Wireless kept us afloat

Value Logistics is a supply-chain service provider that offers customers a one-stop-shop of services that includes truck rental, transport, long-distance transport, forklift hire, warehousing, distribution of break-bulk, forwarding and clearing.

It has approximately 2 000 employees countrywide, providing services to clients in the automotive, consumer electronics, clothing and textiles, refrigerated transport and chemicals industries. It also has a specialised division that handles hazardous chemical products. The company opened a new site in Germiston two years ago.

Says CTO Peter Fuller: "We struggled and struggled to get Diginet; we were desperate. In the end, Business Connexion (BCX) suggested we go for a wireless radio solution. We had also experimented with our own radio solution [and] were not aware of the legalities. Once we became aware of [the legal issues], we handed it over to BCX and they ran that too. This was 18 months ago."

BCX provides Value Logistics with three wireless links, a 256kbps link to the site in Germiston, a 2Mbps link to the Value Logistics Value City branch, and a 4Mbps link between Value City and the head office. Links to a further four branches around the country are in the pipeline.

"We were previously running a 64k line to the West Rand [Value City] site, which had three people," Fuller explains. "The site now has 20 people and we couldn't get the line upgraded. After nine months, we couldn't wait any longer, so we put in a wireless link."

In our business, it's all about how fast you can get up and running - and Telkom was killing us.

Peter Fuller, CTO, Value Logistics

Fuller is completely satisfied with the bandwidth solution offered by BCX.

"Bandwidth doesn't seem to be a problem at all [these days]," he says. "We do have a bursting arrangement, [which means that we] can go over cap at peak times. Reliability is nine, nine-and-a-half out of ten."

Fuller awards the half-point due to the fact that the connections drop packets when the weather is overcast and rainy.

"The benefits to our business are availability and time-to-market," he states. "In our business, it's all about how fast you can get up and running - and Telkom was killing us. The new site in Germiston houses 500 people. We got a call from Telkom last week asking if we were ready for the Diginet line to be installed. We've been there for two years and had the radio link for 18 months. Wireless has allowed us to stay in business. I left the upgrade request in place for the West Rand site, which has been there for a year. We can't work like that."

Value Logistics has in the region of 15 outstanding requests with Telkom that are more than six months old.

"One by one we will be switching to radio links," says Fuller. "The first one will be for our car rental business, which has grown tremendously. The pipe is not big enough so we will convert it to radio in the next month or two. We're not going to do all 15 [installations], as the cost may be prohibitive. Some are minor, where we want 128kbps lines, for example. The bigger ones, where we need 256kbps and better, will have to use radio links. As the price becomes cheaper, which I think is inevitable, we will look at the bigger sites and consider installing radio bandwidth and IP telephony between them."

As Fuller says, the biggest advantage to his company is availability and time to market.

"It takes [roughly] two weeks between signing the order and getting up and running. That comprises around eight days to get the link installed and a few days of fine-tuning where we reposition the antenna slightly, leave it for an hour or two, move it again if need be, and so on," he adds.

Wireless links are not widely considered to be viable Diginet replacements, which is something BCX acknowledges.

Says Julian Liebenberg, divisional executive at Business Connexion Communications: "Business Connexion does not necessarily recommend the removal of any Diginet infrastructure, but rather suggests that the two technologies can be used in tandem for redundancy. For its branches, however, Value Logistics uses its wireless infrastructure for connectivity. Future Value Logistics branches will either follow this mould or will feature wireless infrastructure that plays a load balancing role, in which traffic is shared by Diginet and wireless."

Whichever method Value Logistics selects to connect its countrywide infrastructure going forward, one thing is clear: if it wasn't for fixed-line alternatives, it probably wouldn't have branch offices to connect to at all.