The Beer Store
The History
For more than 80 years, Brewers Retail
Inc. (The Beer Store) has responsibly distributed beer
throughout Ontario, growing to a network of 441 retail
stores offering more than 330 brands from 75 brewers
worldwide. A leader in the beverage alcohol industry, it
is known for innovations such as the refillable,
industry-standard bottle, an inventory system that
ensures the sale of fresh beer and a commitment to
recovering 100% of beer packaging. With a corporate
track record underscored by performance, efficiency and
success, it's not surprising these same characteristics
apply when it comes to day-to-day business operations.
So, in the summer of 2001, when The Beer Store needed to
rebuild a communications link from a new location in
Brampton to its Mississauga, Ontario-based head office,
the primary goal was to achieve a higher-speed
connection with no increase in cost, as quickly as
possible.
The Problem
 "We had a 10-Mbps Transparent Local Area
Network Service (TLS) and as we looked into moving that
to the new Brampton location, it was going to cost us a
little more," explains The Beer Store's network systems
administrator Chris Hutchison. "We started searching for
alternatives and found a solution that not only replaced
our existing copper feeds with fibre, but also provided
10 times the speed for slightly less than our original
cost."
The Solution
That solution was a 100-Mbps TLS
Ethernet service connected in Mississauga by Blink
Communications formerly, Enersource Telecom and by
HydroOne, which connected the service at the Brampton
end. By leveraging its established fibre optic network,
Blink delivered the high- speed connection to The Beer
Store within six weeks, providing a superior business
class service. In its first year of operation, the
100-Mbps TLS exceeded The Beer Store's expectations for
reliability. According to Hutchison, the only outage was
for scheduled maintenance. "It's been very reliable and
the performance has been excellent," he says. "They were
up and running well within our original timeline," notes
Hutchison of The Beer Store. "Blink Communications
formerly Enersource Telecom was right on the ball and
ready to go." A leader in the beverage alcohol industry,
The Beer Store is also on the cutting edge of data
communications.
The Result
For the 50 people located at the
Brampton office, the service is so transparent, it's
like working at head office, he adds. Although the
applications accessed by employees aren't considered
mission-critical, they are important to daily operation,
including a suite of standard Windows-based applications
for payroll and accounting, as well as some custom
applications.
The Future
If there's a need for greater throughput
in the future, such as Gigabit Ethernet, Hutchison
expects to continue with Blink Communications TLS and
simply bump up the speed. If six weeks for the original
transition was considered aggressive, knowing an upgrade
is just a phone call away is comforting. "Blink's fibre
optic network is far-reaching," notes Hutchison. "They
are poised to strike fast and deliver a high-quality
product promptly. As a business partner, it just doesn't
get better than that."
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