Since Sainsbury’s first began trading in 1869, it has grown to become the UK’s second largest grocer. It now has annual revenues of over £30 billion, 800 supermarkets and 600 convenience stores, as well a portfolio of brands including Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar and Sainsbury’s Bank. Sainsbury’s has used eCommerce to grow its business significantly, with the Argos website alone receiving more than one billion website visits a year. For a company with a number of websites handling millions of transactions across multiple brands, getting reliable and effective DNS service is no small matter.
That’s where Vercara comes in.
Tackling the complexity of multiple providers.
Sainsbury’s has enjoyed significant growth over the years, both through the success of its operations and by acquiring new businesses. Each new business joining Sainsbury’s brought its own IT solutions and third-party providers. However, the challenges of a disparate tech stack became more obvious – particularly with DNS service, the starting point for every online transaction.
“We had multiple DNS providers,” explained Pooja Ardeshana, Information Security Analyst, “which made it difficult to keep track of where our DNS was sitting. It was also difficult at billing time with different providers’ invoices to review and reconcile.”
Managing and administering DNS services from multiple providers was more than just an inconvenience for the IT team. Multiple solutions also made it difficult to regularly see, compare and evaluate important performance measures across the enterprise.
“Working smarter is critical to Sainsbury’s way of doing business,” Ardeshana said. “We really wanted the big-picture view that a centralised provider could give us, so the idea of migrating our DNS service to one solution was on our road map as something we needed to do.”
A solution Sainsbury’s could count on.
Sainsbury’s IT team started the process by reviewing incumbent authoritative DNS providers, however, Vercara’s UltraDNS quickly became the top contender.
“We had a small number of DNS services with Vercara, but we had built a good relationship with the Account Management team,” Ardeshana explained, “and based on that relationship, that trust, we thought Vercara would be a good provider for all our DNS. It’s a proven company, and the previous relationship was a huge factor. In the end it was an easy decision to migrate all our providers into one with Vercara.”
The teams at Sainsbury’s were impressed by the quality of Vercara’s customer service and the expertise of its teams. However, the speed and intuitive interface of the Vercara user portal proved to be vital as it played a critical role in managing a variety of heavily trafficked websites.
“When we were actually migrating all our DNS, Vercara responded really promptly over email or telephone,” Ardeshana said. “The level of customer service we received, including questions we’ve had about our DNS, about our billing, about anything, has been really good. It’s been efficient and actually enjoyable working with them.”
“And the portal is quite user friendly,” she added. “I’ve worked with other portals that have been difficult – they crash or they’re slow. Vercara’s is very efficient. It’s easy to log in and to view all your DNS in one place. And if you’re a bit unsure of what something means, helpful explanations are just a click away. Overall, it’s very easy to navigate.”
Sainsbury’s achieves critical objectives.
With authoritative DNS services for all its brands in the UK now provided by Vercara, Sainsbury’s has enhanced the efficiency and simplicity of its administrative and management operations.
“Working with Vercara has helped us accomplish more than just centralising our DNS,” Ardeshana said. “It’s given us a strategic vendor that allows us to view our DNS efficiently at any given point in time through the portal. It’s been extremely helpful and makes us more efficient when it comes to reporting.”
“It’s also been enjoyable working with Vercara,” she continued. “People have been very quick and efficient replying to queries and concerns.”
Reliable DNS service has been, and will continue to be, at the core of Sainsbury’s ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences, and Vercara’s UltraDNS will continue to play a key role in helping to deliver those experiences.
“We have a large eCommerce platform with lots of users,” Ardeshana emphasized. “Having good DNS is the crux of an eCommerce website. It was an easy decision to go with Vercara.”
Find out how UltraDNS can ensure global access to your digital infrastructure and online presence with lightning-fast query responses and industry-leading DNS resolution by visiting our product page.
