A global bedding manufacturing company based in the U.S. wanted to open a new UK head office in London. With very limited local IT resources combined with increased travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the customer needed a Cisco networking partner to design, configure, install, and commission a new wired LAN, wireless LAN, firewalls, and WAN routers.

The customer also required the partner to act as their local 'eyes and ears' for the final stages of the office buildout, working with the contractor on features like cabling layout, power, and cooling.

Solution:

SHI evaluated the customer requirements and produced a thorough scope of work and project timeline for the engagement. The following equipment was deployed:

Cisco Catalyst 9300 switches in a stack
Cisco Catalyst 9120 wireless access points with internal antennae
Cisco Catalyst 9800 wireless LAN controller
Cisco ISR 4300 and 890 series WAN routers
Palo Alto PA-450 firewall
APC Smart-UPS SRT 8000VA
Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

SHI also provided the following services via the in-house engineering and project management team:

Site readiness inspection with building contractors
Equipment acceptance, inventory, unboxing, and pre-stage testing of the delivered network equipment
Network design, recommended iOS versions, and equipment configuration
Wireless site survey and cabling and fitting wireless access points with the cabling contractor
Equipment racking, patching, system testing, and commissioning
Out-of-band remote access for the U.S. team to apply final configuration before WAN circuits went live
Onsite, go-live support for the office opening
Full project management, rack elevation diagrams, and customer handover documentation

Outcome:

A successful office opening day commenced with go-live, onsite presence in case of any teething troubles in the early stages. This project enabled the customer to seamlessly move over 100 employees into the new head office facility — just four months after the initial project kick-off meeting.

“Despite limited local IT resources and a tight timeline, the customer needed to open a new head office and required a Cisco networking partner to design, configure, install, and manage the project.”