East of England Co-op eliminates network downtime across 200 sites

Failover times that once stretched to 90 seconds are now instantaneous for the East of England Co-op. By deploying Transaction Network Services (TNS) Secure SD-WAN across 200 locations, the retailer has replaced a fragmented, unreliable infrastructure with a unified, resilient network designed to support seamless point-of-sale transactions.

The previous network configuration created significant operational friction, as disjointed service providers left the organization with limited visibility and no single point of accountability. These technical hurdles frequently disrupted store performance, forcing the retailer to seek a more scalable architecture. The new TNS deployment consolidates various lines into a single, redundant connection that ensures uninterrupted back-office operations and customer-facing services.

Centralized dashboards now grant the company real-time oversight of its entire estate, strengthening security and simplifying compliance management. According to Richard Helliwell, Head of Technology Services, the transition provides a future-ready foundation for IoT initiatives, energy management, and advanced analytics. Beyond technical stability, the shift to a fully managed service model has yielded operational cost savings of 10–15% through line consolidation and reduced vendor complexity.