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Nature of business – shared office space
Workshop17 offers flexible work and meeting spaces, open 24/7 to individuals, teams and corporates in over 10 locations in SA & a number of sites in Mauritius. Winner of Best Co-working space at the 2022 African Startup Awards. Its clients include executives from leading businesses.
Business Problem
It was critical to Workshop 17’s business model to guarantee 100% connectivity as well as provide a fair & secure connectivity experience to all clients to cater for their various needs which include downloads, uploads, VoIP calls, online meetings & video conferences. Workshop 17 implemented Nepean Networks’ SD-WAN in all locations. (For example, some sites have more than 1000 connected devices during the day)
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Nature of business – retail fuel sector
Astron Energy forecourts providing fuel, fast-food & convenience store related products.
Business Problem
The site was dependent on a 10mbps microwave link which was unreliable. When the linked failed all operations stopped as the fuel management and point of sale was offline. Data corruption occurred during an upload process resulted a in manual recon which took many days & limited bandwidth effected security camera monitoring. SD-WAN with an aggregated fibre & business wireless connection solved all issues. Return from staying open exceeded the cost of the solution.
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Nature of business – medical aid company
At a leading medical aid company, staff worked in an office connected to an onsite network. Staff could continue to work on the network even if connectivity failed. During Covid staff began to work remotely & needed to connect to the network.
Business Problem
If the office network was offline, remote employees could not work. Therefore the office needed to remain 100% connected using multiple connections with enough bandwidth to serve all the remote employees connecting to the onsite network. SD-WAN was applied to maintain connectivity & manage the high traffic volume.
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Nature of Business – Educational & Training Businesses
An business focused on training coding in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. The training material and tools used for training students is in the cloud, hence remaining connected to critical to it day to day activities.
Business Problem
The business needed to monitor students to ensure connectivity is used to complete online task and not used for other activities. The SD-WAN analytics and visibility tools enabled monitoring & compliance. Data is used to support any disciplinary cases when student get caught. Also used to monitor porn, malware, dark web and other prohibited activities.
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Nature of business – fruit packing & distribution
A business that operates a fruit packaging and distribution business which has multiple locations. The head office is located in a city while the packing facility is in the rural area close to the farmers. At harvest time the packed fruit is distributed 24/7 to buyers in SA and internationally. (Trucks need to keep moving)
Business Problem
It is critical for all sites to remain 100% connected to the business's ERP system especially during harvest time. As fruit has a limited lifespan, lost time caused by connectivity issues could results in financial loss if the logistic is not coordinated to get the packed fruit to waiting customers and cargo ships. SD-WAN maintains 100% connectivity using multiple links.
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Nature of Business – Logistics Business
A business focused on moving high value security escorted cargo for various local and international customers. It is critical for the business to monitor cargo received & dispatched out of its warehouses.
Business Problem
Connectivity issues which caused a customer to terminate services. Hence the requirement to stay 100% connected to track live the movement of goods and serve customer requirements without any down time delayed resulted in SD-WAN being implemented & easily integrated to the customers existing firewall and network.
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Broad Media owns South Africa’s largest business and technology publications – BusinessTech and MyBroadband. It has launched the motoring publication TopAuto in 2021, and the investment news and analysis platform, Daily Investor, in 2022. Broad Media also runs two popular online talk shows – What’s Next with Aki Anastasiou and Business Talk with Michael Avery – and runs regular online and in-person events.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-fusion-better-ronald-bartels/
### **Business Problem**
It is critical for deadlines to be met and as an online publishing platform Broad Media cannot afford to be down. Using Nepean Networks keeps journalists connected and meeting those deadlines, as the primary fibre cannot be relied upon to be always on.
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Nature of business – student accommodation
Situation in the heart of Doornfontein opposite the University of Johannesburg Campus, Rapport House is the location of the previous head quarters of the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper, the Rapport that has been converted to student accommodation.
Business Problem
Connectivity issues cause stress and havoc for students who are reliant on the Internet for their students. It is thus crucial to have a stable and reliable WiFI and Internet connection for every student.
Nepean Networks solved this problem by using fibre from DFA and microwave links from Comsol.
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Nature of business – Internet Service Provider
Webafrica are an independent South African ISP, bringing you the online world with affordable, fast and reliable internet connections through Fasterfast Fibre, lightning-fast LTE, Naked ADSL and Webafrica Voice (VoIP) services.
Business Problem
During the Covid19 pandemic all Webafrica employees started working from home. This resulted in their office space being unused and they allowed the leases to lapse. After the pandemic, Webafrica became one of the first companies in South Africa to implement a generic work from home policy. However, it soon became clear that a hybrid solution would be better. Webafrica thus on-boarded as a tenant at leading South Africa co-location provider Workshop17 and now Nepean Networks provides services to Webafrica and over 300 remote workers using L2TP/IPsec VPN connections.
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Nature of business – rural retail stores
Expert Stores is an international association of independent electronic and appliance retailers. The group was founded in 1967 and has its international headquarters in Switzerland. Within the last 50 years, Expert has grown into a strong international brand, being the third largest acquirer of appliances and electronics in Europe. Expert sales in Europe, have increased substantially over the last decade and at rates significantly outperforming the market average.
Business Problem
Expert Stores in South Africa are often located in rural communities where connectivity is problematic. Nepean Networks assisted a store located in Queenstown to connect their store via Vodacom fibre, business wireless and LTE. Nepean Networks was for the first to provide Expert Stores with a stable connection. Additionally, Nepean Networks connected the stores point of sale and VoIP to the cloud thus delivering business chital applications in a secure and reliable manner. The shop hosts a Vodacom dealership and as a result of this experience it has also on-boarding the largest hardware shop in Queenstown as a customer.
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Nature of business – entrepreneurship
Workshop17 and the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship have partnered together a state-of-the-art sound and video recording space, Studio17 at Workshop17 Kloof. Studio17 offers the perfect platform for entrepreneurs to create content and inspire others while sharing advice and business ideas.
Business Problem
"Screw it! Let's Do it!" was the motto to get down to the podcasting business for Studio17. But they required a stable Internet to connect the professional gear and digital access for guests to join remotely on Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts and Skype. Nepean Networks makes that happen and Studio17 and their guests are able to hang their names in lights in no time at all!
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Nature of business – Hockey festival
The Saints Sports Festival is a much-loved and highly anticipated event on the St Stithians College calendar. 2023 celebrated the 70th birthday of the College and the Campus fields, courts and astros were filled with happy and fulfilled students. The Festival is an eagerly awaited opportunity for the community belonging of current and past parents and students to come together, to gather, meet and reminisce. Games then took place including Tennis, both the mens' and womens' hockey, netball, rugby, football and squash.
Business Problem
Supersport School was the broadcasting partner for the festival. However, the mobile connectivity partner pulled out at the last minute and no-one else was available. Comsol Networks in collaboration with Nepean Networks and Cammington stepped up the plate and delivered not only connectivity for the streaming of the event via Supersport Schools but also provide WiFI hotspots for the players and flat screen sports stream for the VIP tents.
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Nature of business – Veterinary Hospital
Fourways Veterinary Hospital is a full-service small animal hospital that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide expert care for pets that need emergency and critical assistance. They also offer a full range of referral services including Specialist Veterinary Medicine, Specialist Surgery, Dentistry and primary health care.
Business Problem
The modern animal hospital and practice is totally reliant on the Internet for their IT systems as well as voice communications. The hospital thus required a automated solution that protected their last mile fibre links with microwave which was supplied by Comsol. ADSL was also used as connectivity of last resort.
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Nature of business – Work from home
During the pandemic many business reduced head count located in offices and people started working from home. This trend has continued, and many companies have embraced a hybrid working model.
Business Problem
The issue with working from home is inconsistent Internet connectivity on fibre and outages caused by either breaks or regional backhaul problems. To solve this issue Nepean Networks was able to provide work from home users a connection both on Vuma and Openserve and thereby provide practically 100% uptime.
The homes were fitted with mini-UPs that powered the SD-WAN, ONTs and OpenWRT APs.
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Nature of business – MVNO
A new MVNO with a non-contract approach to selling mobile services entered the South African market using the MTN network.
Business Problem
The MVNO required a top notch VoIP call centre capable ofservicing the new clients. Approached by Itried, Nepean Networks assisted in providing a SD-WAN service that has great QoS and crystal-clear voice. Since contact with the client was one of the most key functions required to make the MNO successfully, the bidirectional QoS combined with bandwidth adaption delivered.
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Nature of business – cybersecurity services
A cybersecurity management service provider which is engaged in providing cyber resilience solutions and conducts its commercial presence across Middle East & Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. This international group delivers services and technology licenses to enhance clients’ protections against unwanted intrusions, to provide and enhance cyber resilience and to prevent various forms of information theft.
Business Problem
Approached by Cammington, this managed service provider was having problems maintain reliable connectivity using both fibre and fixed wireless. Nepean Networks came to the rescue as a SD-WAN solution with network pedigree and fast fail-over times.
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Nature of business – Hosting provider
A prominent hosting provider based in Gauteng serves numerous clients, both locally and internationally, who rely on their hosted financial and accounting solutions.
Business Problem
The hosting provider faced the critical challenge of ensuring uninterrupted uptime for their hosting environment. Downtime or session drops could have severe consequences for their clients' businesses, necessitating a robust and reliable solution. To address the hosting provider's requirement for 100% uptime, Nepean Networks implemented an SD-WAN solution tailored to their specific needs. The solution leveraged multiple connectivity options to ensure redundancy and uninterrupted service. The SD-WAN solution was configured to utilize both fibre connections via Vumatel and Openserve, as well as a microwave link through Comsol. By combining these diverse connectivity options, Nepean Network' SD-WAN achieved exceptional reliability and uptime for the hosting provider's critical operations.
With Nepean Networks’ SD-WAN in place, the hosting provider experienced seamless failover and recovery, even in the event of redundant links failing or recovering. This ensured uninterrupted connectivity and eliminated session drops, delivering on the hosting provider's 100% uptime requirement.
The Nepean Networks’ SD-WAN solution provided the hosting provider with the peace of mind they needed, allowing them to confidently serve their clients with reliable and highly available hosting services.
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Nature of business – Airline food catering
The primary catering business used by airlines operating out of both the Johannesburg and Cape Town airport hubs.
Business Problem
The business faced dealing with an unreliable Internet connection caused by a fibre solution that was constantly compromised by external factors common in the region. The latest has been reported on MyBroadband.
The connectivity problems resulted in catering orders being missed for flights which caused scheduling problems as well as customer dissatisfaction. Nepean Networks was able to improve the Internet reliability by installing an additional wireless link from Comsol and a new edge solution and the location that dramatically improved security and availability.
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Nature of business – Audio conferencing
A service provider which provides premium Audio Conferencing, Video Conferencing, Audio & Video Media Streaming, and Collaboration Tools. Each conference needs to be a success, to earn loyalty from the most demanding, high level customers, takes unparalleled commitment to excellence and hard work.
Business Problem
The service provider faced repeated last mile issues and need a solution that never dropped calls or conferences in a fail-over situation. Nepean Networks’ SD-WAN delivered.
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Nature of Business – Financial Services Provider
A leading financial services provider in Rosebank which includes retirement funds, medical aid funds and not for profit organizations.
Business Problem
The financial services provider faced difficulties using services from a single ISP which was using one of the FNOs in the area. The service had availability issues and Nepean Networks was able to leverage alternative connectivity paths available in the same building to ensure 0% downtime.
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Nature of business – tank manufacturing
Leading supplier and manufacturer of press steel and rectangular water storage tanks in Africa.
Business Problem
Without reliable connectivity, manufacturers have problems coordinating operations. This manufacturer had most of its functionality for operations being supplied by cloud services. It was this crucial to have a service that was provided optimal cloud access and Nepean Networks delivered.
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Nature of business – medical equipment supplier
A supplier of X-ray, Ultrasound, Radiation Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, PACS, and Dental Equipment.
Business Problem
The supplier need to have the ability to communicate with customers seamlessly and without interruption especially while providing technical support to complex medical equipment. The supplier tuned to Nepean Networks’ SD-WAN to provide this uninterrupted communications.
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Nature of business – Rural Wireless Internet Service Provider
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) in a rural town in the northern provinces of South Africa that supplies connectivity to subscribers within the town as will as business in the surround areas.
Business Problem
The WISP need a solution that could bond and aggregated various backhaul fibre solutions from various operators and ISPs. Nepean Networks installed their SD-WAN solution at various towns within the region and was able to lower the operating costs of the WISP. Additional subscribers to the WISP service immediately noticed that there were no session drops when watching video streaming services such as Netflix. Previously faults would cause drops in the streams and dissatisfaction. This was a great win for the WISP and their subscribers!
Ronald Bartels ensures that Internet inhabiting things are connected reliably online at Nepean Networks - the leading specialized SD-WAN provider in South Africa. Learn more about the best SD-WAN in the world: 👉 Contact Nepean Networks
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