Customer Success Story
From outdated Wi-Fi equipment to AI-native networking
J. Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (JFR), an established national chain of department stores, suffered from unstable Wi-Fi networks impacting thousands of devices at its stores and offices. With critical business functions such as in-store point-of-sale (POS) relying on the network, performance suffered, and network operations and management were difficult.
To address the issues, JFR replaced its wired and wireless networks across the entire group with access points (APs) and EX Series Switches from Mist™, Juniper’s AI-native networking platform. This allowed JFR to build a high-performance network that allows for stable, scalable, simplified, and visualized network operations by its in-house IT team while also serving as the foundation for continued business expansion.
Overview
| Company | J. Front Retailing Co., Ltd. (JFR) |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products used | Wireless Access Points, EX Series, Juniper Wi-Fi Assurance, Wired Assurance |
| Region | APAC |
420+
Largest number of APs and switches deployed in one store
Delivering robust Wi-Fi across a large department store
3,000+
Number of APs deployed
Renewal of all aging APs
700+
Number of EX switches deployed
Seamless wired and wireless integration and management
Slow and unstable connections, reliance on vendor to troubleshoot
With over 50 geographically separated locations, JFR must manage differing requirements and environments in each. It’s prior Wi-Fi environment lacked network visibility and integrated management of the wired and wireless networks. Traffic management was also difficult, and essential POS traffic needed to be prioritized over other communications. As demands on the network increased, so did the frequency of slow performance, connectivity failures, and other issues.
JFR also relied on a system integrator to manage the previous network, and the difficulties of troubleshooting and resolving issues led to delays and increased costs. Further complications arose because the environment is different at each location.
To effectively digitalize the entire group going forward, JFR decided to not only upgrade the wireless and wired networks but also add IP phones that leverage the Wi-Fi. IT wanted to revamp the network to be able to visualize complex network communications and independently manage operations in an integrated manner.
Advanced cloud-management of over 3000 APs and 700 switches
With numerous store and office locations, there is a significant amount of data to be analyzed for various business purposes. Hence, it is vital for JFR to visualize and understand traffic across its entire network infrastructure.
To address this, JFR replaced over 3,000 APs with Juniper Mist APs and 700 switches with Juniper EX Series Switches across Japan over the course of a year and a half. With Wired Assurance, they have introduced intuitive wired and wireless network management that provides strong visibility and requires fewer resources to enable efficient and stable operations.
Efficient visibility at scale with AI-native networking
With settings deployable from the cloud to each location and the ability to accommodate individual detailed requests, the introduction of Mist across JFR’s locations in Japan went smoothly.
The large-scale Juniper network is operated by network staff at the JFR Information Center, alongside IT staff at each store. Together, they manage all network operations across each store, including POS, business terminals, IP phones, and free Wi-Fi access for customers.
Responses to inquiries have become faster and more accurate, with the integrated Juniper Mist AI management screen providing JFR with a comprehensive view and control over network infrastructure, including features such as user movements across large store floors and the ability to review past events functioning as a powerful investigation tool.
Juniper Wireless Access Points
Elevated, integrated experiences while reducing OpEx
JFR had initially planned to only upgrade its APs and PoE switches. However, the ability of Mist Wired Assurance to offer integrated visualization and management of both wired and wireless connections convinced JFR of the benefits of simultaneously upgrading its aging L2 switches across its wired LAN network to better enable continued business and network expansion.
Visualized, centralized management across wired and wireless networks
With the integration of not just APs but also EX switches, JFR was able to achieve integrated management across its entire LAN environment while reducing resources required.
Uplifted user experiences through in-house network management
By breaking a reliance on an external vendor having to manage and troubleshoot the prior network, JFR can now swiftly investigate and resolve issues in-house, allowing for quicker and more accurate response to user inquiries.
Building a strong network that expands business possibilities
With the implementation of Mist, JFR now has the major advantage of having a flexible network infrastructure that can better respond to future IT innovations and requirements proposed within the group.
Published May 2025