De Bijenkorf

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In shops and warehouses, mobile and wireless working has been the norm for years. With the trend of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and The New World of Work, where employees do not have fixed workplaces, you see that more and more office environments switch to a fully wireless network. Bijenkorf also decided to do this and equipped its new Service Office in the Oliphant office building in Amsterdam-Zuidoost with a Wi-Fi network.

About De Bijenkorf

The history of the Bijenkorf began in 1870, when Philip Simon Goudsmit opened a small haberdashery shop on Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam, which he called Warehouse de Bijenkorf. Business went well and in 1915, the shop moved to the famous building on Dam Square. In 1926, a second shop followed in The Hague and in 1930, the Rotterdam Bijenkorf opened its doors. Eindhoven, Utrecht, Amstelveen and Maastricht followed. Since 2014, the chain consists of seven shops. There are web shops in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Austria. The distribution centre is located in Tilburg. From here, the shops are supplied and online orders are handled. De Bijenkorf employs around 2,500 people, of which approximately 450 work at the head office in Amsterdam Zuidoost.

To work mobile and wireless

After the De Oliphant building was completely refurbished to provide a contemporary working environment, the Bijenkorf Service Office moved here at the end of 2019. Around 450 Bijenkorf colleagues with different specialisations work together in the new office to support the (online) Bijenkorf shops. These employees are connected to one or more devices simultaneously, using applications that process real-time data (such as video conference tools). This increases the pressure on the Wi-Fi network and the demand for more data throughput and performance.

In order to meet the higher demands, de Bijenkorf called in its Enterprise Mobility partner Dalosy. A reliable choice, given that Dalosy specialises in installing wireless networks for mobile working and also provided the WiFi in the Bijenkorf shops. “As soon as it was known that the Service Office was going to move, a plan had to be drawn up for setting up all the IT in the new office. A selection of suppliers was then made for some components, but Dalosy was the obvious choice for the wifi network. Given the long working relationship and the level of satisfaction with the service, there was no reason to deviate from this now”, says Patrick du Buf, IT Service Manager at Bijenkorf.

The Extreme Networks AP500 series of access points, which feature the latest Wi-Fi technology (802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6), was chosen for the Bijenkorf Service Centre.

In the project, Dalosy thought along with me about which solution would work best for the Bijenkorf, both in the preparation phase and in the actual implementation. I enjoy working with Dalosy because of their experience in retail, their thorough knowledge and expertise of the subject matter and their commitment to applying the latest (proven) technology. The end result is exactly as expected; a stable and safe WiFi network that can handle all wireless connections without problems, both now and in the future.

Patrick du Buf, IT Service Manager at de Bijenkorf

Full satisfaction

Thanks to these new access points (AP) de Bijenkorf can make more effective use of the available bandwidth, allowing more devices (such as laptops, tablets and phones) to use the Wi-Fi network simultaneously, without compromising network quality. Security is guaranteed thanks to support for the latest Wi-Fi security standard (WPA3). In addition, the APs have a built-in IoT (Internet of Things) radio with which future applications (e.g. smart building technology) can be supported with the same network. At this moment, more than 90% of all employees of Bijenkorf in the Service Office are working with full satisfaction via the new WiFi network!

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