EarthLink helps HoneyBaked Ham consolidate all permanent

CASE STUDY:
HONEYBAKED HAM
EarthLink helps
HoneyBaked Ham
consolidate all
permanent locations
and seasonal kiosks
A customer experience success story
Due to the transactional nature of their retail business,
security is tantamount for HoneyBaked Ham.
Additionally, seasonal traffic spikes around winter and
spring holidays meant they needed an agile provider
able to add locations quickly.
Key issues for HoneyBaked Ham are optimizing for steady
growth, and tightening security. Angelo Lanni, Director of
Information Technology, experienced immediate benefits
consolidating all of their locations with EarthLink and handing
over monitoring and maintenance of the locations, enabling
HoneyBaked to be more agile in the marketplace.
Not only have the seasonal locations proven extremely reliable,
they can rapidly be turned up or down. In most of those
locations, HoneyBaked’s only other option would be dial-up,
which is not appropriate for retail transactions.
Finding an affordable, scalable and secure solution that would
reliably tie their disparate locations together was the challenge,
and EarthLink delivered an ideal solution.
The service payoff
The
business payoff
It’s
All About the Customer Experience:
With a completely private
MPLS network from EarthLink,
HoneyBaked Ham is able to
react quickly and efficiently to
any seasonal spikes they may
experience while still optimizing
the network to keep pace with
the company’s steady growth.
Probably the biggest benefit they
receive is the comprehensive
network management. “The
EarthLink team manages each circuit
centrally, as well as handling any
trouble tickets or service issues,”
said Lanni. “In addition to other
monitoring applications, the turnkey
aspect of the managed solution is a
big factor in our satisfaction.”
HoneyBaked Ham needed an agile provider that would help ease the process
of adding locations quickly as needed. “I have absolutely recommended
EarthLink to my business colleagues, as we are extremely satisfied with
the wonderful customer care we receive,” said Lanni. Network security
was another main concern HoneyBaked Ham faced while focusing on
expanding their company and providing for their customers. “Credit card data
is extremely sensitive,” said Lanni. “With our EarthLink MPLS network, I’m
confident it is safeguarded.”
Challenge
Results
Before making the switch to EarthLink,
Angelo Lanni, Director of Information
Technology for HoneyBaked Ham,
personally managed each site location, a
task that he was keen to delegate. “It was
clear that I needed to step away from the
day-to-day maintenance and management
of each network site to focus on developing
the bigger picture,” Lanni said. Finding an
affordable, scalable and secure solution that
would reliably tie their disparate locations
together was the challenge.
In addition to the convenience of
consolidating all of their locations
with EarthLink and handing over
the monitoring and maintenance
of the locations, Lanni experienced
immediate benefits.
Solution
Future
EarthLink proposed a blended,
completely private MPLS network with
a hub and spoke configuration where
the satellite store locations route via
their corporate office for Internet access.
With a blend of permanent storefronts
and seasonal “pop up” or kiosk stores,
EarthLink used a variety of different
access options depending on the
site, including DS1s, DSL and wireless
broadband at the seasonal locations.
“EarthLink had the most attractive o­ffer,
both from a price and technology
standpoint,” said Lanni. “It was the
natural choice for us.”
“We look forward to partnering with
EarthLink as we continue to grow the
HoneyBaked Ham business.” Lanni said,
optimistic about the future. “Because
these locations are so cost-effective,
often we just decide to leave the
location ‘on’ even though we are not
operating it at the present,” he remarked.
“In the past, we struggled to get new
locations installed in a timely manner.
The wireless broadband access we’re
using on our MPLS network really is the
driving factor in allowing us so much
leeway to expand the seasonal stores.”
“When you lease retail space on a
temporary basis, you never really know
from month to month how long you
may be there,” explains Lanni. “If a Mall
finds another tenant, we may need to
disappear quickly. With EarthLink we are
ready.” he said.
About Us
EarthLink is a leading network services provider dedicated to delivering great customer experiences in a cloud connected world. We help thousands of specialty retailers, restaurants, financial
institutions, healthcare providers, professional service firms, local governments, and consumers
securely establish critical connections in the cloud. More at www.earthlink.com,
@earthlink, on LinkedIn and Google+.
© 2016 EarthLink. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. MKTPRINT-304
“
EarthLink really helps
us with our growth,
particularly with our
seasonal express
locations. In the past,
we struggled to get new
locations installed in
a timely manner. The
wireless broadband
access we’re using on
our MPLS network really
is the driving factor in
allowing us so much
leeway to expand the
seasonal stores.
”
Angelo Lanni
Director of Information Technology
HoneyBaked Ham
Contact us at
1-877-355-1501
[email protected]
www.earthlink.com