With 31 locations nationwide, Redi Carpet is the nation’s largest flooring provider to the multi-family industry. Plagued by frequent network outages and poor application performance, the Redi Carpet team partnered with Windstream Enterprise to roll out a robust, cloud-based solution that would keep pace with demand and help the business continue to thrive.
Legacy network can't handle the traffic
Redi Carpet was experiencing outages across their MPLS network at least once a week. The network’s 4G failover, which aimed to provide redundancy for the network, kept the Internet systems up and running, but not the voice system. Each of Redi Carpet’s branch locations operated their own call center, customer support services and operations center—all of which ran on the UCaaS system. Every second the phone system was down meant the company was leaving money on the table.
What’s more, the network didn’t have enough bandwidth to support Redi Carpet’s go-forward strategy. The team endeavored to migrate business-critical applications like their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the cloud, but the existing network simply couldn’t deliver the bandwidth needed to power the move.
Because the IT team was elbows deep in strategic initiatives, they wanted a deeply experienced and collaborative provider who could take on the management of the entire network and security solution and free up the IT team’s time to focus on wider business operations. Windstream Enterprise heeded the call and started laying the groundwork for a successful future.
““We had a real need for a solution that would offer redundancy, control and a better quality of service."
Patrick Morton, IT Manager, Redi Carpet Partners
Laying the groundwork
Working closely with the Redi Carpet IT team, Windstream Enterprise implemented SD-WAN Concierge with dual broadband access across all 31 Redi Carpet locations. Most locations deployed Windstream Enterprise Internet plus broadband in an active/active configuration, delivering the bandwidth to effectively support high-demand, cloud-based applications while ensuring network resiliency to keep operations rolling.
Windstream Enterprise installed Cellular Broadband at a select number of smaller sites as the secondary circuit, allowing Redi Carpet to bring their own broadband (BYOB) for additional operational flexibility. In all locations, Windstream Enterprise provided the circuits and took responsibility for managing local third-party broadband providers.
Redi Carpet also deployed cloud-based Managed Network Security (MNS) to protect their network. Windstream Enterprise security experts actively manage the solution to ensure operations run smoothly and business-critical information stays safe.
Floored by the results
Since implementing a strong, secure and reliable network foundation in SD-WAN Concierge™, Redi Carpet has experienced zero outages across the network. When one of the two circuits does go down at a branch, the second circuit is instantly activated, resulting in zero disruption for the location. The cloud-based solution is also readily scalable, allowing Redi Carpet to support aggressive growth plans by quickly adding new locations to the network.
Application performance has also seen a significant boost. The dual access of SD-WAN Concierge has delivered expanded bandwidth, enabling applications that run in the cloud, like Microsoft Office 365 and Azure, to operate at peak performance. Ample bandwidth has also enabled Redi Carpet to make traction on strategic imperatives, like rolling out their new cloud-based ERP to drive better business performance and operational efficiencies.
Redi Carpet’s IT team has been thrilled with the level of accountability and support provided by the Windstream Enterprise account and technical teams. Windstream Enterprise has expertly assumed the management of Redi Carpet’s nationwide network, security and their third-party access providers, freeing up the IT team to pursue more strategic projects and activities.
But just because Windstream Enterprise has taken on network management doesn’t mean the Redi Carpet team is hands off. IT Manager and self-described “control freak” Patrick Morton logs in to the WE Connect portal every day for insights into how the network is performing. He investigates which apps are consuming the most bandwidth, making real-time adjustments to limit lower-priority apps if needed. He also creates easy-to-read quality of experience (QoE) reports to demonstrate network performance to executive leaders.
Backed by a resilient and reliable network solution—plus an expert team to support it—Redi Carpet is really on a roll.
““SD-WAN enables our rapid growth plans. It’s easy to add new locations to our network."
Patrick Morton, IT Manager, Redi Carpet
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