Grocery wholesaler keeps trucks rolling with essential food and supplies during pandemic response with expedited bandwidth upgrade from Consolidated
MATTOON, Ill. – April 22, 2020 – Consolidated Communications (NASDAQ: CNSL), recently assisted Associated Grocers of New England (AGNE), based in Pembroke, N.H. by quadrupling its bandwidth through an expedited order and enhanced equipment to stay connected to grocery retailers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic response.
AGNE is the largest retailer-owned wholesale distribution center in New England, serving more than 600 supermarkets and convenience stores across the region. At a time when consumers are clearing supermarket shelves, AGNE needed increased bandwidth to enable employees to work safely at home and to maintain its essential platforms, keeping trucks rolling and shelves stocked with essential products.
Dan Kaplan, AGNE’s director of IT, said the timeline to install the necessary high-performance managed router upgrade bandwidth was initially several weeks. In the meantime, he implemented plans to cut bandwidth use, including nightly system back-ups to reserve bandwidth for other applications and remote work. Consolidated’s expedited order process, coupled with rapid procurement and installation of the router, quickly boosted AGNE’s bandwidth in a matter of days instead of weeks.
“Increasing our bandwidth quickly was critical for us to support our warehouse employees and drivers to get essential products out to retailers,” said Kaplan. “Consolidated’s team was well prepared and great to work with, making the transition to the upgraded solution seamless. In my opinion it could not have gone better, having experienced many other cut-overs.”
“The grocery supply chain is even more critical during this time due to the closure of other food outlets, such as restaurants and schools,” said Cindy Caldwell, vice president finance and IT at AGNE. “The food needs are normally dispersed among many entities, but now more than ever, consumers are relying on grocery stores like ours and we’re doing our best to meet those needs.”
For critical businesses like AGNE and others, no matter the size, Consolidated is finding solutions to meet complex needs and changing requirements.
“As a critical infrastructure provider, our responsibility is to provide reliable products and stable services to meet our customers’ communications needs especially during a time of crisis,” said Bob Udell, president and chief executive officer at Consolidated Communications. “I’m incredibly proud of our teams that continue to work tirelessly during this unprecedented time to support our customers and ensure reliable services.”
Tom White, chief technology officer at Consolidated, said the company’s network continues to perform well under the increased demands of data and voice traffic. "Our network is designed to scale with the bandwidth needs of our customers and we continually monitor and augment our network to support their needs,” White said. “Our fiber backbone and built-in redundancy combined with our 24/7/365 monitoring and proactive support helps customers maintain business continuity.”
Among the solutions helping other businesses during this time is Consolidated’s ProConnect Unified Communications (UC) and collaboration platform, which integrates communications and enables employees to work from home with the same features they have in the office. The Company’s data centers support business continuity plans for critical applications and data. Consolidated is also helping businesses maintain network security and move their applications to the Cloud with the Company’s Cloud Peer Connect and Cloud Secure solutions. Consolidated’s Help at Work web page has additional information on critical functions businesses should consider as they respond to the pandemic.
Business customers can learn more about how Consolidated can help by contacting their Consolidated account manager or emailing CCI.business@consolidated.com. Customer service and support teams are ready to assist residential customers and can answer calls, log tickets and troubleshoot remotely. Customers also can call 844.YOUR.CCI
or access their account online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
About Consolidated Communications
Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSL) is a leading broadband and business communications provider serving consumers, businesses, and wireless customers, and wireline carriers across rural and metro communities and in a 23-state service area. Leveraging an advanced fiber network spanning 37,500 fiber route miles, Consolidated Communications offers a wide range of communications solutions, including high-speed Internet, data, phone, security, managed services, cloud services and wholesale, carrier solutions. From our first connection 125 years ago, Consolidated is dedicated to turning technology into solutions, connecting people and enriching how they work and live. Visit http://www.consolidated.com/ for more information.