At D2, we love working with innovative, adaptive, principled partners that care deeply about their mission. One of our clients, a logistics and distribution company in Warminster, PA is a great example. The company’s logistics experts have been assisting public media companies and non-profit organizations with customized direct-to-door fulfillment services since 1983.
For their latest expansion, they turned to D2 to streamline IT implementation, rapidly scale to meet new market needs, and ensure a consistently high-quality customer experience for their clients.
The Challenge
The organization planned to open a new fulfillment center/warehouse in the Memphis, TN area to reduce shipping lead times for customers. This facility needed to connect back to the network infrastructure at their Warminster, PA headquarters to seamlessly process orders.
The launch of the Memphis facility was timed to an expected dramatic uptick in business for a specific initiative for the organization. When market opportunities arise that rapidly, theories of scalability and expansion plans are put to the test. They found themselves in a race against the clock to get their new location online in time to go live — with full awareness that as soon as they gave the greenlight, a tremendous rush of orders would flood in.
D2 was brought on board to assist in the roll out, deliver pragmatic technology support, and make sure that IT would support operational continuity.
The Solution
D2 tackled this challenge with a three-step approach:
1. Initial Setup
- Assist with sourcing hardware (PCs, printers, network equipment, etc).
- Liaise with local 3rd parties for the development of LAN/WAN.
- Workaround obstacles to maintain production, such as sourcing temp 4G internet to install VPN clients on all devices (including handheld Android Zebra scanners) well before the fiber circuit installation was available.
2. On-site Tuneup
- A D2 technician travelled to the new site and spent a week performing maintenance and finalizing the connection from Memphis to Warminster, which proved integral to the organization’s ability to stand up this warehouse in time for their launch.
- The on-site visit allowed D2 to get hands-on with equipment which D2 had been supporting but never seen, and it gave the employees in Memphis the opportunity to put a face to the IT people on the other end of the phone.
- D2 implemented an always-on, site-to-site VPN to eliminate individual VPN clients, which also ensured that both locations would have a secure 24/7/365 connection that permits the Memphis facility to piggy-back off the extensive infrastructure located in Warminster — resulting in significantly less total equipment (and expenditures) needed.
- D2 setup failover internet access to allow the 4G connection to remain as a backup.
3. Ongoing support
D2 has become the first line of support for issues in Memphis and performs ongoing maintenance to help predict and prevent problems before they happen.
The Outcome
By opening a new facility, the organization can fulfill more orders with shorter lead times and expand its business. D2’s involvement in the technical side of the project allowed the organization’s management to focus their energy on other aspects of the expansion. Our ongoing support helps the facility continue to run smoothly.
Let’s talk about how D2 can support your IT needs.
