CITY Furnishings isn’t simply promoting furnishings—they’re delivering experiences. As one among Florida’s fastest-growing house retailers, CITY Furnishings has advanced from its Seventies origins as Waterbed Metropolis right into a family identify with over 38 places and a thriving e-commerce platform. “We’re not a furnishings firm,” mentioned Chad Simpson, CIO. “We’re a expertise firm that sells furnishings.”
This mindset drove a sweeping modernization effort—one that will reform the enterprise, reimagine the shopper journey and redefine what retail connectivity ought to appear to be. A Community-as-a-Service resolution match for giant e-commerce companies turned a cornerstone of this transformation.
Scaling a legacy retail mannequin for the cloud period
CITY Furnishings’s progress technique was formidable: double each 4 years, develop into new markets and elevate the showroom expertise. However their legacy programs weren’t constructed for that type of velocity.
“We’re a 50-plus-year-old firm. Most of our purposes had been designed to run on-site,” Simpson defined. “After we moved every little thing to the cloud in 2018, we realized we needed to rearchitect and redesign most of our programs to function effectively with low latency.”
With over a million sq. toes of distribution house and 24/7 operations, CITY Furnishings wanted a community that might help real-time knowledge, adapt to seasonal demand and keep continuity throughout all places. In hurricane-prone Florida, shifting away from bodily servers additionally meant larger resilience and peace of thoughts.
CITY Furnishings was able to scale. What they wanted was a community resolution that might match their momentum.
Constructing a cloud-first retail community with Lumen® NaaS
CITY Furnishings partnered with Lumen to speed up their digital transformation utilizing Community-as-a-Service (NaaS)—a versatile, cloud-integrated resolution designed for pace, scalability and ease.
By deploying a centralized, software-defined community hub at Equinix, powered by Lumen, CITY Furnishings streamlined operations and gained the power to adapt immediately to buyer wants, market shifts and seasonal demand. “Our new community hub connects all our clouds,” Simpson added. “Lumen NaaS makes it quick to provision and cost-effective to scale primarily based on bandwidth demand.”
This cloudified retail mannequin aligns with Lumen’s technique to embed intelligence into the community, delivering frictionless digital experiences at scale. Leveraging ultra-low-loss fiber from Lumen—the identical infrastructure trusted by hyperscale leaders for AI innovation—CITY Furnishings positive factors the resilience and agility wanted for fast progress.
CITY Furnishings eradicated all on-premise servers, forming a unified digital surroundings that connects each showroom, knowledge heart and cloud hub. “We don’t have a single server left on-prem anyplace in Florida—which, as you realize, is Hurricane Alley,” Simpson added. “Now, when there’s a pure catastrophe, our folks can care for their households as an alternative of worrying about gear.”
Enterprise-grade outcomes: Actual-time knowledge, customized service and operational agility
With Lumen as a strategic enterprise companion, CITY Furnishings gained greater than a community—they gained a basis for innovation, pace and scale.
Throughout high-traffic occasions like Black Friday, CITY Furnishings can scale bandwidth on demand, dealing with 5 to 10 occasions the same old visitors with out disruption. Actual-time knowledge empowers associates to ship customized service from anyplace within the showroom, utilizing cell apps and AR instruments. AI integration deflects as much as 30% of buyer care calls, liberating brokers to concentrate on advanced wants.
“We’re pleased with our cell purposes,” Simpson shared. “Each gross sales affiliate has an iPad, permitting them to transact anyplace within the showroom. That seamless expertise wouldn’t be doable with out Lumen’s connectivity.”
With infrastructure not a constraint, CITY Furnishings is increasing in Florida—assured of their means to ship constant, high-quality experiences throughout each channel.
Retail on the edge: Bringing intelligence nearer to the buyer
As CITY Furnishings continues to develop, they’re investing in edge computing to carry processing nearer to the shopper—decreasing latency and enabling quicker, frictionless interactions.
“Sooner or later, connectivity might want to get nearer to the buyer,” Simpson mentioned. “Extra of that processing will occur on the edge—close to our showrooms and clients to supply real-time knowledge and quicker service.”
AI adoption is accelerating throughout departments. “AI is actual, and we’re integrating it in all places,” Simpson mentioned. “It’s serving to us enhance effectivity and ship higher service.”
For CITY Furnishings, expertise has advanced from a help operate to a strategic progress engine. By embracing innovation and investing in clever infrastructure, CITY Furnishings is reshaping the retail expertise. With Lumen options driving enterprise-grade connectivity and edge capabilities, CITY Furnishings is delivering smarter, quicker and extra customized service—at scale.
“Know-how permits each a part of our mission—serving to clients love the place they dwell via seamless experiences,” mentioned Justin Roisman, VP of Advertising and marketing. “And Lumen helps us make that mission a actuality.”
To study extra about CITY Furnishings’s transformation, learn the complete buyer success story.
Go to our buyer story library to find out how organizations in just about each trade are attaining their enterprise goals.
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