Case Study: Manpower Belgium achieves faster application performance and cost savings with Riverbed Steelhead WAN Optimization

BT AAI Service Enables Manpower to Save Costs and Improve Customer Service in Belgium

Manpower, a global workforce-solutions provider with about 30,000 employees and 4,000 offices (around 85 in Belgium), was experiencing slow application response times in Belgian branches that hurt customer service. Longstanding network partner BT ran a local audit after branches reported performance issues, agreeing to share the audit risk depending on where the root causes were found.

BT’s Applications Assured Infrastructure team identified excessive application chatter and inefficient server-branch traffic and recommended its AAI WAN Optimisation Service using Riverbed Steelhead appliances (about 40 devices across HQ and branches). The deployment compressed and deduplicated traffic—cutting network load by as much as 95%—which dramatically improved application responsiveness, reduced complaints, enabled LAN upgrades and future IP telephony, and opened opportunities for bandwidth and cost savings.

Manpower Belgium

Geert Vaerenberg

IT and Marketing Director