How CDW Helped Modernize the LCBO’s Network

The Challenge

As the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) was about to embark on a multiyear transformation program that would rely on a strong technology foundation for success, the crown agency was tasked with modernizing its MPLS wide area network and streamlining its stack of 400 applications.

LCBO’s goal was to improve the retail employee and customer experience and boost the speed, reliability and security of the data flow between their Toronto-based headquarters and nearly 700 stores. Most LCBO locations are located in large towns and cities with robust connectivity. Others are found in remote locations where bandwidth is typically slower and unpredictable, which had impacts on simple tasks like checking email or processing payment card transactions.

During their research, the LCBO IT team recognized their nearly 10-year-old MPLS network was an obstacle to significant digital transformation progress. Establishing connectivity between new and existing stores was challenging with the incumbent provider due to issues with radio frequency and lack of support with new access points.

Our old IP VPN network couldn’t do much beyond the basics of our POS and sales transactions. In some stores, we had amazing speeds. But in another location as close as next door, connectivity and speeds would be very poor. We had issues with bandwidth limitations for our internal applications.

CCTV is also used in retail as a measure to mitigate theft, and store security cannot wait for access to footage. It was obvious moving to our updated cloud applications, we needed a foundational network that could support our security requirements – which it is now highly capable of doing.

– Jeremy Hope – VP, Business Technology Solutions (BTS) at LCBO

CDW assembles a specialized team to deliver a robust managed network service

A CDW-led technology and telecommunications team (quarterbacked by Enterprise Account Executive Eddy Kim) delivered a winning proposal, which was selected following an open and transparent RFP process. Kim and his team negotiated pricing and service levels that aligned with the LCBO’s needs.

The CDW team partnered with our technology manufacturer partners like Cisco and other service providers so we could fully introduce our capabilities to different LCBO tech teams in our RFP response. Eddy was very good at cultivating our partner relationships and adding value as a strategic account executive for our LCBO relationship.

– Puneet Duggal, CDW’s Cisco Practice Lead & Principal Solutions Architect

The network modernization process took 11 months to set up the SD-WAN (wired and Wi-Fi) for the nearly 700 LCBO locations, which exceeded LCBO’s initial expectations. A year after the network modernization initiative began, the combined LCBO-CDW-led team is wrapping up some remediation tasks to finalize the deployment phase of the project.

Just as with any project of this scale and complexity, there were some unexpected issues along the way; however, the project team remained agile and diligently addressed any technical or property access roadblocks that emerged during the process. Hope feels the project has been a huge success, which has been recognized across the internal LCBO corporate team and by retail employees, who now enjoy better stability and bandwidth speeds up to 10X faster.

CDW understands the importance of retail IT security and retail customer experiences

The CDW team has gone above and beyond in my view. I was amazed that we were able to accomplish everything in the 11 months before our initial contract end date. From a technical and legal process, CDW has always come to the table and been on top of everything.

We were dealing with one telco for all our sites before, now we have the right telco in place, and sometimes multiple telcos – providing redundancy. If there is an issue with one telco, the other company’s service will sustain that site’s location temporarily. In dealing with Eddy and his team, nobody ever said ‘That’s not my problem.’ CDW just made it work.

– Jeremy Hope

CDW Canada has a wealth of experience in modernizing retail technology and deploying secure network solutions to support digital signage, self-service displays and mobile or counter-based point of sale (POS) solutions.

There were unexpected challenges during the deployment to some LCBO sites, especially in remote areas where modified shipping containers have been repurposed as LCBO stores. Hope said he was surprised at the speed and reliability of the satellite bandwidth services that are in place as part of their managed network.

The upgraded network will be also able to withstand peaks in utilization, which is critical for a retailer that experiences increases in transaction volumes depending on the season.

Strengthening technology foundations now and for the future

The LCBO purposely crafted contract terms and renewal conditions with CDW to ensure that, provided CDW lives up to its service levels, and the LCBO realizes cost savings and efficiencies, the companies will enjoy a lasting relationship of up to a decade or more. Going forward, new services like digital signage, improved security camera data gathering and in-store music services will take advantage of the improved bandwidth security, stability and speed. Hope also said that the LCBO’s network will be scaled to support new application suites serving their corporate and retail locations.

A robust network is critical to helping the LCBO meet its information distribution, data privacy, customer experience and store security goals. The CDW team has been, and will continue to be for years to come, a strategic partner in helping the company strengthen its foundations for a better customer and employee experience.