Patchrobe

Powdermonkey Internet Cafes have been based in Savoie and Aquitaine in France for ten years. Despite many years of success, the proliferation of free wireless networks and the development of handheld mobile internet devices such as the iPhone have meant that the business is suffering.

While the director was engaged in transforming his business, it was of paramount importance that the existing business should remain as profitable as possible for as long as possible.

As well as two dedicated locations, Powdermonkey also made available machines for access in bars in locations such as Les Brevieres in Tignes, Biarritz, Hossegor and Seignosse. However, the remote sites operated on a different pay-for-access system from the two primary sites, which was expensive and required a great deal of time consuming administrative overhead.

Noting that the packets controlling the internal administration were UDP, our solution was to deliver a simple private key infrastructure and connect Powdermonkey directly to the remote client machines via a VPN.

This centralised the administration of all client machines, allowing for simpler accounting, eliminating the requirement for costly site visits and the second billing and ticketing system resulting in greater profitability. Our solution was simple, reliable, technically complex yet cheap to deliver.