Case Study | Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad

Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad, Malaysia

Malaysias largest local wholesaler achieved greater efficiencies in their operations and infrastructure management that deliver just-in-time communications and services with Allied Telesis end-to-end networking solutions.

Case Study | Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad

THE CUSTOMER
Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad had its humble beginnings back in 1957 in the same year that Malaysia got its independence. The founder, Mr. Mydin Mohamed was a keen trader. His first shop was in Kota Baru, Kelantan where he catered to the needs of the Indian Muslim community. Following his success in Kelantan, he decided to open another branch in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at the Masjid Jamek area. From there on, through sheer hard work and keen business acumen, there was no turning back. Today, Mydin is the largest local wholesaler in Malaysia that serves all communities. It has 4,000 employees across 28 branches nationwide. In the hypermarket industry, having the right technology is the key that enables business to grow profitably and compete successfully in the market. Mydin has to be constantly on its toes to cater to its customers ever-changing needs. This means that Mydin has to provide its products at the right time and at the right price to the right customer while ensuring excellent service. The objective is to achieve marketing speed and overall efficiency of operations and supply chain management. From the suppliers to the logistics and warehouse, to Mydins ground staff and to the management team, efficiency and productivity are important factors for timely and accurate decision-making. With so many strong competitors in the local retail outlets, one cannot afford to be tardy. To differentiate itself, Mydin had to redefine the value it brings to its customers. Mydins brand name signifies convenience, quality and value for money. Thus, it looks into Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to achieve these goals. management team. To date, the hypermart has put in place the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, IP telephony system, Point of Sales (POS) system, business intelligence system, logistics and manufacturing system, security surveillance and many more. Tying and linking all these systems together so that they can communicate to one another is very crucial because the network infrastructure is the backbone of our entire IT system. In a way, it is the bloodline of our ICT infrastructure that affects our day to day operations, said Malik Murad Ali, IT Manager of Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad. The companys previous networking systems were not able to complement and supports the complexity of their systems. As a result enormous costs and additional resources are needed to reconcile the problems and transactions faced by the employees and customers.

Challenges and Issues

Mydin manages over 200,000 unique items and processes millions worth of transactions daily. Its key challenge is to gain insight into these huge volumes of transactions. The company needs to track the exact products and volumes of goods flowing in and out of the company. Next, a real-time network infrastructure is required to drive incremental sales and top line results. Mydin next move is to improve the communication with all its 28 branches nationwide. Its suppliers typically have a very small quota for promotional items. If we want to buy in bulk to enjoy greater savings, we need to act fast to place the orders on the same day. Therefore, determining each stores inventory and quota at the shortest time possible is the real challenge. In the past, we are unable to take full advantage of the promotional offers when they are available, said Malik. It is therefore important that timely and accurate information can reach the right person at the time to aid them in their daily operations and decision making. In this way, additional business value can be delivered to customers when real-time in-formation can be accessed by the sales personnel and store managers. In order to fuel their growth, Mydin sets out to look for a standard based solution that can complement and support its current IT systems; a solution that is reliable, scalable and robust.
www.alliedtelesis.com

THE CHALLENGE
Situation Analysis
Getting the right information to the right people at the right time is crucial. Mydins top priority is to ensure consistent flow of communication in their supply chain network, from the suppliers, to logistics and warehouse, to the ground staff and
Page 2 | Allied Telesis Case Study: Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad

Selection Criteria
Mydin was looking at value for money pricing, good customer support and an open and direct communication with its vendor as its key selection criteria. After a thorough selection process, Mydin chose Allied Telesis, one of the leading global IP networking solutions leaders. Allied Telesis products are standard based. Apart from the standard criteria of reliable, scalable and robust, their products were able to complement most of our other IT systems. Open communication is especially important to us. Im happy that Allied Telesis met all these criteria. I am also very grateful for their openness in accepting issues and to immediately rectify these issues. That is why we have standardized on Allied Telesis products. Allied Telesis AT-8300/8000S series advanced stackable Layer 2 managed switches for ACCESS needs. The proposed solution is an end-to-end Layer 3 network with advanced functionality that ensures availability, manageability, security, adaptability and performance that compliance to Mydins design and business objective. The overall backbone designed is based on redundant collapsed gigabit backbone with scalability in mind. 640Gbps switching performances at the CORE provide non-blocking high-speed transfer of data packets to and from the server farm and access. Core IP routing with advanced, flexible Policy-Based Quality of Service, rich and proven multicast support and a comprehensive set of configuration and control features to simplify administration and maintenance tasks. The design also incorporates the needs to control and provide efficiency in delivering of data application and future support for Voice and Video deployment.

The Solution
Allied Telesis proposed the LAN infrastructure elements that comprise the SwitchBlade which was equipped with high performance feature rich, Layer 3 switch as CORE and

SERVER FARM

Internet
LACP

Router

AT-SB4108 SwitchBlade

CORE ACCESS
AT-8300 Series
1Gbps 10/100 Mbps

www.alliedtelesis.com

Allied Telesis Case Study: Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad | Page 3

Case Study | Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad

AT- SB4108 8 line card slots supporting up to 384 ports of 10/100TX (RJ-45), 256 ports of 100FX, 4 ports of 1000X or combinations Provides uncompromised packet switching performance, enabled by a non-blocking switch fabric delivering Layer 2 and Layer 3 IP/IPX data at wirespeed on all ports regardless of packet size. With advanced QoS, up to 128Gbps switching capacity and MAC/IP addresses scalable to 232,000, the SB4108 switches boost network performance by eliminating congestion. The SB4108 switches offer all the functionality required.

AT-8326GB 4 port 10/100TX managed stackable Fast Ethernet switch plus 2 copper Gigabit ports and 2 GBIC bays Pass traffic with wirespeed performance and non-blocking architecture. Stacked up to 144 ports with the integrated stacking modules, the AT-8326GB pass data packets at an impressive stacked backplane speed of 2.66Gbps. Features includes IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging, IEEE 802.1p Prioritization, IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation, Group VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP), Port Security, and Port Mirroring. Based on IEEE 802.3ad, the AT-8326GB supports up to 3 trunk groups.

AT-8000S series Layer 2 Stackable Fast Ethernet Switch The 8000S series with wide range of port densities and uplink options ensures that the majority of network designs can be cost-effectively built. The AT-8000S series supports IP voice and data networking QoS with 8 traffic priority types in 4 queues per port, with 802.1p for layer 2 networking and DSCP (Diffserv) for layer 3. It also features 802.1p to DSCP remarking, to prepare traffic ready for transport over the layer 3 portion of the network.

Page 4 | Allied Telesis Case Study: Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad

www.alliedtelesis.com

Results
The decision of choosing Allied Telesis and the investment proved worthwhile. Mydin started to see an improvement in its network infrastructure within the first few months itself. Now, the IT department is able to monitor its network in a more proactive manner. And if there is a problem, the IT team will be able to know the issue/s in real time. In the near future, the company expects more savings both in terms of business and IT management costs. From the business aspect, the company now gains timely, accurate and consistent management and financial information that enable it to monitor activities and transactions more closely and react proactively to any changes in its environment and the supply chain management. In terms of IT management costs, applications of the solution give Mydin the ability to attain a competitive advantage improved services and communications, while internal & external customers gain operational efficiency and increased productivity. I am impressed by how rich and detailed the functions of Allied Telesis switches are and of course the credit goes to Allied Telesis team who has the in-depth knowledge and expertise in the technology and technical and requirements of the retail industry, said Malik. Mydin will be adding another 14-15 branches in the next 36 months and all these branches will have to come into its network infrastructure systems. I look forward to work with the Allied Telesis team again in the near future. This will help strengthen our partnership ties and enhance our working relationship, concluded Malik.

Allied Telesis
Founded in 1987, Allied Telesis is a member of the Allied Telesis Group, a global provider of secure Ethernet/IP access solutions and an industry leader in the deployment of IP Triple Play networks over copper and fiber access infrastructure. Our POTS-to-10G iMAP integrated Multiservice Access Platform and iMG intelligent Multiservice Gateways, in conjunction with advanced switching, routing, IPv6 compliant and WDM-based transport solutions, enable public and private network operators and service providers of all sizes to deploy scalable, and carrier-grade networks for the cost effective delivery of packet-based voice, video and data services.

www.alliedtelesis.com

Allied Telesis Case Study: Mydin Mohamed Holdings Berhad | Page 5

USA Headquarters | 19800 North Creek Parkway | Suite 200 | Bothell | WA 98011 | USA | T: +1 800 424 4284 | F: +1 425 481 3895 European Headquarters | Via Motta 24 | 6830 Chiasso | Switzerland | T: +41 91 69769.00 | F: +41 91 69769.11 Asia-Pacific Headquarters | 11 Tai Seng Link | Singapore | 534182 | T: +65 6383 3832 | F: +65 6383 3830

www.alliedtelesis.com
2007 Allied Telesis Inc. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. All company names, logos, and product designs that are trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of theirrespective owners.