Wireless at branch offices, or Ramen for your Distribution Centers or Regional Sales Centers

Core and Main leverages Ramen’s Wireless Networking Service to roll out a Microsoft Dynamics based ERP system in their regional sales offices

Core & Main is a leading specialized distributor of water, wastewater, storm drainage and fire protection products, and related services, built on the foundation of more than 100 legacy companies. They operate more than 350 branches nationwide to provide contractors and municipalities innovative solutions for new construction and aging infrastructure. A key value they bring to their acquisitions is their national supply chain, which they are upgrading to run on Microsoft Dynamics 365. To get full value, they need reliable wireless connectivity over their warehouses and stocking yards so all inventory items can be tracked using wireless scanners and found Ramen as their most cost-effective partner to provide this.

Executive Summary

Core & Main is an industry leader in their targeted product space. They have become leader by bringing propriety technology solutions that drive operational efficiencies and enhance the customer experience. Selling 200,000+ products to 60,000+ customers through 350 branch offices requires being able to keep track of incoming and outgoing products with great precision. To execute on this vision, they needed wireless coverage in their warehouses and stocking yards and a desire to get this without building a large in-house IT team led them to Ramen Inc. By partnering with Ramen, they were able to deploy the reliable wireless coverage rapidly in 8 offices in 2024 and will cover 60 more in the first quarter of 2025. The Ramen solution offered them 60% lower costs than any other alternative.

Highlights

By offering the network as a service, Ramen eliminated the need for Core & Main to hire additional staff and enabled them to achieve high quality coverage wat 60% lower cost than any other managed service option. Ramen works with Core & Main’s preferred installers to roll out coverage at each office.

Challenge

Core & Main planned to upgrade the IT infrastructure of their existing regional sales offices to support a modern ERP system based on Microsoft Dynamics 365. They are also acquiring companies that bring them more sales offices. These come with their own IT solutions of varying quality. Several of their regional offices include large warehouses and outdoor stocking yards. Getting reliable wireless coverage rapidly required a partner who could support them with a wireless solution that could integrate seamlessly with their CloudGenix gateways and Juniper switches. Ramen Inc offered them a full palate of wireless technologies in one platform that was structured to enable them to monitor many offices from one dashboard and dive into any specific site to get full visibility.

Solution

For Core & Main, Ramen provides a combination of LTE (in the CBRS band) and WiFi with the LTE core implemented in the cloud. The Ramen solution scales cost effectively from 5000 sq ft offices to 150,000 sq ft offices covering all Core & Main’s wireless needs. In place where the legacy Ethernet wiring is not up to par, Ramen deploys mm-wave links to enable reliable backhaul of the wireless APs.

A cloud connection to the Ramen Cloud Management system facilitates remote network monitoring and enables seamless software upgrades. The Ramen deployed wireless network works with the CloudGenix platform they have chosen.

Impact

By partnering with Ramen, the customer is on track to enable the rollout of their new ERP system rapidly over 100s of offices over a period of three quarters. This accelerated timeline allowed recurring operational savings to begin sooner, while reducing costs by 60%.