Client: A Major OEM & its Customer, a National Retail Chain

Industry: Retail

Service: Infrastructure Services > Deployment Services

Hardware: Thin-Clients

The Situation: An OEM required a partner with a proven track record of success and national coverage to upgrade Thin-Clients to improve the reliability of the machines. The customer was a national retail chain with 525 stores .

The Challenge: The OEM had typically relied on a number of local vendors to implement projects on its behalf. However, because of the retail chain’s multiple locations, the company sought a single, national service provider that could perform the Thin-Client upgrade at 525 locations within an aggressive time frame of 12 weeks. The equipment logistics were also to be managed prior to the upgrades.

The Response: Our Managed Deployment Services practice performed the upgrade of the retail chain’s Thin-Clients that incorporated both installation service and technical support service for the 12-week engagement. This included two weeks for engagement planning, a one-week pilot, and seven weeks for the actual upgrade and conversion activities nationwide. The Equipment logistics were managed by sending the machines to the closest FedEx location that offered warehouse facilities, so the equipment could be sent in bulk and ground transportation. i³ utilized its proprietary RAPID Deploy System (for technicians management) and the Online Shipment tracking system (for equipment management). A team of Senior Project Managers, Project Coordinators, and Technical Engineers provided the expertise to carry out the activities at all locations.

The Technology: i³’s proprietary web-based RAPID Deploy methodology.

The Result: By partnering with i³, the OEM was able to make use of i³’s best practices, access to over 10,000 technical consultants, global delivery model, and project management expertise. i³’s combined strength of proven project management experience and national coverage capabilities to deliver a service exceeded the expectations of both the OEM and its customer. Being a strategic partner, the OEM’s daunting task of managing multiple local vendors at regional levels to execute the project was eliminated, thus allowing it to concentrate on additional service responsibilities to its customer.