Case Study: AKI achieves faster order processing and 52% bandwidth reduction with Riverbed SteelHead

Riverbed Steelhead Appliances Reduce Order Processing Time and Improve Employee Productivity for Retail Company

AKI Portugal, a national DIY retailer with 25 stores, was struggling with slow intranet access—particularly to Microsoft SharePoint—over a 2 Mbps xDSL WAN. Store staff faced long login and file-transfer times that slowed order processing and reduced productivity; increasing bandwidth to 4 Mbps would have cost about €58,000 per year and wouldn’t eliminate file‑sharing latency.

After piloting WAN optimization products, AKI chose Riverbed SteelHead appliances for their ease of installation, measurable data reduction and lower cost. AKI deployed 27 SteelHead units plus a central management console, achieving a 52% reduction in bandwidth utilization, turning order processing from minutes to seconds, cutting user complaints and freeing IT to focus on other projects—while avoiding the costly bandwidth upgrade.

AKI

Rúben Salgueiro

IT Manager