References

The KLIER hairdressing salon network has been on the market for 19 years. It boasts 1,100 sites throughout Europe, with 23 branches in Slovakia – most in Bratislava (7), and two sites in Košice, Nitra, Poprad, Trenčín and Žilina, respectively. The saloons are available to customers on a daily basis.

In addition to professionalism, underlined by many years of experience, they offer guaranteed price, wellness relaxation, free expert advice, instant hair regeneration and scalp massage. There is also the possibility of buying quality cosmetics. At present, the saloons employ up to 220 professional hairdressers (gaining many social benefits – that are, according to the words of the management, “higher than the standard compared to the competition”). The salon staff consider four factors to be a necessity: creativity, honest craftsmanship, accountability and maximum consideration for customer requirements. In the view of KLIER it is also a benefit that clients do not have to book themselves in advance. The exception is the Color Lounge in Bratislava. It is (so far) the only premium salon in the KLIER network. At every visit, customers are offered a drink (coffee, mineral water, champagne) and receive a back massage on massage chairs. Simply book for a specific day and hour.

Insufficient access to the internet network

Prior to 2014, KLIER salons used IT services from various providers. They did not have centrally resolved access to the Internet or VPN (a network to connect computers at different locations of the Internet into one common virtual network). They came to the decision to rectify this disadvantage by working with Slovanet, whose active proposal convinced KLIER’s management. The link-up of individual branches throughout Slovakia was smooth – also thanks to the very good cooperation of both parties. Slovanet had managed to overcome complications when migrating some information systems to the cloud, as well as cope with a situation when the system resources were initially underestimated. It gradually increased them up to fivefold capacity.

Link-up of branches

Slovanet also connected all 23 KLIER salons in Slovakia with various data connection technologies such as fiber optic connection, ethernet, ADSL… Every site has an IP telephone and a computer terminal with an electronic cash register. Slovanet also created a CRP in the Sitel Bratislava data center, where the customer’s central firewall is located. Gradually, secure access to the Internet and the central telephone exchange of the Client were solved, allowing calls between their branches in the form of extension calls. Since 2019, Slovanet has been managing the KLIER saloon’s virtual servers running the POHODA economic system. Each branch office also uses FortiGate virtual firewall. The salons also take advantage of the service vpn:LINK, through which they acquired a modern, affordable, secure and efficient branch networking technology. The safe:LINK protects the computer network from the unwanted temporal, financial and other impacts of various types of cyber security threats. Virtual data center cloud:LINK enables saloons to use the virtual resource infrastructure, allowing them to manage all their servers in a coherent user environment. With the service voice:LINK they have obtained a complete solution for internal and external voice communications. They use an IP PBX with a wealth of useful features without a need for further additional investment. They also received complete care, maintenance and system management from Slovanet. “In the past, we had different IT services from different providers. With Slovanet we have everything under one roof,” says Denisa Golaisová, director of FRISÖR KLIER, s r.o. She adds that the network of hairdressing salons has decided to move into the cloud environment because of the flexibility of system resources.

SECTOR: hairdressing and beauty services

LOCATION: Slovak Republic – Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Košice, Martin, Nitra, Trnava, Piešťany, Poprad, Prešov, Trenčín, Zvolen, Žilina

ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF THE SOLUTION:

• diverse technological link-up of branches across Slovakia,
• multiple IT services from a single provider,
• flexibility of system resources.