Russell Hobbs

Vaioni-Quote-Icon The fact we can hand over the management and maintenance to a trusted partner is a huge bonus.

Customer Story

Russell Hobbs Logo

The appliance of expertise

If you’ve enjoyed a brew today, the water may well have been boiled in a Russell Hobbs appliance. The company was founded in 1952 and was the first UK company to sell a fully automatic electric kettle.The business has come a long way since then. Today, Russell Hobbs is the UK’s leading small electrical appliance brand, and is well known overseas, too. It manufactures everything from kettles (of course) and food processors to toasters and irons. Most of us own at least one Russell Hobbs appliance.

The Challenge

The challenge Russell Hobbs faced will be a familiar one to many ambitious businesses. As the company grew, it opened or acquired multiple locations across the UK.

That caused a number of issues. Managing multiple connections locally is time consuming, and dealing with different suppliers in an ad hoc manner creates unnecessary administration. The piecemeal nature of the different solutions meant there was no
connectivity between sites, making the network inefficient and unwieldy.

Pressure on the network grew exponentially as 400 plus remote users started requiring VPN access to core systems and applications.

To top it off, the company’s IT team was also growing increasingly concerned about storing business critical applications and data entirely in house.

The Vaioni Solution

Russell Hobbs needed a supplier with the expertise and experience to bring this disparate network together, and create an efficient, cost-effective and joined-up connectivity solution.

It chose Vaioni to meet these needs, for a number of reasons. For a start, Vaioni offered a wide choice of technologies, suppliers, lead times and prices through its comprehensive connectivity exchange. Another important factor in the decision was Vaioni’s own highly resilient core network.

Vaioni designed and delivered a powerful and secure seven-site MPLS Wide Area Network (WAN), using a mix of Ethernet and broadband technologies tailored to the needs of each location. This was a centrally managed solution that reduced management time and – crucially – created a single network rather than a jigsaw puzzle of unrelated connectivity solutions.

Vaioni added coalition facilities, accessible via the MPLS, to create a secure second location for the company’s critical data and infrastructure.

The Results

Russell Hobbs now has a network that efficiently connects its UK sites and remote workforce. In addition, the solution is centrally managed by Vaioni, drastically reducing the time and effort the company’s IT team spends overseeing its connectivity estate.

Because it sits on Vaioni’s advanced core network, the infrastructure is fast and resilient (Vaioni’s network has had a 100% uptime record for more than a decade). This has enabled Russell Hobbs staff to be more productive and efficient, and to explore the benefits of better technology.

Vaioni manage the company’s MPLS WAN and its colocation back up. That means Vaioni offer proactive monitoring to identify issues before they become problems. If they need it, Russell Hobbs can depend on 24/7 support from the engineers who built and maintain the solution.

Russell Hobbs wanted to keep in-house control of its security solution. The company’s firewall simply plugged into the new MPLS and now provides enterprise-level protection across the network.

The end result is a solution that is fit for purpose, meeting the needs of a large and modern manufacturing enterprise. Connectivity is fast and secure, while management time and costs are kept to a minimum. Perhaps most importantly of all, Russell Hobbs has complete peace of mind, thanks to a managed network with the capacity, resilience and scalability to meet its needs today, and in the future.

Vaioni’s solution is just right for our needs. It’s fast and secure and allows for seamless connectivity across our sites. The fact that we can hand over the management and maintenance to a trusted partner is a huge bonus for the IT team, because it frees up time for us to focus on other projects.

Find out how Vaioni can bring your business to the next level.