Keeping money moving with wireless backup from Sierra Wireless

15 September 2015

CUSTOMER CHALLENGE 

  • Reliable wireless backup infrastructure for financial retail locations 
  • Requires dependable roll-over to wireless backup if failure occurs, with no possibility of downtime 

SOLUTION 

  • AirLink gateways and ES450 LTE gateways provide consistent connectivity and accessibility during backup roll-over, ensuring that no revenue is lost from dropped transactions 

KEY BENEFITS 

  • Uninterrupted, reliable wireless cellular connectivity for heavy transaction load 
  • Easy configuration and deployment 
  • Highest data transfer speeds available 
  • Comprehensive remote management to ensure system uptime 
  • Supports customer’s quick time- to-market requirements 

Owned by the Dollar Financial Group, Money Mart has been a leading provider of affordable alternative financial services for more than three decades. With nearly 1,500 retail locations throughout North America and Europe, the company provides a wide range of financial services from low cost payday loans and check cashing to money orders and bill payment services. 

Business challenge 

Every day, thousands of customers visit their local Money Mart store to make secure financial transactions. Money Mart can’t afford to have their systems down for even a minute. “Without connectivity to our stores, revenue losses can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a day,” explained Pete Wilson, Money Mart’s Telecom & Network Administrator. “Developing a backup system made perfect business sense.” 

Money Mart embarked on a large-scale project to install backup connectivity at all retail locations. With stores in both urban and rural areas, they couldn’t always rely on a landline infrastructure. “Many of our locations are inaccessible to broadband,” said Wilson. “We knew that our only option in these areas was to find a reliable wireless solution.” 

Sierra Wireless Airlink solution 

Money Mart originally deployed AirLink gateways to provide connectivity for their branches. “We chose the Raven because at that time, it was the only product we found that could reliably handle failover connectivity.” 

Sierra Wireless' AirLink ES450 Enterprise Gateway uses 4G.

As cellular networks have evolved and the need for higher speeds/ bandwidth has also changed, Money Mart recognised the need to upgrade its infrastructure. “We did our due diligence, and I’m glad we chose to upgrade to the AirLink ES450 4G Enterprise Gateway. We have begun our deployment and so far, the upgrade has been seamless and the product has performed perfectly, ensuring our branches are always on-line,” said Wilson. 

Results

Because Wilson manages both network infrastructure and telecommunications, he is able to quickly gather the resources needed for such a deployment. 

“I can pull everything together quite easily. With all the features and tools, we can set the gateway up in 5-10 minutes and its ready to be installed. The management tools enable me to monitor and manage the connectivity remotely, address issues as they come up, and when there is a problem with a network device, the out-of-band management feature enables me to get everything back online without having to dispatch a technician.”