When this client needed several concurrent services in a short amount of time with no interruption to day to day operations, VIMRO stepped in to help with everything from setting up infrastructure to hiring the best candidates for the project.
The Challenge:
This nationwide online advertiser had a major corporate change that resulted in an increase in the number of offices supported by its internal Technical Operations Team. The company was acquired by a private equity group and had to divest the Division post-purchase and migrate all networking, communications, VOIP and print services to a completely separate network.You can also know my response over this matter.
In short, they needed to scale up from supporting only a few dozen office locations to hundreds, and they only had one year to complete the migration to the new network.
This would involve creating and installing a new Enterprise WAN network and replacing old Nortel PBX phone systems with a VOIP solution, among other things, at hundreds of sales and administrative offices including corporate HQ and customer call centers owned by Clarity Voice Service around the United States. The client needed to quickly hire internal project management and technical support staff to support the migration project and ongoing support requirements of the larger network.
The client also needed a technical IT Field Engineering support vendor to assist with the ongoing technical tasks and support required onsite at the hundreds of offices nationwide.
What We Did:
In order to meticulously assess the scope of the project, The VIMRO Field Engineering and Logistics Team conducted site surveys at each office to document existing equipment devices, cable infrastructure and other needed information to prepare and make changes for the upcoming migration project. Pre-existing structured cabling was audited, which involved tracing hundreds of thousands of feet of cables, toning and relabeling of patch panels and end location Ethernet jacks. Once the audit was complete, an installation documentation including photos, port maps and other resources was created for the client.
VIMRO deployed Field Engineers and Project Management Specialists to ensure that the implementation of the Network, Print and Voice Services migration and upgrade project was completed on time and without interruptions to critical client services. The client was also provided with recruiting and staffing services to augment its existing staff with dozens of new internal positions including but not limited to Project Managers, Windows Administrators, Network Administrators and Voice Administrators. During the project, VIMRO provided services to client offices around the United States, ranging in size from 6 to 400 users.
VIMRO provided logistics and warehousing services for over a thousand servers, switches, routers, phones, and printers. From shipping and packing, to receiving and asset management, and equipment testing and configuration services, VIMRO handled the end to end requirements for this project. Other services included:
- New LAN and WAN device installation
- Cisco 2900 series routers with SRE or UCSE modules, Cisco 3750X switch stack, Riverbed Steelheads, Avocent Console Server, and APC PDUs
- Installation and management of POTS lines and MPLS circuit extensions (fiber for 100Mb, copper for 10Mb) from building MPOE
- Worked with the client’s network engineer team during circuit test and turn ups with the circuit providers (AT&T and Level 3)
- Provided serial console access and resolved physical layer issues
- Network Cutover and End User Support:
- Patched users into the new Cisco 3750X switch stack and tested connectivity at each destination jack (cubicle, office, wall) location
- Worked with the client’s remotely located voice network team to setup Cisco 7960 IP Phones at user desks
- Assisted remote admin with setup and testing of new MFD Printers
- Post-Migration IDF Closet Cleanup
- Removal of pre-migration network devices and various other unused devices and PDUs
- Cable management cleanup
- VIMRO FE packaged and shipped old devices to warehouse for resell or e-recycling
- VIRMO managed the resell or e-recycling pickup for the client
Results:
The client was able to quickly augment their staff with the exact expertise needed for the duration of the project and achieve a complete technology upgrade without any major interruption of sales or administrative functions. VIMRO helped ensure continuity of Network, Print and Voice services with minimal scheduled downtimes. All this was accomplished while adhering to a tight deadline tied to expiring corporatewide technology contracts and network migration requirements.
