Home Bargains has partnered with Managed Network Solutions provider, Evolve Business Group, to bring resilient, secure payments and connectivity to its 650+ UK stores.

Having already deployed the solution in 50 locations, the partnership will simplify and strengthen the retailer’s network infrastructure to support its continued growth. Home Bargains already serves over 7million customers every week and it now plans to grow its portfolio to 1,000 stores throughout the UK, opening ~50 new stores each year.

Reliability & visibility

Consolidating multiple legacy networks, including payments and CCTV, the new managed solution is proactively monitored by Evolve’s technical support desk, to deliver improved reliability, greater visibility of performance and reduced resolution times for any issues.

The new network from Evolve has been designed to maximise uptime, with diverse connections into each store backed up with automatic failover to maintain connectivity if one line goes down.

In addition, firewall rules and configuration changes will be updated automatically across all Home Bargains stores, enabling new features to be rolled out instantly for rapid delivery and reduced administration.

Improved resilience

“The partnership with Evolve has simplified our infrastructure and improved resilience, offering value without compromising on service and quality,” said Tony Mullen, Head of IT Infrastructure and Services at Home Bargains. “These upgrades will support us and our customers as we continue to expand.”

Evolve has also implemented several bespoke elements for Home Bargains, which will ensure the network remains fast, compliant and future-proof with technologies, such as fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) connectivity. It has also established highly secure connections to payment data centres and gift card hosts, to ensure adherence to full PCI compliance.

“As another fast-growing North West business, we’re proud to support [Home Bargain’s] success with a secure, reliable and efficient network designed exactly to their needs,” Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO at Evolve Business Group, commented. 

“Whatever matters most to our customers, our team is dedicated to going the extra mile to deliver innovative technology and personalised support that enables them to grow with confidence,” Stephenson-Brown added.