Pine State Trading is a leading full-service wholesale distributor that serves convenience stores across New England. With a history dating back more than six decades, the company works diligently to provide clients with the latest products and programs, and a full range of services: order placement, merchandising support, category management, and weekly in-store visits. Pine State is among the top 25 convenience-store distributors in the country, serving more than 4,000 stores per week, and offering them an inventory of more than 19,000 products.

Business Challenge

With an expanding inventory and growing customer base, Pine State's distribution facility in Augusta, Maine was working beyond its capacity. The company needed a new facility to meet the increased demand, as well as an IT network that would provide full communication support and enable the easy addition of new services.

Pine State addressed the first half of the challenge by constructing a new 100,000-square-foot facility in Gardiner, Maine.

Pine State Trading then engaged xwave to help them meet the second half of the challenge. This involved:

•	building a new IT network at the Gardiner facility;
•	upgrading the network at the Augusta facility; and
•	connecting the new network to the existing one using WAN (Wide Area Network) technologies.

xwave's solution
xwave designed, built and deployed a local area network (LAN) in the Gardiner facility that now serves as a solid IT foundation for Pine State's growth. In addition, xwave incorporated wireless capabilities to allow for easy communication anywhere in the facility. The new network is more flexible and reliable, less expensive to maintain, and easier to use and manage—partly because Pine State now has a single source of vendor contact, and is standardized on non-proprietary technology.

Strategic Client Benefits
• A 26-percent reduction in network-ownership costs
• Simplified management due to a single network platform
• Enhanced performance
• Faster problem resolution
• Lower training costs

Why xwave?
As an IT-services provider that works with a range of leading technology firms, xwave is able to bring to clients the solution that best suits their communication needs. For Pine State, xwave identified Cisco Systems' IP Plus line and the new 3750 switch line as being ideal (xwave is a Cisco Premier Certified Partner). To ease the burden of wiring Pine State's new facility, xwave also recommended Cisco Aironet wireless products.

Industry Expertise
• Infrastructure Services
• LAN/WAN implementation
• Wireless technology

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