Naivas Supermarket, commonly known as “Naivas” boasts an impressive presence as the largest supermarket chain in Kenya. With a network of over 100 branches, it has established itself as a prominent player in the retail industry. The company’s headquarters are situated in Nairobi, and it operates retail outlets in numerous urban centers across the country.
Challenges:
The company wanted to elevate operational efficiencies, improve communication and embed security throughout all of its locations via a robust network connectivity solution. It was essential that there was continuous network connectivity across all branches, including those in remote and geographically challenging areas, to support point of sale (PoS) systems, inventory management and surveillance. In addition, the on-premises servers had reached end of life and scaling had become a challenge.
Solutions:
Liquid implemented a wide area network to connect all branches using DIA on SD-WAN for reliability, security and efficiency. The solution included an Infrastructure as-a-Service architecture on Microsoft Azure to bolster operational resilience by ensuring adequate capacity that was capable of adapting to fluctuating demands. In a significant move to the public cloud, the enterprise agreement cementing the solution and Microsoft licenses is the largest in East Africa to date.
Results:
Naivas now has a highly efficient and secure network infrastructure capable of supporting its growth and operational goals across all branches in Kenya. Connectivity is reliable, customer experiences are transformed, and costs and operations have been optimised. There are no process delays, resource scaling is faster, and there is effective business continuity across two active environments. As a result of the connectivity and reliability, Naivas has introduced more payment methods for customers, thereby improving convenience and experiences.
Customer Testimonial:
“Our customers have noted the faster checkout processes, real-time inventory updates and secure shopping environment and this has transformed the customer experience. The effective bandwidth management and cost optimisation strategies introduced by the solution have also reduced operational expenses significantly.”
