9,656 access points, 2,476 stores, and just 80 days.
When one of Germany's largest retail chains needed a complete update of its WLAN infrastructure, Telonic got the call and Hamina Onsite and Oscium Nomad were chosen as the tools to run surveys and validate coverage at every site.
Telonic GmbH is a leading German system house and IT service provider specializing in network technology, IT security, and data analytics.
The Team
Telonic put together a two-tier team for the project. Senior engineers coordinated from base, reviewing survey data, managing the overall operation, and handling decisions that needed experience. Junior engineers took to the road, moving from store to store with a Hamina survey kit in hand.
The team had used competitor tools on previous projects, and many lacked experience in Hamina tools. That, however, turned out to be a non-issue for the team; after a 15-minute introduction to Hamina Onsite, the junior engineers were ready to survey independently.
With the retail customer migrating to Juniper Mist across thousands of locations, one key factor made Hamina the tool of choice: Its direct API integration with Mist. That connection enabled importing existing Mist floor plans and AP configurations directly into Hamina as well as exporting validated designs straight back to Mist for deployment.
The Survey Process
This wasn't a greenfield design project. The stores already had wireless infrastructure in place, so the task was to survey existing coverage, identify gaps, replace the hardware, and validate the result. Hamina Onsite handled the surveys, while Hamina Planner was used to simulate additional AP placement wherever the data showed a gap.
The Telonic team was able to save days on the project thanks to Hamina's real-time cloud collaboration. A field engineer could still be surveying the floor while the team back at base was already busy reviewing the survey data.
When multiple sites ran simultaneously, which they often did, the whole crew stayed in sync through the same shared cloud project. Issues were flagged and resolved before the surveyor moved on.
"Executing a nationwide rollout of nearly 10,000 access points in 80 days leaves zero margin for manual overhead or rework. Hamina’s real-time cloud collaboration bridged the gap between our field technicians and senior engineers, while the direct Juniper Mist API integration streamlined our entire workflow. It allowed us to move faster, maintain precision at scale, and complete the project well ahead of expectations."
Learnings
9,656 access points installed in 2,476 stores in just 80 days. A project this size requires reliable tools and frictionless collaboration between the team. According to the team, Hamina tools allowed them to survey faster and therefore finish the project faster.
The most valuable Hamina features for the team:
- Cloud connectivity. Survey data was available to the full team the moment it was captured without manual file transfers.
- Real-time collaboration. Hamina's collaboration features let base and field work as one team rather than two groups exchanging files. While part of the crew surveys, others review in parallel.
- HPE Mist integration. The direct API connection removed manual handoffs between survey validation and network deployment. Coverage prediction accuracy matched well against actual deployed results, which is a critical factor when you're making AP placement decisions at this scale without time to revisit.
About Telonic
Telonic operates as an IT Service Provider and System Integrator, specializing in enterprise network infrastructure, cyber security, and analytics. The company has around 190 employees in 3 locations worldwide.
