Summer 2019 – Inside Outdoor Magazine

Inside Outdoor | SUMMER 2019 30 Tech Savvy J ust about every aspect of retail business today, and increasingly more moving forward, are dependent somehow on internet con- nectivity. From credit card transactions and POS sys- tems to employee scheduling, inven- tory and supply chain management to customer experience and social en- gagement, an extended lapse in con- nectivity can bring things to a stand- still. Even just a poor or slow connec- tion can bring things to a crawl. Now we could go on about the real- world and research evidence showing the huge amounts of money lost by small businesses due to network and internet downtime. Still, the “chance” of a problem, even a very real and likely chance, understandably will not provoke many small specialty retailers to add a second wireline internet con- nection – the most common strategy for business continuity and disaster recov- ery – and the second monthly recurring cost that comes with it. In other cases, only one provider is available in a par- ticular service area, leaving little options for a second connection. A relatively new communications solution, how- ever, offers store locations redundancy without the cost of a redundant internet connection – or trying to run operations from a smartphone hotspot. LTE wireless failover connectivity is being positioned as an ideal back-up plan for small businesses that rely on off-the-shelf internet connectivity, such as the local service provider’s DSL or cable service, or for locations in areas that are served by only provider, such as more remote outdoor stores on the edges of No Time for Downtime By Gerald Baldino Wireless internet failover provides affordable redundancy to store operations