Spectrum Brands

Vaioni-Quote-Icon It was exactly the kind of fast and reliable connectivity that was needed across our European operation.

Customer Story

Spectrum Brands Logo

Connecting a Continent

Spectrum Brands is the consumer essentials company behind some of the biggest brands in home improvement, petcare, personal care and home and garden. The company’s roster of well known names includes Remington, Russell Hobbs, National Hardware and DreamBone.The business is global, with a European headquarters in Germany and sites in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, France and Poland, among others. The company generated global sales of approximately $4 billion in 2020. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Challenge

Spectrum Brands has a diverse portfolio of businesses, with headquarters, distribution centres and sales offices scattered across Europe. Its acquisition policy had given it conflicting connectivity solutions that relied on different suppliers in different locations. That made the IT estate time consuming and complex to manage. In addition, the various networks didn’t connect well together, making the solution inefficient. Employees at different sites had entirely different online experiences.

This situation was made more complex with the purchase of Russell Hobbs, the number one UK small appliance brand. Adding a large multi-site operator to the mix only made Spectrum’s European network more complicated and cumbersome.

The business knew it was time for a change. As it turned out, the best solution was staring it in the face.

The Vaioni Solution

Vaioni had been Russell Hobbs’ connectivity provider for a number of years. Vaioni designed and delivered a powerful and secure seven-site MPLS Wide Area Network (WAN) for the business, 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 realised that this was exactly the solution that Spectrum Brands required, albeit on a Europe-wide basis rather than just a UK one. Luckily, Vaioni has considerable experience when it comes to cross-border connectivity, utilising their own core network and the infrastructure of their European partners.

To summarise, Vaioni expanded the Russell Hobbs MPLS WAN to incorporate the different Spectrum Brand sites across Europe. The connectivity estate now comprises of Vaioni in the UK and Colt in Europe, with data centre and Ethernet solutions that are appropriate to the needs of each individual site, but connect seamlessly together. The network is managed centrally by Vaioni.

The Results

The move to Vaioni’s centrally managed network immediately solved a number of Spectrum’s challenges. For a start, it drastically reduced the time required to maintain the network, and freed up the company’s own IT staff for more productive tasks. It also gave the company one supplier, one point of contact, and one central support team should anything go wrong. The business now gets consistent speeds and a high quality online experience across its highly resilient network.

After upgrading their network, the business also thought it sensible to introduce a central security solution across its brands and sites. Vaioni now manages an enterprise-grade firewall for Spectrum’s entire digital estate in Europe, giving it far more robust protection than the piecemeal security previously in place.

Spectrum Brands relies on Vaioni’s expert management to connect and secure an IT estate that stretches the length and breadth of Europe. It knows it has a network that will scale with the business, and a connectivity partner that will support it as the company’s glowing portfolio of international brands continues to grow.

We saw what Vaioni had done for one of our brands, Russell Hobbs, and realised that it was exactly the kind of fast and reliable connectivity that was needed across our European operation. We contracted Vaioni to create and manage the network, and the team has given us exactly what we hoped for - a secure network that connects our sites and helps them become more effective and efficient.

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