Easton-Bell Sports, Inc., which markets sporting goods under the Easton, Bell, Riddell, Giro and Blackburn brands, was ranked 151st this year on the InformationWeek 500 list.
Easton-Bell Sports achieved the recognition based on its ability to overcome bandwidth constraints in its Asian offices that threatened to delay the time to market of new products. The constraints were making it difficult for its design engineers to share large files between its global offices, hampering collaboration and productivity. The company looked at new ways to route and prioritize traffic across its network with the help of its partner, Level 3 Communications, implementing a Level 3 Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS).
“We now have full control of data routing and can manage traffic at each of our 32 sites worldwide, which has resolved bandwidth issues and improved the quality of network service for employees,” said Robby McDonald, vice president of IT, Easton-Bell Sports. “Most important, the VPLS solution helps streamline the path to market for our products, giving Easton-Bell Sports another competitive edge in the industry.”
In addition to rapid file transfers among design engineers, the solution supports high-definition video conferencing so engineers in the United States and Asia can finalize designs faster and move them into production, rather than waiting days for samples to arrive via international cargo.
