Meru Success Story

Challenge
The lifeblood of fast-paced businesses like Anthony Marano Company in Chicago is real-time voice communications. In fact, a single missed phone call probably guarantees missed revenue for the 58-year-old fruits and vegetables distributor.

The wholesaler doesn’t have the luxury to tolerate lag time created by back-and-forth message exchanges. It supplies fresh produce to Chicago-area grocery retail stores and eateries and often receives desperate calls to quickly fill shortages of bananas, lettuce and other perishables within hours. As employees also do double-duty as the company’s buyers, they are continually on the move. So a wireless voice infrastructure that ensures no missed mobile phone calls is necessary to the company’s survival.

“If customers needing produce right away don’t reach someone at Anthony Marano on the first try, they simply call a different supplier,” explains Chris Nowak, chief technology officer. “And that subtracts money from our bottom line.”

Each day the company logs up to 3,000 orders for its highly perishable products. Of these orders, nearly 90 percent require same-day delivery, Nowak says.