Connecting Australia-wide pharmacy chain of stores

Staff Writers
Monday, 16 February 2009 17:31

IT Industry - Market

The Nova Pharmacies/Priceline group of companies in Australia have looked to D-Link, a global provider of small, medium and large enterprise business networking solutions, to connect its 60 national outlets and head office in Melbourne.

D-Link said the group had implemented its integrated VPN network solution including Green Ethernet Web Smart switches to “securely and reliably” connect its outlets Australia-wide.

D-Link said the new network had been designed, implemented and supported by Melbourne-based Solutionware Pty Ltd, an established system integrator in the Australian pharmacies market.
 
According to a D-Link spokesperson, Nova Pharmacies/Priceline's previous network infrastructure had not kept up with the group's rapid growth in recent years. “Communication between stores did not exist and stores that did link back to head office did not have a stable connection. Valuable data could not be centrally stored and managed and so could not be effectively utilised to support management decision making.”

Solutionware general manager, Sebastian Giacone, said “we looked at a few other suppliers such as Linksys but at the end of the day the D-Link modem router/VPN solution was more cost-effective, very stable and a great SMB business-grade product."

“With the implementation of the new networking solution, all outlets are now securely and reliably connected to head office, allowing the transmission of confidential data including time clock data for around 1000 staff. Applications such as payroll and time clock synchronisation can now be centrally managed for more efficient operations.”

Alan Feil, Director of the Nova Pharmacies/Priceline group said efficiency at head office had been improved dramatically and “the solution will have paid for itself within one year."