Keeping the Lights On: Infrastructure Reliability Through an ERP Go-Live
Problem
A live ERP cutover is disruptive enough on its own — new workflows, new software, staff relearning how to do their jobs. Ours landed in the middle of the HQ26 facility relocation, which meant the business was absorbing two major changes at once. If connectivity, WiFi, or system uptime had wavered during that window, it would have compounded an already stressful transition and put order accuracy and warehouse throughput at risk. IT’s job wasn’t to run the ERP project — it was to make sure the infrastructure underneath it was a non-issue.
Approach
Because the network and server foundation for the new facility (dual-WAN internet, segmented VLANs, the Meraki firewall stack, and the migrated AD domain) had already been built and stabilized as part of the HQ26 relocation, the ERP team could run their cutover against infrastructure that was already tested and known-good rather than something still being shaken out.
During the go-live window itself, I focused on:
- Monitoring WiFi coverage and performance across the warehouse floor, where scanning devices (Samsung tablets with ProGlove RF scanners) depend on consistent signal to keep pace with order fulfillment
- Keeping dual-ISP failover (Spectrum/AT&T) actively verified rather than assumed, so a single provider issue couldn’t become a business-wide outage during the cutover
- Staying close to the warehouse and office floor during go-live hours to catch and resolve connectivity issues in real time, rather than waiting for tickets to surface
[Fill in: any specific incident you caught/prevented, or a specific coordination point with the ERP team worth naming]
Outcome
The ERP cutover ran without an infrastructure-caused outage or connectivity gap — no lost warehouse scans, no WiFi dead zones, no ISP failover surprises. For a distribution business, “the network didn’t cause a problem” during a high-stakes go-live is itself the win: order accuracy and fulfillment speed stayed intact through a period where they were most exposed to disruption.
[Fill in: any concrete detail — orders processed during cutover week, downtime avoided, feedback from ops/warehouse leadership, etc.]