Murco’s private wide area network (PWAN), is supplied and managed by specialist Unified Communications service provider, Timico. It enables Murco to manage its large and rapidly growing network of retail sites, which are spread across England, Scotland and Wales, via a robust and secure network capable of transporting various complex IP technologies to a business-strength standard.
“Murco is expanding its presence in the non-fuel retailing sector and Timico’s ability to migrate these 62 new sites smoothly across to our core network means that they will be up and running with our bespoke online reporting procedures very quickly. The Timico network has made us much more efficient and allowed Murco to manage a large, and growing network without increasing its staff,” says Umar Bajwa, Manager UK Networks, Murco Petroleum.
Management of Murco’s service stations used to involve manual daily reporting. The process was laborious and was always at least two weeks behind the event. In order to improve efficiency, Murco devised an online application which allowed each site manager to enter their report directly into the central system, and chose Timico to be its technology partner to connect the reporting system using the new wide area network.
“We chose Timico as our technology partner for a number of reasons. Firstly because they understood our technology requirements and could provide the kind of robust and secure IP infrastructure we needed. Secondly they could do all this at the best cost for us and thirdly, they are a good fit for us at Murco and we are able to interface at the right levels for the services we need – this wouldn’t happen with BT,” continues Umar Bajwa.
The Timico solution for Murco Petroleum includes a private wide area network (PWAN) connecting each retail site (using Murco specified architecture) and providing them with secure ADSL-based connectivity into the core network, and a co-located access control system, providing a firewall to the PWAN. Murco’s St Albans headquarters was also set up with a 10Mb leased line which provides Murco users with access to the PWAN and also to the Internet. Timico manages and monitors the core network for Murco.
“Now that the Timico network is in place, Murco is well positioned to take advantage of further efficiencies and is looking at introducing an intranet, which will allow managers of the retail sites to download general and site specific information. An online quality control application is also being developed,” concludes Umar Bajwa.
Chris Tombs, Chief Executive of Timico Group, comments: “A PWAN is the ideal low-cost solution for multi-site companies in the retail and other sectors, enabling every site to be seamlessly connected to the corporate network without the need for firewall equipment at every site. These businesses are more reliant than ever before on the data links between their sites and Timico’s flexible, scalable solutions tick all the boxes when it comes to connecting their growing networks.”