Accelerating Success: How Airtel Managed SD-WAN Empowered a Leading Automobile Dealer’s Network Evolution

A leading auto dealer and parts distributor with a network across India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka specializing in ‘vehicle sales and service’ was plagued by a critical operational hazard. 

Spread over 150+ locations and multiple manufacturers, such as Ashok Leyland, Honda, and Mahindra Trucks & Bus, selling 50,000+ vehicles and servicing over 500,000 vehicles yearly, the company faced network woes. 

The Challenge: Hindering Customer Critical Operations: Network Woes

It started with the need for access to crucial customer-facing tools and unmanageable customer satisfaction. Performance interruptions and slow operational speed plagued critical functions like inventory management and sales, impacting the customer experience and agility.

The company’s multi-vendor MPLS-only setup across India resembled a tangled web. Without a single point of contact for troubleshooting and escalating issues, operational costs increased, and connectivity was restricted in remote locations, affecting remote operations and connectivity.

Operating on decentralized network management allowed fragmented visibility to the IT team, making it extremely difficult to control application traffic, troubleshoot issues, and enforce security at individual sites. This hampered application performance, proactive management, and swift response to threats. Also, hosting critical applications in a third-party colocation centre instead of the public cloud hindered scalability and agility, which are crucial for growth and efficiency.

In short, dated network infrastructure was a bottleneck, throttling their operations and expansion plans.

The Solution: Streamlining Network with Airtel Managed SD-WAN

A network with sluggish performance, limited reach, and reliance on multiple MPLS vendors is one of the leading causes of bad customer experience and operational lag. 

A robust SD-WAN in a cloud-based environment was the first step towards the solution. SD-WAN kicks in an intelligent traffic controller for their complete network, offering real-time visibility and centralized control, empowering the IT team to optimize application performance and ensure critical operations reliability.

A user-friendly management console helps the IT team navigate, define routing and prioritize network traffic effectively, prioritizing and ensuring the operation of critical applications. SD-WAN also allows you to implement granular security policies at application and site levels, supporting and strengthening local internet breakout for cloud applications.

Results: Enhanced Performance, Reliability, and Scalability

Improved Performance:

• The implementation of SD-WAN significantly alleviated the sluggish performance that hindered critical operations.
• Users reported faster access to customer-facing tools and smoother inventory management and sales system performance.

Enhanced Reliability and Agility:

• SD-WAN’s centralized control and real-time visibility empowered the IT team to troubleshoot issues and proactively manage the network swiftly.
• The company experienced a notable reduction in network interruptions, leading to increased reliability in operations.
• The company achieved greater agility in responding to changing business needs by effectively defining routing and prioritizing network traffic.

Cost savings and scalability:

• Consolidating network management and troubleshooting under a single platform reduced operational costs associated with disparate vendor relationships and fragmented visibility.
• The transition to a cloud-based SD-WAN solution enabled the company to scale its network infrastructure more efficiently, supporting its growth and expansion plans.
• By leveraging local internet breakout for cloud applications, the company reduced reliance on third-party colocation centres, further optimizing costs and enhancing scalability.
• 35%–40% reduction in expenditure by eliminating traditional MPLS connectivity and multiple vendors 

In summary, implementing the Airtel Managed SD-WAN solution addressed the network woes hindering critical operations and improved performance, reliability, agility, and cost efficiency. The company is now better equipped to support its current operations and future growth initiatives.