Ask any woman about her favorite fashion retailer, and she will most likely mention Chico’s, a Fort Myers (Fla.)- based woman’s clothing designer and retailer. The company prides itself on building a complete wardrobe to suit its customers’ needs. In similar fashion, it is also implementing IGEL 364 LX Series technology to better suit its warehouse and call center employees’ needs.

Chico’s is one of the country’s rising fashion stars and has grown to more than 700 stores in 47 states. Its main distribution center, located in Winder, Ga., serves every location, meaning speed, efficiency and accuracy are three words you’ll often hear when asked to describe its operations. Greg Fischer, technical support supervisor, couldn’t agree more.

'Simply put, IGEL let’s us do more with less,' he said. 'We needed a thin client environment that let’s us lower our total cost of ownership. The IGEL hardware itself comes at a very reasonable cost, but its user management tools make a significant impact on speed and efficiency as a company.'

The company’s distribution center is currently located in a 200,000-square-foot facility. But growth is a big part of the near future, and that size could double in no time. As a result, Fischer is relying on IGEL for a thin client solution that dramatically speeds IT deployment for new employees.

'With our old architecture, it could take up to several days to get a new employee up and running,' added Fischer. 'But with IGEL, we can have a new user set up in minutes. We have found a way to become a faster IT machine for our company.'

The solution has also enabled support calls to get reduced by 50 percent, since employees are talking to just one machine for orders, which translates into happier customers. 'The employees are happy and more efficient, and since it is Linux-based technology, I don’t have to worry about virus protection,' noted Fischer.

Orders are now going through shipping at a much quicker rate with the IGEL technology. According to Fischer, the warehouse was averaging approximately one million units shipped per week. After the IGEL deployment, the center is now averaging about 1.2 million units each week.

With so much emphasis on pleasing the customer, it’s easy to see why Chico’s is so successful.