Revving up efficiency & growth: A leading automobile dealer drives network transformation with Airtel Managed SD-WAN

This leading organization is into auto dealership and parts distribution in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, and also specializes in vehicle sales and service. With 150+ locations, it represents multiple manufacturers like Ashok Leyland, Honda, and Mahindra Trucks & Bus, selling 50,000+ vehicles and servicing over 500,000 annually.

The Challenge

Rising network woes: Hindering the customer’s critical operations

Due to frequent network issues, internal teams had been struggling to access crucial customer facing tools, leaving the customers frustrated at times. Slow performance and interruptions plagued critical functions like inventory management and sales, impacting customer experience and agility. Their multi-vendor MPLS only setup across India resembled a tangled web, lacking a single point of contact for troubleshooting and escalating issues. This not only inflated operational costs but also restricted connectivity in remote locations, limiting their reach.

Adding to the IT team’s woes, decentralized network management and fragmented visibility made it 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 key applications in a third-party colocation center, instead of the public cloud, hindered scalability and agility, crucial for growth and efficiency.

In essence, network infrastructure became a bottleneck, throttling their operations and expansion plans.

The Solution

Streamlining the entire network with SD-WAN solution

The customer’s network concerns, characterized by sluggish performance, limited reach and reliance on multiple MPLS vendors, hindered both customer experience and operational agility. Seeking a comprehensive solution, they implemented SD-WAN in a cloud-based environment.  Think of it as an intelligent traffic controller for their complete network, offering real-time visibility and centralized control, empowering their IT teams to optimize application performance and ensure critical operations reliability.

Through a user-friendly management console, the IT team was able to define routing and prioritize network traffic effectively, ensuring smooth operation of critical applications. Additionally, they could implement granular security policies at application and site levels, bolstering local internet breakout for cloud applications.

The best part? SD-WAN solution intelligently combined end-media options like MPLS, broadband, and internet leased line based on site categorization, boosting reliability and eliminating reliance on specific vendors. Moreover, the solution facilitated a seamless transition to Public Cloud Platform, enabling the customer to phase out legacy infrastructure hosted by a third-party colocation provider. This migration enabled scalability, agility, and efficiency, aligning with the organization’s digital transformation goals.

The Impact

Transforming the network: The organization’s journey to cost savings, efficiency, and growth

Network worries are a thing of the past, thanks to the SD-WAN implementation! It has unlocked significant cost savings and operational efficiency gains. They’re anticipating a 35%-40% reduction in network expenditures by eliminating reliance on traditional MPLS connectivity and multiple vendors. A flexible OPEX model, based on actual network consumption, further optimized the cost.

Additionally, managing the entire network is now easy with a single point of contact overseeing both SD-WAN and connectivity services. Direct connectivity to the public cloud from site locations has ensured seamless application access. The intelligent and diverse network connections have enabled the organization to quickly expand into new markets and larger customer segments. Overall, the strategic network upgrade to SD-WAN has delivered cost savings, simplified management, and positioned this organization for strong future growth.

Siddhartha Banerjee