British Heart Foundation uses broadband to link up stores

A major broadband roll-out has helped the British Heart Foundation to link up its nationwide stores to a faster communications network, it has emerged.

The charity group operates 600 stores around the UK selling new and donated items to generate money for the fight against heart disease.

Prior to the broadband roll-out, the day-to-day operational data from each store was communicated to the head office via telephone networks.

Officials at the charity therefore wanted to enhance levels of communications between stores to improve productivity throughout the organisation.

Steve Biddle, head of finance for British Heart Foundation shops, told Retail Week: "We wanted to reduce costs while improving reliability.

"We needed a flexible technology that would enable us to manage our data network efficiently, improve communications between stores across the business and assist us in improving our customer service."

The new broadband service will run via a virtual private network, which is fully managed by an external provider.

Car maker Ford recently announced the launch of a new in-car computer system that will enable owners to access broadband from their vehicles.