Case Study / M2M-IoT
Greeting Card Maker Deploys
Cradlepoint Solutions to Connect
& Manage Greeting Card Kiosk
SUMMARY
Since its founding in the early 1900s, this greeting card company
has become an instantly recognized brand, providing consumers
worldwide with a wide range of greeting cards and related
products. As part of a new initiative to provide consumers
with the ability to access and personalize its products in new
locations, the company has recently installed greeting card kiosks
inside a limited number of U.S. retail stores.
Each self-service kiosk contains a touch screen computer that
enables consumers to choose from an assortment of greeting
cards to which they can add personalized messages and
photographs. The kiosks use Cradlepoint COR IBR600 routers
to send consumer orders wirelessly over the Internet to the
company’s production facilities. The finished cards are then
mailed to intended recipients.
PRODUCT:
CRADLEPOINT COR IBR600
WITH ENTERPRISE CLOUD
MANAGER
APPLICATION:
INSTANT NETWORKING &
HIGH-SPEED DATA TRANSFER
THROUGH 3G/4G/LTE,
EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF
CRADLEPOINT DEVICES IN
MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.
MARKET:
RETAIL, KIOSKS, M2M, IOT
Case Study / M2M-IoT
“WITH CRADLEPOINT’S EQUIPMENT WE ARE
ABLE TO BRING OUR KIOSKS INTO STORES
IN A WAY THAT DOESN’T DISRUPT THE
RETAILER,” SAYS A SENIOR MEMBER OF
THE COMPANY’S IT STAFF. “WE CAN HAVE
NETWORK CONNECTIVITY WHEREVER WE
NEED IT – AND GET IT SECURELY, FLEXIBLY,
AND RELIABLY.”
COMPANY PROFILE
SOLUTION
The company’s new kiosks are designed to
combine the speed of the Internet with the
pleasure of receiving physical, as opposed to
digital greetings. The kiosks also give consumers
access to a much wider variety of greeting and
occasion cards than they would find in an average
store. Consumers can then add personal greetings,
perhaps insert a photograph, and include the
intended recipient’s mailing address. The order
is then sent digitally to one of the company’s
production facilities, which prints and mails the
card.
Headquartered in the Midwest, this privately
owned company’s products are available in the
U.S., Canada, and around the world. With 2012
annual revenues in the billions of dollars, the
brand also reaches people online and on broadcast and cable television.
The Cradlepoint COR IBR600 router enables the
company to place the greeting card kiosks in retail
store locations, and to do so without causing undo
infringement on the store. Needing nothing more
than a power source, the routers instantly provide
a secure and reliable wireless network connection
to company headquarters and production centers.
BUSINESS NEEDS
The company uses Cradlepoint Enterprise
Cloud Manager to manage the devices in its
geographically distributed system. This cloudenabled platform gives the company the ability
to centrally deploy, configure, and dynamically
manage each router improving network reliability
and PCI compliance.
The company’s line includes thousands of products
including greeting cards, invitations, announcements,
and more. Each product enables the gift giver
to express personal sentiments to the gift’s
recipient.
A rapid increase in the number and functionality of
Internet-connected devices, however, has placed
the ability to express these same sentiments
with their own unique message. Smart phones
enable people to set reminders of important
dates, send digital greeting cards, and exchange
highly personalized updates of where they are,
what they’re doing, and who they’re doing it with.
This company’s challenge is to keep its business
relevant in this new connected environment.
BENEFITS
RELIABILITY
For any company working in the retail space,
customer satisfaction is a primary goal.
Cradlepoint’s “Four-Nines” reliability means that
the company’s kiosks stay connected. This is
particularly important when Cradlepoint routers
are providing the only connection to the Internet,
as is the case with these kiosks.
©2015 Cradlepoint. All Rights Reserved. | +1.855.813.3385 | cradlepoint.com
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Case Study / M2M-IoT
“When we think about what Cradlepoint and
high-speed wireless networks can do together,
we see that we have an opportunity to build
consumer value differently than we ever have
before. Knowing that we can deliver that kind
of speed and network access to virtually any
location, and do it so easily, gives us more tools
to meet the consumer’s needs.”
“If a kiosk gets disconnected, a customer
may have gone all the way through the
personalization process and then not be able to
complete the order. Not only does this lose us a
sale and a chance to serve our customer, it may
also frustrate them to the point where they may
never want to try the kiosk again, so reliability
is very important to us.”
SPEED
EXPERIENCE
The ability of Cradlepoint COR IBR600 routers
to connect at 4G speeds is important to the
company. The images and text involved in the
personalization process can require the movement
of large amounts of data, much more than
is involved in normal retail transactions. The
increased speed and capacity of 4G LTE means that
customers can complete their greeting card orders
quickly.
Founded in 2004, Cradlepoint has built strong
relationships with the software companies,
solution providers, and wireless carriers that help
it deliver a reliable, secure network to virtually
any location.
FLEXIBILITY
Cradlepoint network solutions are designed
to support more than 70 different carriers.
This flexibility allows the company to place its
Internet-connected kiosks in almost any location,
whether the store is in the middle of a city or
at a remote tourist attraction. Wireless
connectivity means the kiosks can be located in
places where customers will notice them, such as
in the middle of busy aisles.
“THE SOFTWARE COMPANY WE WORKED
WITH TO CREATE THE KIOSK PROGRAM
HAS A LOT OF EXPERIENCE SUPPORTING
NETWORK CONNECTIVITY AT RETAIL. THEY
WERE FAMILIAR WITH CRADLEPOINT’S
SOLUTION AND SERVICES AND
RECOMMENDED IT AS ESSENTIALLY BEST OF
CLASS. THEN WE HAD THAT ECHOED FROM
THE WIRELESS CARRIERS WE TALKED TO.
SO WE FELT VERY COMFORTABLE CHOOSING
CRADLEPOINT FOR THE KIOSK PROGRAM.”
GO TO CRADLEPOINT.COM/M2M TO LEARN MORE.
©2015 Cradlepoint. All Rights Reserved. | +1.855.813.3385 | cradlepoint.com
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