Żabka stores with modern internet access – the world’s largest deployment of Cisco SD-WAN technology

Żabka stores with modern internet access – the world’s largest deployment of Cisco SD-WAN technology

Żabka, a leader in technological development among retail chains in Poland, together with its partners has implemented a modern Cisco SD-WAN network in its stores, integrated with the company’s business systems. In this way, it has provided unified internet access to all of the more than 9800 outlets operating under its banner. This is the largest implementation of its kind in the world on a single technology platform, enabling further dynamic growth of Żabka.

Żabka stores, located almost all over the country, have so far used a VPN that allowed a maximum of 10,000 outlets to be connected. This limit would be reached later this year. At the peak, the stores were using the services of 300 different Internet providers, which offered different quality and technology of the connection.

– The dynamic growth of the Żabka chain makes it necessary for us to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of our franchisees. Nowadays, a store without stable Internet access loses its raison d’être, cannot provide extensive services to our customers or take advantage of the digital ecosystem we make available to our franchisees, so to maintain the dynamics of our development and ensure the comfort of work of the entrepreneurs cooperating with us, the implementation of this project was a priority for us. The implementation of a modern SD-WAN network, completed together with our partners, provides our stores with a stable connection to the internet, as well as opening up the possibility of implementing new services – said Jakub Masłowski, Director of Technology, Żabka Group.

The SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) technology, implemented in Żabka stores in cooperation with Trecom and Cisco, allows for the unlimited connection of further devices and outlets, offers the possibility of integration with other systems, and reduces the time spent on maintenance and ongoing administration to a minimum.

– Cisco SD-WAN is a software-defined and cloud-delivered wide area network that enables businesses and organizations to securely connect users to their applications. We are extremely pleased that Żabka has chosen to implement this state-of-the-art solution and are confident that it will help the company grow further. We are also very impressed by the competence and innovative approach of the Trecom engineering team, which proved crucial to the success of this implementation – said Przemysław Kania, General Manager of Cisco in Poland.

In cooperation with Trecom, Żabka’s teams prepared the infrastructure together with the software, minimizing store unavailability during the migration to the new solution to a few minutes. Thanks to efficient coordination, distribution, instructions, notification, and communication to franchisees, the implementation took place simultaneously even in more than 250 outlets per day. The application developed by Trecom guided the franchisees step-by-step through the device installation process, automating configuration and testing. It also served to integrate the SD-WAN with Żabka’s main business systems: SAP and Salesforce, as well as the Power BI platform. The application also allows for the automation of chain management, including relationships with nearly 300 operators providing internet connectivity.

The primary benefit of implementing an SD-WAN network integrated with business systems is the creation of a stable foundation for Żabka’s further development. This allows the company to smoothly pursue further goals: including increasing the number of outlets over the next few years.