Fiber makes Krëfel cloud, VoIP, and e-commerce capable
Published on 15/12/2020 in Customer talks
Consumer electronics chain Krëfel recently transitioned its first set of retail outlets to fiber. “For us, it was mainly a question of being ready for the future”, says IT and Network Manager, Eric Wieme.
There are 74 Krëfel locations, dotted throughout Belgium. “We recently transitioned five of those to fiber”, said Eric. “The operation was part of a network upgrade. We’ve switched from Explore 1.0 to Explore 2.0 wherever possible, so we naturally also decided to go for fiber. Once the technology is available, we're likely to gradually transition the other locations to fiber too.”
“Going for fiber was especially motivated by the fact that Krëfel wants to be future-proof”, said Eric. “There’s a good chance that we’ll be running more and more cloud applications in the next few years. The additional speed and stability are more than welcome, in that case. Right now, we have a dedicated server at our head office that all our stores are connected to, e.g. for stock management. We may end up re-thinking that model in future.”
There are also all kinds of other plans in the works at the electronics chain. “We're exploring our options when it comes to setting up a VoIP project too. If organizing video conferences is also one of our goals, that's another area where fiber could end up being useful. Extra bandwidth would be great, in that case. Lastly, if we're interested in capitalizing even more on e-commerce prospects, I think that a faster connection will also benefit customers.
Krëfel was founded in 1958 and specializes in selling household appliances, IT hardware (customized computers, gaming) and audiovisual equipment (television and audio), as well as kitchen appliances and fully equipped, tailor-made kitchens. The Krëfel/Hifi organization’s headquarters are located in Grimbergen-Humbeek, from which they run 85 stores, 74 of which in Belgium and 11 in Luxemburg.
Krëfel and Hifi also maintain webshops that are perfectly able to stand up to the competition, in total employing more than 1,350 people. This brand welcomes more than 250,000 customers a month, offers 15,000 different articles and has a consolidated annual turnover of more than €400 million. Krëfel is part of the Boulanger group.
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