Allied Electronics accelerates sales and order responsiveness with Masergy

For Allied Electronics, every second is critical. The company processes 6,000 orders each day as a high velocity distributor of industrial products for automation, control, interconnect, cabling, and electromechanical products. They are also known for customer responsiveness, with order fulfillment processes that outpace the competition.

“We’re in operation 24 hours a day,” explained VP and CIO, Andy Jackson. “For us, it’s vital that our systems are available at every moment. Any element of downtime can prevent us from meeting our customer commitment of getting orders out the same day they are received. We need to make sure we’re always up, always on, and always working.”

Responsible for all transactional systems including data center and network security components, Jackson decided that enough was enough. Toward the end of the company’s network contract, he worked with LAM Technology to help him assess solutions in the market.

“When we first started the evaluation process, I hadn’t heard of Masergy. But the company’s history and track record spoke for itself. When we went further in terms of what Masergy’s solution offerings were and their customer references, we learned that there was a huge opportunity to improve our entire network topology.”

Solution: Resilient connectivity for sales, headquarters, and disaster recovery

Allied partnered with Masergy to address the availability and reliability of its entire network ecosystem. This included connectivity at home offices, connections across its 43 U.S. sales offices, and major circuits between its Fort Worth, Texas headquarters and disaster recovery center based in Scottsdale, AZ. Leveraging Masergy’s softwaredefined network for <1 millisecond of jitter and 100% packet delivery, Allied now has resiliency and bandwidth it needs to support voice communications and critical cloud applications that are central to its ability to pick, pack, and ship in-stock items the same day.

Results: Lowered costs by 61%

“The improvements were immediate, and they were astonishing,” said Jackson. “After putting a new contract in place with Masergy, we were able to increase our overall network bandwidth cumulatively across the company by 73%. We also decreased our overall cost base from a network perspective by 61%. Most importantly, our sales offices have increased their uptime. This was a night and day difference from our previous network provider’s service levels.”

Allied was able to use the network cost savings to further increase the bandwidth that existed between its sales and corporate offices. In most cases, the company was able to increase bandwidth by 100%. In some cases, this number was as high as 400%.

“This enabled us to have our voice and data solutions running over the network with much quicker response time, which increased sales productivity and drastically improved order response rates from our customers,” Jackson explained. “This was a huge deal for us.”

“Our innovation agenda is centered on scalability,” said Jackson, including a heavy focus on process improvement and automation. “We’re currently focusing on robotic process automation for ways to automate repetitive processes, so that we can have people focusing on more valued-added activities,” he explained.

Network automation is starting to become part of the Allied digital transformation. The Masergy portal includes an AI-based network intelligence service that acts as a virtual assistant for network, application, and security optimization. The AIOps tool analyzes their network configuration and usage, making recommendations on how Jackson and his team can further enhance efficiency and performance. “There is so much more we can do now thanks to Masergy. I’m looking forward to all that lies ahead,” said Jackson.

The company also has a host of applications that surround SAP for business functions such as tax determination, address validation, and export compliance. for this. That reliability is required of both our infrastructure, which includes our data center and network, as well as our application portfolio.”

Recognized results

• Cut overall network costs by 61%
• Increased bandwidth cumulatively by 73%
• Enhanced reliability for voice and cloud applications
• Accelerated order response time, improving customer experience

About LAM Technology

IT consultancy and managed services firm LAM Technology provides insight, strategy, execution and support to IT and operational leaders throughout the digital transformation journey. Humbly serving clients in 100+ countries, LAM Technology’s goals are simple: Support. People. Always. We have trusted partnerships with global major telecom, hosting, mobility and integration partners allowing us to develop and implement custom solutions to address our clients’ specific needs. Learn more at LAMtechnology.com.