5 Reasons to Choose Extreme Networks for Retail

Let’s face it, retailers encounter difficult decisions every day. “How do I connect with my customers in a meaningful way?” “How do I create an engaging in-store experience for shoppers?” “How do I ensure all the operations and assets in my business stay on – and more, are optimized – even in the most critical seasons?” And, most importantly:

“How do I stay competitive and profitable now and in the future?"

In today's increasingly digitized economy, where customer expectations have shifted and innovative technologies are available to augment the business, these questions may appear more complex than ever before. Believe it or not, an organization's network strategy is a central part of success for retailers today, and the right solution delivered from the right provider overcomes the pain points experienced day in and day out.

At Extreme, we've been helping retailers overcome their IT pain points and achieve their digital transformation goals for decades. How? Through leveraging our purpose-built networking solutions for retailers, coupled with our collaborative team of industry-experts. Not convinced?

Here are five reasons to consider Extreme Networks in Retail.

1. Upkeep vs Innovation? Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!

Gartner reports that most enterprises spend 80% of their IT budgets "keeping the lights on," and only 20% on innovation projects. We believe this isn’t a recipe for success, so our products aim to change that.

Maintaining uptime is critical for retailers, but that doesn’t mean IT staff and their budgets need to be weighed down by burdensome, day-to-day network administration and troubleshooting. Our solution? Smart, flexible, secure network infrastructure that:

•  Augments human intelligence with machine learning and proactive AI; Extreme’s virtual network engineer independently tunes the network for changing conditions or interferences, and then applies this across all the properties the system supports
• Identifies network issues or even prevents them; reducing help desk tickets and freeing up IT resources
• Offers open, accessible, API-driven and cross domain automation for multiple, distributed locations
• Enables seamless adaptability and growth for network enhancements, and expansions into new properties; our technology quickly adapts to accommodate business needs while keeping network management, hardware (wired/WLAN) and the customer experience consistent
• Includes policy-based authentication and seamless roaming, so all mission critical devices remain on and operational

With built-in features like this, it makes sense that retailers saw an average increase in operation efficiency of 50% after teaming up with Extreme. Our network intelligence at the edge means your business retains 100% of the features, even when WAN connectivity is lost. Only Extreme can make this assurance. This way, you can rest assured the network will continue to do what it should do, leaving time and money for the things you want to do.

2. Network Visibility and Analytics No Longer a 'Nice to Have'

Analysts predict there will be approximately 11.6 billion connected devices by 2020; that’s a ton of connections and a lot of network activity to keep track of – whether it’s on the guest side or and business side of the house - which means visibility is paramount to success. But retailers shouldn’t just settle with a basic understanding of the network.

A truly powerful analytics (and control) solution delivers a granular, complete picture of the network environment and augments the business with relevant, actionable intelligence. Extreme’s analytics equips retailers with: 

• Understanding of all connected users and devices on the network across multiple locations and environments, both wired and wireless, all from a single pane of glass
• Visibility of all available in-store/warehouse staff, inventory, and business assets
• Monitoring of asset tracking and availability, to analyze operational patterns and improve productivity
• Knowledge of three tiers of location-based analytics, in-store and across multiple properties, including zone, presence, and position

With access to greater network clarity and agility, our customers have seen 11x faster time to service for network changes, and new applications or Internet of Things (IoT) devices rolled out 3x faster.

Equally important, and unlike other providers, we do not hold your data hostage. Every one of our customers have full ownership and full access to their data, to utilize it in the way that makes the most sense for the business.

3. Want Loyalty and a Strong Brand? Enhance the In-Store Experience

Everyone’s talking about digital transformation, but why should you care? Because your customers do! And it’s shaping their habits, their expectations, and how they want to engage with your business.

The growth of digital retail has placed pressure on brick and mortar stores to complement the convenience and value provided online. To enhance the in-store shopping experience, retailers need to deliver a more personalized, mobile-centric approach. Want to build loyalty and meaningful connections with your customers? Networking solutions are the key, as they enable your organization to:

• Offer shoppers easy-to-access, reliable, and secure Wi-Fi connectivity throughout a property
• Identify and greet customers when they enter your store • Engage with shoppers and their devices in a contextual, personalized way
• Alert sales/service associates when a shopper needs assistance • Trigger location-based services or promotions that increase convenience and reduce friction.
• Drive more trust, value, and ultimately – sales!

4. Don't Be the Next (Regrettable) Headline

New and existing technologies are pretty cool, but what happens when they aren’t implemented or maintained appropriately? Businesses put themselves and their customers at risk!

We want to help retailers embrace digital transformation with confidence, without the nasty consequences associated with cybercrime, hackers, and ransomware attacks, so you don’t find your business in the next unfortunate headline.

To prepare our customers (and their networks) for whatever they encounter, our solutions:

• Deliver advanced forensics, real-time detection, and built-in reporting – all from a central platform
• Provide integrated, automated and secure zones so your business is always protected
• Feature built-in intrusion prevention and advanced compliance reporting
• Utilize network segmentation and isolation, so network breaches are cutoff at the source
• Include an extensive threat library and customizable policy settings, with the ability to respond automatically to up to 200 types of wireless threats (with 24x7x365 monitoring)

5. The ONLY Dedicated End-to-End Networking Provider

There’s a lot of impressive technology out there, but we don’t get distracted by frills and thrills. Our expertise is end-to-end IT networking, the only (italicize) manufacturer in the industry that can make that claim, which means the investment of our business and the quality of our products reflects our laser focus.

With the full organizational support and alignment (from R&D to engineering to PLM to sales to services) of our business, our networking solutions are purposely-built to meet the unique goals of retail businesses today. We understand the required capabilities of your IT teams, and have proven products to align with these needs. For these reasons and beyond, Gartner has listed Extreme as a 'Leader' in the Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure, and Extreme has been named a Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice for the same category.