Ripley and Fletcher Ford grows business around connectivity

“WiFi used to be our biggest problem. Once Spectrum Business came in and set us up with Managed Network Edge backed by Dedicated Fiber Internet, that gave our people the capacity and backbone to get more done.” 

Don Winckler, Information Technology Manager, Ripley and Fletcher Ford

Ripley and Fletcher Ford is one of New England’s longest-active automotive dealerships. Servicing today’s driver requires new tools, including seamless WiFi and the means to transfer data quickly to onboard computers.

To make this happen, the dealership reached out to Spectrum Business.

“We had challenges because of many things, including the age of our main building, the spread-out nature of our campus and the many different technicians and mechanics we have working on the floor simultaneously,” says Don Winckler, Information Technology Manager, Ripley and Fletcher Ford. “We needed more than a WiFi solution. We needed a connectivity solution.”

The dealership needed a stronger WiFi signal, boosted by multiple access points strategically located across the dealership site. It also needed a network platform that put full bandwidth control directly in Winckler’s hands. They got both when they opted to install Managed Network Edge.

WiFi has multiple uses at Ripley and Fletcher Ford, including the servicing of Ford’s growing fleet of electric vehicles, or EVs.

A new fiber circuit was also needed to instantly channel low-latency streams of data in a manner both easily scalable (to grow with the dealership’s ongoing expansion) and extremely reliable. With Dedicated Fiber Internet (DFI), backed with a service-level agreement, Spectrum Business guarantees 100% uptime.

“Spectrum Business has set up a network that is now expandable,” Winckler says. “I think of it as being our backbone, a foundation for all we do now as well as what we want to do going forward.”