Midsize Auctioneer’s Network is Fast and Fortified as Hundreds of Clients Bid Billions

Forget the best of both worlds. Ritchie Bros Auctioneers have found the best of three worlds with their network. This midsize company enables fast, secure bidding for customers, provides hassle-free mobile access for employees, and detailed network reports with no effort for IT.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers is the world’s largest auctioneer of heavy equipment and trucks. They sell billions of dollars of unused and used equipment at hundreds of unreserved public auctions each year. What’s even more impressive is that they are able to do this with only 1300 employees worldwide.

Auctions are very time sensitive and require a synchronized effort. This leaves little room for errors and interruptions. 

 

Ritchie Bros has successfully blurred the lines between on-site and online auctions. More than half of Ritchie Bros auctions are done online. On-site bidders also access the internet using their devices on the network to bid and check prices across multiple locations.

Network requirements:

On the surface, their network requirements seem typical to other midsize companies.

See the Midmarket IT Spending priorities in the chart below.

These requirements are amplified for Ritchie Bros. due to the fast-paced nature of their auctions.

Smooth user experience: Since more than half of their bids are made online, there is a lot at stake if their users don’t have a good experience. With the advent of BYOD, there are hundreds of devices accessing the network at the same time.

Security: This is a heightened concern as Ritchie Bros is faced with respecting the online customer financial transactions amounting into the billions. Additionally,  security entailes protecting against infections when employees or customers unknowingly click links to malicious websites. Providing secure network access on-site is also a concern.                  

Solution

Ritchie Bros addressed their major issues of Performance and Security using Cisco Network solutions including Cisco IWAN, Unified Access (UA)  and more.

Cisco IWAN is valuable to the midsize business as they can reap the benefits of more expensive premium WAN connections while remaining cost effective. For example, companies can use the internet to run branch network traffic as a cheaper option to MPLS without compromising network reliability, security and performance.

Even with limited IT, Midsize businesses can confidently handle increased traffic from guest Wi-Fi, video, downloads and other intensive applications while maintaining full  visibility and control across multiple branches at the application level (Layer 7)

Ritchie Bros are also implementing Cisco Unified Access to simplify the network with wired, wireless, security, and management. The Cisco 4451-X and the 2911 Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) are used at their head office and their auction sites respectively  . This synergistic implementation enables them to deliver the best user and employee experience possible.

See the complete product list here.

Results

Ritchie Bros now has a secure network that:

1. Helps maintain the confidentiality of the user’s information
2. Block potential threats automatically
3. Can easily handle as many as 500 devices on-site

They saw an increase in sales due to the fact that customers can securely and seamlessly bid online across their other locations as well.

Read the entire case study: Auction Company Makes Network Access Safer, Faster