A Safe Investment For Rollins Orkin

What do pest control, wood blinds, and traffic signs have in common? Not a whole lot. But when you factor in a few forward-thinking professionals and some creative use of technology, you have three examples of how M2M (machine-to-machine) can make just about any business run smoother, safer, and most importantly smarter. Of course, adding M2M technology to your company culture has its risks  cost, time, training, and employee fears to name a few. Add an unstable economy to the mix, and it’s easy to see why you might be more than hesitant  to take the M2M plunge. But many companies are finding the benefits outweigh the risks, seeing positive results inside their four walls,out in the field, and in their P&L(profit and loss) statements.Three executives discuss their paths to M2M, hurdles met along the way, and ultimately why connecting their businesses has been well worth it.When it comes to taking care of hiscustomers, nothing is going to stand in David Shiller’s way. The chairman of Iselin, N.J.-based Blinds To Go has built his company on a “red carpet” service that promises custom-made window treatments within 48 hours of purchase and with 100% customer satisfaction. It’s a promise Shiller doesn’t take lightly and one that he learned more than 57 years ago when he sold products door to door. Loading up his family’s 1950s station wagon, Shiller would drive hundreds of miles in search of new customers while doing his best to maintain a loyal following. During those long treks across Canada, he learned that going the “extra mile” was the key to customer service and, ultimately, success.

 

With more than 120 retail locations throughout Canada and the U.S., it is pretty clear the entrepreneur’s philosophy is effective. Today, Shiller and his employees make every effort to ensure all facets of the company are built around convenience and reliability, from the time customers enter the store until their products are delivered to their doorstep. The company knew delivering on its founder’s promise meant having a bullet-proof retail POS (point-of-sale) system. Specifically, it needed a failover solution that would provide continuous uptime for store transactions with no interruptions in the event of an outage of the primary wired source of Internet connectivity (T1/Fiber, DSL, or cable, depending on location). Constantin Koutrias, systems administration for Blinds To Go, felt stronglythat a wireless solution was the answer. “Ninety percent of the issues with landline disruptions are in the last mile, so when your primary landline goes down, chances are your secondary landline he one you’re using for redundancy—will go down, too,” he explains. Blinds To Go approached its account team at Canadian-based Rogers Communication to help find a solution for its telecom backup challenges. Rogers supplied Koutrias with a demo unit—the CBA250 Mobile Broadband Travel Router from a company named CradlePoint for initial testing. After experimenting with a number of different models, Koutrias settled on CradlePoint’s MBR1000 Mobile Broadband ‘N’ Router 3G/4G wireless router. In the event of an outage of the primary Internet landline at a Blinds To Go site, the mobile broadband router automatically switches to its 3G/4G broadband connection within 30 seconds.