shops. Quality products and a high level of customer satisfaction are extremely important to the family business. In order to better address customers and automate internal processes, the company has recently invested heavily in digitalization.

Challenge

Self-scanning, electronic labelling and comprehensive Wi-Fi: Gruppo Poli uses digital technologies and solutions in many supermarkets to provide a smart shopping experience. For example, self-scanning and self-checkout help customers to record and pay for their purchases themselves, reducing waiting times at the checkouts. In addition, new price and product information can be updated immediately using digital labels. Finally, store employees can use handheld devices to better check and manage stock both on the sales floor and in the warehouse.

However, for all these processes to function smoothly, a high-performance, stable network infrastructure characterized by high connectivity and security is required.

Solution

With this in mind, Gruppo Poli joined forces with IT service provider and Huawei partner Saidea to search for reliable network solutions. They found what they were looking for at Huawei: the Huawei CloudCampus management system in combination with Huawei iMaster NCE CampusInsight Telemetry enables Gruppo Poli to monitor not only the network architecture but also all connected end devices and digital labels.

At the heart of the installation are the Huawei-Series CloudEngine S6730-H switches, which provide speeds of up to 40 gigabits per second. This prevents slow connections and bottlenecks, even at peak times in the supermarkets. To ensure fast, secure network access, Gruppo Poli selected two different switch models depending on the intended use: Huawei CloudEngine 5731-S switches, which have a dual power supply and Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) functionality, are installed on the sales floor. The latest generation of Huawei Access Points AirEngine 5760-51 is used for the WLAN environment. These enable multi-gigabit uplinks and therefore data transfers of more than 5 gigabits per second. They also include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slot to connect IoT solutions that further improve interaction with electronic tags.

‘Thanks to our close collaboration with Huawei, we can offer a wide range of advanced technologies that enable us to meet the specific requirements of our customers.’

Eleonora La Mesa, Network and IT Management Specialist at Saidea

Advantages

Owing to the Huawei solutions, Gruppo Poli can provide and commission new devices, labels or hotspots in all branches in a short space of time. Thanks to integrated analysis systems, errors or faults in the network infrastructure can be detected and rectified more quickly. This simplifies and speeds up network management overall, allowing the IT team to concentrate on more important, strategic tasks. Last but not least, the Huawei solutions are extremely energy-efficient, which reduces both energy consumption and energy costs in the supermarkets. Another advantage: as part of the Fast Track Promotion, Huawei guarantees to deliver certain network components within 15 days, which has already benefited Gruppo Poli in the past.

About Gruppo Poli

The family-run retail group Gruppo Poli, headquartered in Trento, operates 65 shops and employs more than 1,400 people. The company specializes in the Trentino region and its product range focuses in particular on food and general merchandise for both end customers and wholesalers.