The chain, which had bought 100 new locations in three nearly simultaneous acquisition deals, needed to rapidly convert the new stores to its standard technology stack. The retailer has a longstanding policy of bringing its own technology into new stores rather than trying to incorporate new locations’ existing infrastructure into its environment. Continuing to run the old technology would introduce unacceptable levels of risk, Ogden explains. “They’re not doing technology validation prior to the acquisition,” she says. “Previous technology might not communicate well with what they have in place, and it might not meet their security standards.”

The Store in a Box kits contained everything from Cisco Meraki networking gear to Zebra Technologies handheld devices. “It’s all of their computers,” says Katie Gustafson, an associate project manager with CDW’s configuration services team. “It’s their printers, their point-of-sale systems. It’s iPads, it’s phones for their kitchens and their main office. We configure all of the equipment, we kit it, we put asset tags on everything and then we send it out.”

The result is ready-to-go IT infrastructure that can be installed rapidly. Ogden notes that Store in a Box didn’t merely “copy and paste” the chain’s existing branch IT infrastructure. Instead, CDW worked closely with the company to build out the optimal packing list, validating technologies from nearly a dozen different vendors. CDW coordinated with construction teams to make sure the tech would fit seamlessly into store spaces.

The retailer lacked comprehensive documentation on its previous store IT implementations, and an IT employee from the company actually embedded with CDW’s configuration team for two months to share his institutional knowledge. “There was no documentation prior to these acquisitions, and so we worked with that employee to stand up this program and build it out for the first time,” Ogden says. “We took what they’d done in the past and found a way to make it repeatable at a really high level. Now, we can stand up the build at multiple warehouses, so the resiliency is much higher.”

The number of hours, spread over four days, it previously took the retail chain’s internal tech team to equip a new store location

Source: CDW

Prior to the expansion, the retailer had revamped its technology leadership team. The new team prioritized keeping internal staffers focused on high-value strategic projects while relying on partners such as CDW for “commodity” services including IT configuration.

“You’re supposed to leverage your core competencies,” Goldin notes. “For them, that is high-quality convenience stores. They’re not a tech integrator, so they need partners that have that skill set, that bench space and that experience.”

By working with CDW, the retailer streamlined both procurement and deployment. Previously, equipment from different vendors would arrive at warehouses or branch locations in staggered shipments, leaving installers to sift through dozens of packages as they tried to stand up new stores as quickly as possible. “By partnering with CDW, they are now using a single partner that is responsible for all of these items,” Goldin says. “There are a lot of efficiencies, because we’re doing this in a controlled environment and getting rid of the additional items that they might not need.”

Ogden says Store in a Box helped improve the retailer’s visibility into its IT spending and also gave the company access to CDW’s buying power and vendor relationships. “I definitely think we put the company in an advantageous position,” she says. “If they have a sudden acquisition and need 200 PIN pads right away, we can leverage our buying power and our relationships in a much different way than they could on their own.”

In any large rollout, Gustafson says, there will be hiccups. But she notes that CDW has the experience to quickly pivot in response to construction delays, extreme weather or other unexpected events. “When it seems like the wheels are falling off and everything is going wrong, we’re used to pulling it back together,” she says. “We have experience coming up with creative solutions to overcome roadblocks. It’s what we’re good at.”