Representatives from Magnet Plus and Culligan Water discuss the challenges and benefits of adapting internet connectivity for a business’s needs.
Internet connectivity for businesses is more important than ever.
With digitalisation now a key consideration for the majority of businesses, regardless of sector, maintaining strong connectivity is vital.
Culligan Water is a US-headquartered company that specialises in science-led water filtration.
In recent years, the company has cemented itself as a key provider of water filtration services in Ireland, having previously acquired a number of Irish businesses including Tipperary Water, Glenpatrick Water’s commercial drinking divisions, Celtic Water Solutions and Waterlogic.
It also recently announced plans to create more than 100 jobs at its Irish business as part of a multimillion-euro investment.
As Culligan Water was expanding its business across Ireland – it now operates from Dublin, Clare, Galway and Mitchelstown – it required secure and resilient connectivity that could support multiple locations.
As a result, it looked to Magnet Plus, an Irish company that provides telecoms, data connectivity and security services.
As a water filtration company that serves both homes and businesses, strong internet connectivity is central to a number of Culligan’s operations, as explained by Philip Clapperton, sales director at Magnet Plus.
“Customer service is central to how the company operates, and its customer service teams, scheduling systems, remote diagnostics, cloud-based applications and nationwide field operations all rely on internet connectivity,” he said. “Because any disruption could affect responsiveness and service delivery, resilience and business continuity were key requirements in finding the right solution.”
David Payne, director of operations at Culligan, told SiliconRepublic.com that to solve the connectivity challenge, Magnet Plus helped Culligan assess the connectivity requirements at each of its locations, including bandwidth, resilience, business continuity and deployment timelines.
“Rather than applying the same solution everywhere, we tailored the connectivity to the requirements of each site, combining DIA [dedicated internet access] fibre and DIA wireless where appropriate.”
According to Clapperton, the main implementation barrier was Culligan’s new warehouse and office development in Mitchelstown, Co Cork.
“As a greenfield site, a traditional fibre connection would have involved civil works, and those deployment timelines did not fit the project’s requirements,” he said.
“Culligan Water needed a faster route to connectivity, but without compromising on performance or reliability.”
Clapperton explained that Magnet Plus decided to implement a 500Mbps DIA wireless service, which is currently being deployed.
“A wireless service can be delivered significantly faster than traditional fibre and avoids the need for extensive civil engineering and ducting works, so the new facility can have reliable business connectivity from day one,” he said.
Both Payne and Clapperton said the new connectivity has yielded particular benefits for Culligan Water.
The company now has both DIA fibre and DIA wireless services working together across its Irish locations, and has improved both performance and resilience, according to Payne.
“Dublin now has 500Mbps DIA fibre and 500Mbps DIA wireless, while Claregalway has 1Gbps DIA fibre and 200Mbps DIA wireless,” he explained.
“This gives the business greater bandwidth for cloud applications and operational systems, while the dual connectivity approach helps maintain service continuity if one access route is disrupted.
“At Mitchelstown, the 500Mbps DIA wireless solution is also enabling the new facility to access high-performance connectivity significantly faster than would have been possible through a traditional fibre build.”
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