In Extenso ensures a consistent high quality of experience for accountants and customers with the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform
Customer Profile
Since 1990, In Extenso has been successfully assisting start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors or group subsidiaries with accounting expertise, including taxes and payroll, whether well-established or just entering the French market. The firm employs 5,000 people and serves 100,000 customers from 250 sites across France.- Vertical: Financial, Services
- Location: Lyon, France
- Customer size: 5,000 employees across 250 locations in France
Use Case
Improve WAN reliability and application performance for widely distributed offices to ensure consistently high quality of experience for employees and customers
Requirements
- Consistently meet application SLAs to deliver high quality of experience
- Ensure high reliability and quality for VoIP calls and Teams meetings
- Simplify network management and troubleshooting
Outcomes
- Improves performance of critical cloud applications, improving flow up to 10 times thanks to the addition of internet connections to existing MPLS lines
- Elevates productivity and quality of experience for accountants, improving customer service
- Delivers more reliable, higher-quality VoIP calls and Teams meetings, eliminating dropped calls
- Improves visibility and control with real-time insight into SD-WAN application traffic flows and performance
- Positions In Extenso to seamlessly adopt new technologies such as 5G
As one of the leading chartered accounting firms in France, In Extenso is focused on delivering a high quality of experience for its 100,000 clients. This requires ensuring that the company’s 250 nationwide offices have high-quality VoIP service and reliable network access to critical cloud and SaaS applications.
With a widely distributed organization, network service quality varies greatly from location to location, degrading VoIP call quality or disrupting access to the cloud. This had a negative impact on the customer experience. Stéphane Jullien, Director of IT strategy for In Extenso, says, “Our WAN is an essential service for our accountants’ relationships with their local customers and it must perform and be available at all times.”
Jullien remarks, “EdgeConnect proved to be the SD-WAN solution that best assured quality of experience for our VoIP service and other critical cloud applications.”
Assuring High Quality of Experience
In Extenso’s business relies extensively on VoIP calls and Microsoft Teams meetings. If these services are unavailable or performing poorly, accountants simply can’t do their jobs properly and customer services suffer. The need to ensure high quality of experience for its accountants and customers drove In Extenso to explore SD-WAN.
Jullien worked closely with ICT consulting firm and Aruba Platinum Partner Axians, a division of VINCI Energies S.A., to evaluate potential SD-WAN solutions, ultimately selecting the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform. Jullien remarks, “EdgeConnect proved to be the SD-WAN solution that best assured quality of experience for our VoIP service and other critical cloud applications.”
Meets Critical Application SLAs
Axians worked together with In Extenso’s team to deploy the EdgeConnect platform at all 250 In Extenso locations across France. Each EdgeConnect appliance is terminated with two bonded circuits, typically a combination of MPLS paired with Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) or broadband based on local availability. Axians also manages the ongoing operation of the SD-WAN for In Extenso.
Axians also helped In Extenso configure business intent overlays using the Aruba Orchestrator management console, classifying and prioritizing application traffic on the SD-WAN based on business need and application service-level agreements (SLAs). For example, one overlay classifies VoIP and Teams as “real time,” two other overlays are for applications classified as “critical,” and a fourth overlay is used for general internet traffic.
Jullien notes, “By guaranteeing all applications get the network resources required to meet their SLAs, the EdgeConnect platform delivers the high availability and performance our accountants and customers expect regardless of the underlay connectivity.”
Additionally, the company uses the zone-based stateful firewall unified on the EdgeConnect platform to segment and isolate guest Wi-Fi traffic from all other applications on the network.
Improves Quality and Reliability of VoIP Calls
Since deploying the Aruba SD-WAN solution, In Extenso no longer experiences dropped or degraded VoIP calls, and application performance is consistently high-performing. In fact, Jullien reports that in terms of flow, In Extenso has seen up to a 10 times improvement. “We had offices that were suffering with network problems before and now they run very smoothly,” Jullien says.
Moreover, In Extenso accountants are now more satisfied and productive, which allows them to deliver more responsive and efficient services to customers. Importantly, everyone enjoys the highest quality of experience possible. “We are very satisfied with the technology and our users are also happier,” he adds.
“We gain real-time visibility into what is happening on our network and save a significant amount of time on network administration thanks to Orchestrator,” Jullien notes.
Modern Network for Today and Tomorrow
With centralized SD-WAN management through Aruba Orchestrator, the IT team has improved visibility and control, streamlining troubleshooting. “We gain real-time visibility into what is happening on our network and save a significant amount of time on network administration thanks to Orchestrator,” Jullien notes.
Moreover, In Extenso is now well positioned to adopt more advanced technologies such as 5G and further improve business capabilities nationwide. Jullien concludes, “Working with Axians we are confident they will help ensure our Aruba SD-WAN continues to evolve over the coming years to provide our employees and customers across France with a consistent high quality of service as we grow.”
By guaranteeing all applications get the network resources required to meet their SLAs, the EdgeConnect platform delivers the high availability and performance our accountants and customers expect regardless of the underlay connectivity.
Stéphane Jullien, Director of IT Strategy, In Extenso Customer Profile
Since 1990, In Extenso has been successfully assisting start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors or group subsidiaries with accounting expertise, including taxes and payroll, whether well-established or just entering the French market. The firm employs 5,000 people and serves 100,000 customers from 250 sites across France.- Vertical: Financial, Services
- Location: Lyon, France
- Customer size: 5,000 employees across 250 locations in France
Use Case
Improve WAN reliability and application performance for widely distributed offices to ensure consistently high quality of experience for employees and customers
Requirements
- Consistently meet application SLAs to deliver high quality of experience
- Ensure high reliability and quality for VoIP calls and Teams meetings
- Simplify network management and troubleshooting
Outcomes
- Improves performance of critical cloud applications, improving flow up to 10 times thanks to the addition of internet connections to existing MPLS lines
- Elevates productivity and quality of experience for accountants, improving customer service
- Delivers more reliable, higher-quality VoIP calls and Teams meetings, eliminating dropped calls
- Improves visibility and control with real-time insight into SD-WAN application traffic flows and performance
- Positions In Extenso to seamlessly adopt new technologies such as 5G
As one of the leading chartered accounting firms in France, In Extenso is focused on delivering a high quality of experience for its 100,000 clients. This requires ensuring that the company’s 250 nationwide offices have high-quality VoIP service and reliable network access to critical cloud and SaaS applications.
With a widely distributed organization, network service quality varies greatly from location to location, degrading VoIP call quality or disrupting access to the cloud. This had a negative impact on the customer experience. Stéphane Jullien, Director of IT strategy for In Extenso, says, “Our WAN is an essential service for our accountants’ relationships with their local customers and it must perform and be available at all times.”
Jullien remarks, “EdgeConnect proved to be the SD-WAN solution that best assured quality of experience for our VoIP service and other critical cloud applications.”
Assuring High Quality of Experience
In Extenso’s business relies extensively on VoIP calls and Microsoft Teams meetings. If these services are unavailable or performing poorly, accountants simply can’t do their jobs properly and customer services suffer. The need to ensure high quality of experience for its accountants and customers drove In Extenso to explore SD-WAN.
Jullien worked closely with ICT consulting firm and Aruba Platinum Partner Axians, a division of VINCI Energies S.A., to evaluate potential SD-WAN solutions, ultimately selecting the Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform. Jullien remarks, “EdgeConnect proved to be the SD-WAN solution that best assured quality of experience for our VoIP service and other critical cloud applications.”
Meets Critical Application SLAs
Axians worked together with In Extenso’s team to deploy the EdgeConnect platform at all 250 In Extenso locations across France. Each EdgeConnect appliance is terminated with two bonded circuits, typically a combination of MPLS paired with Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) or broadband based on local availability. Axians also manages the ongoing operation of the SD-WAN for In Extenso.
Axians also helped In Extenso configure business intent overlays using the Aruba Orchestrator management console, classifying and prioritizing application traffic on the SD-WAN based on business need and application service-level agreements (SLAs). For example, one overlay classifies VoIP and Teams as “real time,” two other overlays are for applications classified as “critical,” and a fourth overlay is used for general internet traffic.
Jullien notes, “By guaranteeing all applications get the network resources required to meet their SLAs, the EdgeConnect platform delivers the high availability and performance our accountants and customers expect regardless of the underlay connectivity.”
Additionally, the company uses the zone-based stateful firewall unified on the EdgeConnect platform to segment and isolate guest Wi-Fi traffic from all other applications on the network.
Improves Quality and Reliability of VoIP Calls
Since deploying the Aruba SD-WAN solution, In Extenso no longer experiences dropped or degraded VoIP calls, and application performance is consistently high-performing. In fact, Jullien reports that in terms of flow, In Extenso has seen up to a 10 times improvement. “We had offices that were suffering with network problems before and now they run very smoothly,” Jullien says.
Moreover, In Extenso accountants are now more satisfied and productive, which allows them to deliver more responsive and efficient services to customers. Importantly, everyone enjoys the highest quality of experience possible. “We are very satisfied with the technology and our users are also happier,” he adds.
“We gain real-time visibility into what is happening on our network and save a significant amount of time on network administration thanks to Orchestrator,” Jullien notes.
Modern Network for Today and Tomorrow
With centralized SD-WAN management through Aruba Orchestrator, the IT team has improved visibility and control, streamlining troubleshooting. “We gain real-time visibility into what is happening on our network and save a significant amount of time on network administration thanks to Orchestrator,” Jullien notes.
Moreover, In Extenso is now well positioned to adopt more advanced technologies such as 5G and further improve business capabilities nationwide. Jullien concludes, “Working with Axians we are confident they will help ensure our Aruba SD-WAN continues to evolve over the coming years to provide our employees and customers across France with a consistent high quality of service as we grow.”
By guaranteeing all applications get the network resources required to meet their SLAs, the EdgeConnect platform delivers the high availability and performance our accountants and customers expect regardless of the underlay connectivity.
Stéphane Jullien, Director of IT Strategy, In Extenso