Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Canada

Overview

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is a high-end chocolatier with over 60 locations and franchises across Canada. They manufacture an extensive line of premium chocolate candies and other confectionery products, delivered fresh by a fleet of refrigerated trucks.

Original Networking Challenges

• Faulty routers led to network outages and other inconvenience
• Different hardware across stores made troubleshooting and repairs difficult
• Reliable network needed to support new mobile POS solution
• Manual updates and configuration changes could often take over a week

Why Cisco Meraki

• Secure, PCI-compliant solution to support POS system on store iPads
• Reliable WiFi for staff and customers, with separate SSIDs for both
• Stable product that can be monitored, configured, and updated through the cloud, with automatic failover on the MX security appliance to reduce network outages and ensure the POS is always running

The Deployment

• Started with a free trial and later deployed 1 MR18 access point and 1 MX60 security appliance to each store
• Local service providers took hardware to stores and plugged it in; no local configurations necessary
• Plug and play hardware allowed configurations to be pulled from the cloud
• Instant visibility and control from HQ as soon as devices were plugged in

Now with Meraki I have email alerts set up to let me know if, for example, the MX60 is down for more than 10 minutes. If the Internet dies, I know it before the store employees do.

Ray Carroll

IT Manager

Results

• Each store has 2-4 POS iPads and a member kiosk where customers can check their points in loyalty status program
• Separate PCs run software for chocolate-weighing scales and debit/credit software, both supported by the same secure, PCI compliant network
• Highly interactive and technology-driven customer engagement
• Plans to launch customer WiFi Facebook login for marketing purposes