Prolife Foods, a privately owned food company manufacturer and supplier known for its nuts, dried fruits, muesli bars, cereals, grains, chocolates and confectionery, sells its product range through supermarkets across New Zealand and supplies its products to the commercial and food service sectors. Prolife acquired neighboring Waikato business Donovan’s Chocolates in early 2011, and sought the best way to incorporate the two buildings including their networks and systems.

The Prolife building and that of its new acquisition are located just 300 meters away from one another, on opposite sides of the street. The second building subsequently needed to be converted to Prolife’s systems and network, as quickly as possible, with the end goal being seamless integration between the two sites.

Prolife Foods tasked infrastructure support partner, Houston Technology Group (HTG), with assessing its requirements for network convergence, recommending the best solution given time, budget and needs constraints, project managing the design, and completing the entire installation…all within eight short weeks. Careful consideration and detailed consultation with IT distribution firm, Renaissance Brand, led HTG to recommend a Proxim Wireless solution to Prolife Foods.

“HTG and Prolife Foods have been in partnership for over seven years. We have seen Prolife greatly expand their business, putting much greater and more dependence on their IT systems. We work closely with Prolife Foods to design, implement and maintain their infrastructure. Because food production and packaging is their core business, IT systems must provide the best possible return on investment. IT innovation is paramount, which makes the Proxim solution such a good fit.” says Steve Gottschling, IT Management Consultant for Houston Technology Group.

The major challenge faced was enabling a decent WAN connection between the two sites. Fiber was not practical for this location, and broadband WAN costs were prohibitive, considering the low bandwidth on offer. Wireless was considered the most viable option. Given the tight timeframe for this project, proof-of-concepts were a luxury Prolife could not afford. Renaissance worked closely with HTG to find the best-fit wireless solution.

To ensure reliability, HTG recommended best-of-breed Proxim Wireless to Prolife Foods and engaged Proxim’s New Zealand distributor, Renaissance Brands, to help design and ultimately implement this best value solution. The three-way partnership enabled a speedy, professional and hassle-free implementation.

“The Proxim Wireless product was, and continues to be, the best value solution. Compared with the best broadband WAN link offering, the Proxim solution is on target to pay for itself within a year. That includes all the hardware and labor costs. And unlike the broadband WAN option, the monthly costs are zero.”

– Steve Gottschling, IT Management Consultant, Houston Technology Group.

“Renaissance allowed me to deal directly with the installer, which reduced delays and issues often associated with having to go through ‘middle men’,” says HTG’s Steve Gottschling. “And far from simply recommending and selling a hardware product, they provided access to an experienced and knowledgeable Proxim installer who not only provided technical information, real-world application experience and assurance, but also installed the solution at short notice.”

The point-to-point wireless solution offered by Proxim beat all potential competing solutions on speed, cost, stability, flexibility and reliability. Other options explored ranged from basic VPN over ADSL to an ISP service full WAN solution – original requirements did not specify wireless.

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“When compared to the only other serious alternative we uncovered, the ROI on the Proxim Wireless solution was unbeatable – just one year. There are no real ongoing costs, and just one year of WAN service through a Telco provider was equal to our entire wireless outlay.”

– Matt Downey-Parish, IT Manager, Prolife Foods.

VoIP was discarded as a choice due to lack of speed and limitations in terms of complete integration and other future benefits, such as SAN. A local Telco-provided WAN service ticked all the performance boxes, but yearly costs were as high as the single cost output associated with the Proxim Wireless solution.

“When compared to the only other serious alternative we uncovered, the ROI on the Proxim Wireless solution was unbeatable – just one year. There are no real ongoing costs, and just one year of WAN service through a Telco provider was equal to our entire wireless outlay.” says Matt Downey-Parish, IT Manager for Prolife Foods.

Though the Telco in question warned against a wireless solution – claiming it would be unreliable and unstable – Prolife Foods has found it to be the opposite and could not be more pleased with the end result.

“It’s an incredibly stable product,” says Mr. Downey-Parish. “In fact, through all the testing that we’ve done, even though the new site is 300 meters down the road, it’s like they’re right in the same building. It is always stable and quick, and we’ve been through our first winter. Not weather, nor big trucks traveling the industrial estate, has had an impact on the wireless the way a Telco provider suggested they would as they pushed for managed WAN. The throughput rate is incredible. It’s been a worry free solution for us.”

Challenge:

• Following the purchase of another business, located 300 meters away, Prolife Foods needed a solution to seamlessly incorporate the new building into its infrastructure; network and systems, making the two offices operate as if they were one.

Proxim solutions:

• Proxim Wireless was able to offer a solution that met all speed and redundancy needs, while coming in at a fraction of the cost of other options, such as WAN.

Results:

• Wireless solution allowed for complete integration.
• One-year ROI: Installation cost equal to just one year of broadband WAN fees through local Telco provider.
• Installation completed in just weeks.
• High speed and no limitations to incorporation of sites.
• Offers disaster recovery and duplication benefits when coupled with a SAN solution.
• Stable, “worry free” solution, unaffected by weather and traffic.