About Metropolitan Thames Valley

Metropolitan Thames Valley (MTV) is a registered social landlord, based in Twickenham, South West London. The organisation owns, manages or administers loans for over 14,500 properties in London, Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Sussex. It provides affordable rented homes, shared ownership, market rent, student and key worker accommodation, working with eight NHS Trusts. Since its launch, MTV has maintained a successful record of growth and now has over 220 employees spread across its headquarters in Twickenham and seven site offices.

Solution 

Exponential-e was selected to design and deploy a new fully converged nine site Network for MTV after being selected following a rigorous tender process. Deciding factors included proposed technology solution, level of technical expertise, housing association experience, company reputation, project management, quality of references, service level agreement and cost-effectiveness.

Exponential-e worked closely with MTV to design a flexible and cost-effective solution which would assist the move between MTV's existing headquarters and its temporary headquarters during the refurbishment, whilst providing a short-term solution to the organisation's traffic laden Internet circuit.

A nine site Wide Area Network (WAN) over Exponential-e's Layer 2 Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) Network was designed to connect the headquarters in Twickenham to three office sites and four remote sites. The robust WAN solution will ensure that MTV's services run smoothly during this period of transition and can cope with increasing capacity demand.

MTV also needed a Network versatile enough to support a range of large applications such as VoIP, Civica's Universal Housing system and Citrix's remote access suite, as well as being able to absorb any extra Network traffic generated.

The organisation's new protocol-agnostic next generation Network designed by Exponential-e, easily accommodates for any additional large applications or changes in Network bandwidth demand.

 Challenges

With a number of years of continuous growth, TVH's existing Network had reached capacity and was unable to support the organisation's requirements. It faced limited amounts of bandwidth at crucial points on its Network, hampering its ability to operate efficiently and provide good customer service.

TVH's ICT Infrastructure Manager, Gerard Brown explained: "We had reached a point where we had to restrict traffic during various times of the day. But this still wasn't enough with all our remote offices coming in on one connection with very limited bandwidth."

After the organisation decided to relocate its headquarters temporarily for a year in order to undergo refurbishment, TVH quickly realised how restricted it was by the inflexible nature of legacy technology on which its current Network was based.

As a result, TVH decided to seek other options and sent out a tender for a new Network. Its new Network needed to support a wide range of large applications, be cost-effective and provide a high level of flexibility to cater for the temporary relocation of its headquarters.

Brown elaborated: "Our current Network wasn't up to the job or flexible enough to allow us to move with it. Extending it would have been very expensive as we would have had to add a lot of extra components. Exponential-e has taken VPLS technology that bit further, making our whole Network feel like one big Network, even with our remote office sites - effectively making our remote sites appear as if they are part of the same building. Exponential-e was able to provide the glowing reference and the technical expertise we needed to manage the relocation of our headquarters - making our choice simple."

By changing Network supplier, even though we had to break out of the existing contract early and pay a penalty fee, it still worked out more cost-effective to implement the new Network with Exponential-e. In addition, we can now run multiple services across our Network, which allows shared services between departments - making our assets go even further.

Gerard Brown ICT Infrastructure Manager, Metropolitan Thames Valley

About The Barbican Centre

The Barbican Centre (The Barbican) is one of the world's leading arts centres, founded and run by the City of London Corporation. It encompasses dance, film, music, theatre, visual arts and creative learning who work together in creating the model of tomorrow's international arts and learning centre.

The architecturally renowned Centre, now Grade II listed, opened in 1982 and comprises the 1,949 seat Barbican Hall, the 1,166-seat Barbican Theatre, the Pit theatre, a 286 seat cinema, the Barbican Art Gallery, a second gallery The Curve, foyers and public spaces, a library, Lakeside Terrace, roof-top tropical conservatory, conference facilities and three restaurants.

Solution 

After comparing a number of solution providers rigorously, Exponential-e was chosen to deploy a 100Mbps fibre Internet connection. The deciding factors were Exponential-e's professional and responsive approach in designing a solution, its expertise in fibre-based network solutions and experience in the Leisure and Hospitality sector.

Exponential-e provided The Barbican with a significant increase in bandwidth. The additional bandwidth immediately addressed usability issues experienced by Internet users. The extra capacity also provided The Barbican with the scalability needed to create a dedicated WiFi zone for visitors.

The Internet connection provided by Exponential-e enabled The Barbican to deliver multiple services over one connection by splitting VLANs. This meant The Barbican could set and change the bandwidth dedicated to specific services with a few simple keystrokes. This additional flexibility meant that key services such as WiFi or booking services no longer compete for bandwidth. The simplicity in making changes to this service also means that The Barbican is able to provide corporate clients with their own dedicated Internet access to support their events.

 Challenges

The Barbican was looking to maintain its position as a world-class venue in a very competitive marketplace. In order to broaden its appeal to corporate clients, The Barbican implemented a £14.1m refurbishment of its conference facilities.

In line with these improvements, The Barbican decided to upgrade its existing 2Mbps copper-based Internet connection, which was being used to capacity. This was having an adverse effect on the speed of web-based services. Applications such as ticketing systems, internal e-mail and WiFi services slowed down as they competed for bandwidth. The Barbican's existing 2Mbps connection also meant there was limited bandwidth capacity to support the growing demand for Internet access at corporate events, conferences and seminars held at The Barbican.

The Barbican decided to upgrade from its copper-based Internet service to a 100Mbps fibre-based Internet connection. A robust failover option would also be installed to provide additional resiliency for Internet services. The additional bandwidth would allow The Barbican to address the immediate issue of slow speeds suffered by Internet users, provide Internet access to corporate clients in keeping with The Barbican's world-class reputation and improve the resiliency of Internet services.

In addition, the project team faced the challenge of adopting a new set of IP addresses. A knock-on effect of this would be the need to re-configure firewalls and make network address translation (NAT) changes. The project team would have to undertake an overnight migration to minimise disruption to visitor services during business hours.

Exponential-e impressed us with its professionalism and know-how in designing a solution to meet our needs. The solution was more cost-effective than the alternatives and was delivered by an expert project team.

Dominic Smith The Barbican.

About The Careys Group

The Carey Group, established in 1969, is a leading multidisciplined construction and resource recovery group, operating across the UK and Ireland. Careys deliver innovative, safe and sustainable solutions to the most complex challenges.

They are unique within the construction industry as they have in-house specialist capabilities in asbestos, demolition, civil engineering, dry lining, house building and resource recovery. Their combined service capabilities means they can deliver consolidated programmes with reduced project costs, consistency and effective management of construction risks.

Solution 

To fulfil The Carey Group's primary IT requirements Exponential-e was tasked to move their data across to a platform that used a combination of our private, secure Cloud platform and Microsoft Office 365. We were able complete the project in just 3 months whilst ensuring zero downtime during the transition period.

Our team of Professional services managers successfully completed the transition from start to finish, ensuring that everything went smoothly and impressing the Carey Group with their high levels of support and competence.

The fact that Exponential-e already supplied their 100GigE low latency WAN solution to Careys meant that they had the confidence in us to design and implement a robust technical solution that was aligned to their IT strategies.

Our solution was underpinned by our resilient Network - ensuring that Carey's had the best base from which to launch their Cloud and email platform.

By using an outsourced model managed by Exponential-e, Carey's made cost efficiencies as they eliminated the time internal IT staff traditionally spent managing their email systems.

The change from a capital expenditure to operating expenditure model has allowed Carey's to directly apportion a predictable monthly cost to the service.

Equally with the scalability of the solution, the cost of operations has decreased and the overall system is far more cost effective.

• One of the primary benefits of the implementation of this solution is that it is cost effective and fits with the company's OPEX model.
• The company has seen a reduction in the time their IT department needs to spend in managing their email system. Through the combination of our ongoing support and the use of Office 365, their email system will be fully managed and any patches or updates applied.
• Inbox storage capacity increased across the company.
• By using Exponential-e the movement of user data and the implementation of the new system were completed without any disruption to the business and took only 3 months to implement. This allowed the business to quickly move from one solution to another, without having to face any system downtime.
• The storage capacity of their email system was increased through use of this new solution, which was a benefit for all employees within the company.

 Challenges

Faced with ageing internal email infrastructure that they were unable to fully manage and support, the Carey Group looked to find a solution that would allow them to move their data to a private Cloud platform whilst also utilising Microsoft Office 365. By outsourcing this service to Exponential-e they were able to ensure that they had a secure and resilient solution that was scalable and fully met their business needs.

The Carey Group's primary challenge was how to move their email data for their 1000+ users across to the new platform whilst ensuring the implementation was completed swiftly and smoothly to avoid business disruption, yet maintaining data integrity.

With their existing WAN provided by Exponential-e they looked to us to provide the professional services to make both a successful data transition and also ensure ongoing support for the day to-day management of the solution.

Exponential-e offered us a complete WAN solution that was technically superior to anything else we looked at, backed up by plain speaking people who have made the transition from a complicated in-house solution far easier than we ever envisaged.

Matt Coniam Head of ICT, The Careys Group.

About Vita Group

Formed over 60 years ago, the Vita Group operates internationally, supplying a vast range of foams for applications ranging from transportation, general industry, construction, furniture and bedding to packaging.

With 36 sites in 14 countries, they work with their customers to create innovative, quality products. Their aim is simple - to be the best in the markets in which they operate.

Solution 

With a new and improved WAN being a key requirement for the Vita Group, this was one of the first things that they looked to tackle with Exponential-e. Migrating to a WAN on the Exponential-e Network enabled them to access a wider range of services, and is supported by 24 / 7 x 365 proactive customer support - therefore meeting all the requirements that the Vita Group had for their migration.

Not only did this move assist in enabling the business to transform the way in which it worked, but it also provided it with the flexibility to grow its business and transform its IT - both now and in the future. Moving to an Opex model also meant that the Vita Group could look to spend money that was previously tied up in hardware on manufacturing equipment instead - something that was key for the businesses' success.

Of course, a major change for the Vita Group was a transition to the Cloud. With a strong desire to move to virtualised services the company was prepared for the change, and working with a provider such as Exponential-e who are an expert in Cloud Services further provided them with the support and trust required to make the leap.

With an initial time frame of making the move to Cloud within two months, after just two weeks it became clear that this could be done much quicker and so the changes were made faster than expected. This gave the Vita Group more time to adjust and settle in to the new systems.

 Challenges

With 36 sites across 14 countries a key for the Vita Group was that they were able to work collaboratively across the globe, with secure and reliable Connectivity – something their existing supplier was unable to offer them. They wanted to move to a new WAN which gave them the functionality and collaboration that they required.

Particularly with such a number of sites, the company found that they were simply spending too much time in-house managing suppliers and processes. Being able to offload this to an external body would mean that their IT department could instead focus their efforts on key business requirements, rather than the day to day running of the business.

With several different hardware platforms and vendors, and a distinct lack of proactive support, the Vita Group wanted to streamline processes and so began to look for a supplier that could meet all their requirements whilst providing a single SLA underpinned with proactive customer support.

An interest and desire to move to the Cloud meant that the Vita Group required a supplier that could provide all of these things, plus the ability to transition to virtualised services.

This search led them to discover Exponential-e.

Solution benefits

• Naturally, the Vita Group were looking for a service provider that could meet their requirements in terms of WAN, Cloud and customer support. But alongside this, they were also looking for a partner that they could trust and work alongside for the foreseeable future.
• The Vita Group wanted a partner that understood Cloud and could deliver a reliable Network and service model. Exponential-e were the perfect fit for all of these requirements and further proved this by delivering services over a month ahead of schedule.
  

About ICA

The International Cotton Association (ICA) is the world's leading international cotton trade association and arbitral body. It carries 170 years of history and a clear mission for the future to protect the legitimate interests of all those involved in the cotton trade.

Established in 1841, the ICA provides a worldwide service for the international sale, purchase and movement of raw cotton between producers, traders and consumers. The majority of the world's raw cotton is traded under ICA Bylaws & Rules and the ICA has more than 500 members, including some of the world's major cotton companies and affiliate industry firms. The organisation operates on a not-for-profit basis.

Solution 

After comparing a number of solution providers rigorously, Exponential-e was selected. Key selection criteria included: technology, customer service, reputation, expertise and price.

Robert Jiang explained: "With the challenges we had faced, we really needed a supplier who could deliver great infrastructure and customer service. The face-to-face meeting with Exponential-e's technical team at its London Network Operations Centre assured us that it was able to deliver the whole package; reliable high-speed Internet connectivity, coupled with great customer service and expertise. And after speaking to a number of other organisations who all recommended Exponential-e's services we were confident that they would be the right choice for us."

Working closely with the ICA, Exponential-e ensured the new Internet connection was deployed timely to coincide with the Association's Liverpool office move.

The Association's new protocol-agnostic connection, delivered over an uncontended 100Mbps fibre-optic connection, easily accommodates for any additional large applications or changes in network bandwidth demand. Since deployment, the ICA has enjoyed a 100% uptime of its Internet connection.

In addition, employees can now easily access emails and company files remotely and backup is effortlessly carried out online. Jiang summarises his experience of Exponential-e: "Unlike some companies where you never speak to the same person and you are passed from one department to another; Exponential-e's approach is very personal, straightforward and proactive. We're always kept up-to-date and that's very reassuring as a customer."

 Challenges

After facing Internet downtime, regular data peaks and with worldwide members relying on the ICA for fast and efficient resolutions to arbitration disputes, the ICA's legacy Internet connectivity was no longer suitable. The Internet downtime resulted in members not being able to to access the ICA website for vital information and the association was unable to communicate with members via email or audio conferencing.

Robert Jiang, Business Operations & Development Manager at the ICA explains: "Our main duty is to provide a good service to our worldwide members. So we have to ensure that we can be contacted at all times. And with strict response timelines for all arbitration cases, it's paramount that all communication is timely – whether that's via email or audio conferencing. With the Internet downtime we experienced, we simply were not able to offer the best quality service to our members. We needed a much more reliable and scalable solution."

Since the association often peaked in its bandwidth usage, even simple administration tasks such as backup proved to be difficult. In addition, accessing the company network remotely was a real challenge for staff. As a result, ICA began sourcing a more reliable solution provider which could offer the infrastructure and customer service levels needed to enable it to provide a better service to its member base.

"A great advantage of Exponential-e's Internet service is that it's Layer 2, which means we can split our connection between multiple services in the future. This will help us to further reduce costs, streamline operations and provide a better service to our members - and this is key for us." - Robert Jiang - Business Operations & Development Manager.

Features 

• Increased bandwidth capacity and performance.
• Reduced overheads with the introduction of audio conferencing over the Internet.
• The ability to converge multiple services over one connection and further reduce costs.