UK motoring and cycling retailer Halfords is using AI-driven wired and wireless access technology from Californian firm Juniper Networks.

The Mist AI technology is being used in its stores, garages and offices to serve as a flexible foundation for its business growth and operational efficiency.

The 125-year-old company has invested heavily to accelerate its digital transformation, leveraging the benefits of Mist AI and the cloud to create better commercial services and a unified, omnichannel retail experience for its customers.

Halfords has reduced network-related trouble tickets by 100 per cent and has seen a 35 per cent improvement in uptime in the garages and stores where the deployment has been completed.

The Juniper AI-driven network provides an agile digital foundation for Halfords and drives a more consistent and convenient customer experience across locations and channels. It can tailor communications to Halfords Motoring Club members when they come to the store. The network provides employees with details about products such as child seats, cycle racks and roof racks, so they can have informed conversations with customers and sell with more confidence.

Halfords pivoted during the pandemic, with strong growth in online sales and the addition of contactless tactics such as click-and-collect in its parking lots. Its mobile field service software was key to delivering 70,000 services safely and efficiently per week for more than four years at its auto centres and customers’ homes. Many pandemic-motivated shopping ideas are now permanent, requiring an IT infrastructure that is flexible and scalable enough to support changing customer demands.

As shoppers return to stores to test drive an electric bike, get an oil change or replace worn tyres, for example, reliable wired and wireless connectivity is essential for workers and shoppers.

Halfords had an aging in-store network that was increasingly a roadblock to sales and service due to inconsistent performance and difficult troubleshooting, which resulted in poor user and operator experiences. To address this, the retailer is now deploying a Juniper wired and wireless network across its retail stores, auto centres and offices.

Mist AI works with Juniper Access Points to deliver scalable and reliable Wifi 6 and virtual Bluetooth LE services to Halfords’ staff and customer smartphones, point-of-sale devices, in-store video displays and other connected devices. Juniper EX switches provide secure access to wired devices with AI-driven automation and insights for provisioning, troubleshooting and operations.

Marvis, a virtual network assistant driven by Mist AI, provides proactive actions for easy fault identification and self-driving network operations for fast and proactive correction.

Halfords plan to transform its network further with the modernisation of its WAN, which connects its more than 1400 stores, auto centres and mobile service vans. To achieve this, it also plans to deploy Juniper’s AI-driven SD-WAN, which leverages the same cloud and Mist AI engine as its new wired and wireless network. This provides insight into end-to-end user experiences and automation from client to cloud.

Halfords worked with ConnectedID, a Juniper partner, to create the network architecture, working on the design, validation and testing to ensure it met Halfords’ goals.

“The network is a utility,” said Neil Holden, chief information officer at Halfords. “It is a big part of our digital transformation journey, and we needed a very intelligent, secure network with next-generation capabilities. The network user experience that it offers far exceeds anything else in the market. The ease of operations and self-healing capabilities of Juniper’s technology, along with the user experience metrics it delivers for Halfords, are outstanding.”

Gos Hein van de Wouw, vice president at Juniper Networks, added: “Smart retailers like Halfords are leveraging AI technologies to ensure customers’ shopping experiences are positive at every touchpoint. Halfords has invested in Juniper’s AI to build a more detailed picture of its customers to keep up with changing consumer behaviour. Mist AI helps Halfords optimise user experiences and simplify IT operations with automated network assurance and the proactive problem detection and resolution. Users and devices have predictable connectivity and the number of network-related trouble tickets have dropped by 100 per cent.”