A retailer gets the modern network it needs for the e-commerce era

“[The Spectrum Enterprise network] helps us do business more efficiently and compete against our national competitors.”—Jason Horst, marketing director, Famous Tate Appliance & Bedding Centers

Bruce Clarke, IT manager for Famous Tate Appliance & Bedding Centers, was in a quandary. He needed to replace the legacy network services supporting the retailer’s 11 showrooms and a warehouse. They were from multiple vendors, unreliable and unable to scale. But the agent that provided the services was not responsive to Clarke’s requests for better options.

Clarke met with Spectrum Enterprise. He explained how he couldn’t efficiently scale his network to support new applications, and how bandwidth limitations slowed down the operation of their sales and inventory management software.

Spectrum Enterprise proposed dedicated fiber Ethernet service to provide fast, reliable and secure connectivity from all locations to the data center. Internet for the warehouse and showrooms would be provided by dedicated Fiber Internet Access (FIA) service. The scalable services would ensure rapid access to all business applications, and support new applications Clarke wanted to add in the future. 

Clarke liked what he heard, and today he is reaping the benefits of his new network. Bandwidth bottlenecks are no longer a problem, and the services are highly reliable. Clarke can also easily scale the network to support new applications. He recently added a videoconferencing application, which is supported by the FIA service. 

Having just one technology partner has also provided benefits “If there’s an issue, I just have one number to call,” says Clarke. But at the end of the day, it’s the partnership with Spectrum Enterprise that’s made the biggest difference. “Our account manager … is quite proactive and always checking to see if we need something,” he says.

Modernizing their network has allowed Famous Tate to thrive in a competitive environment. Marketing director Jason Horst comments: “[The network] helps us do business more efficiently and compete against our national competitors. It got us where we wanted to be.”