- Coordination of the IT team during renovations at the head office of the Russian division. This included preparation for the 'new normal' — 25% reduction of in-office workplaces and hot-desking;
- Renovation of the server room;
- Porting corporate phone numbers to a new mobile service carrier.
Key Challenges
- In the major renovation project — to design and implement IT infrastructure for the head office in Moscow. The infrastructure had to provide uninterrupted high-speed Wi-Fi connection throughout the office, thus requiring wireless equipment;
- To repair and replace equipment in the server room without disrupting the business processes;
- To port corporate phone numbers of 2,500 employees to a new mobile service carrier.
Renovation of the head office
The Client planned a major renovation in the 7,400-square-metre office, designed for 700 employees. This included rearranging meeting rooms and workplaces, as well as replacing the equipment.
ICL Services had to create the design of new workplaces and meeting rooms, set up equipment, build a new IT infrastructure, and provide Wi-Fi coverage.
The Project featured several stages. First, a general design of workplace organisation was discussed, including equipment specifications and vendor collaboration. The Client's global standards, as well as the needs of their corporate departments, were taken into account.
Then, the ICL Services team purchased the equipment on behalf of the Client. Some of the equipment was not on the Russian market, so the delivery time, possible delays due to customs, and available alternatives had to be taken into account. In some cases, peripheral equipment was developed to order.
ICL Services made sure to meet the Client's main request — to make the office as wire-free as possible.
- The company renovated 70 meeting rooms using 6 different configurations — each room has a TV, a wireless speaker, and a webcam, all of them employing USB Type-C connectors;
- 350 workstations became almost wireless (connection to all systems via a single cable);
- ICL Services also implemented a content management system that allows broadcasting to all televisions in the office from one laptop.
Design coordination, selection of equipment, procurement, and logistics tasks took 4 months.
Since the general construction and installation work took longer than planned, the equipment had to be installed with time constraints in mind. The team needed to install, configure, and test the equipment in the whole office in 2 weeks, so additional people were brought in.
As a result, the office was opened on time, with the equipment ready for the tasks.Server room renovation
The server room also had to be renovated: the ventilation, the fire system, and the server cabinets had to be replaced, and some equipment had to be updated. Doing so without shutting down the servers that housed the Client's business applications was impossible. The Client requested that renovations be completed with no downtime for accountants, lawyers, or other staff.
ICL Services team held several meetings with the company's department heads to gain insight into their work. As a result, the team developed a plan for shutting down the server room and outlined downtime windows.
The server cabinets had to be turned off and disassembled to give room for renovation work. The ICL Services project manager coordinated a team of engineers and remote support specialists tasked with restoring the server room and setting up the network.
All work was done on 5 weekends in 24/7 mode. Server room renovation was seamless for the Client's employees.
Porting corporate phone numbers to a new mobile service carrier.
The Client decided to change the mobile service carrier for the corporate numbers — the contract with the previous one was about to expire, and the mobile service quality had to be improved. However, the corporate phone numbers had to remain the same. ICL Services had 4 months to port 2,500 phone numbers of employees from 70 regions of Russia.
Together, ICL Services managers, the Client, and representatives of the current and future mobile carriers identified customer debts, identified dependencies, and devised the porting plan. The porting was split into 7 waves, starting with the Moscow office.
It took place during mandatory self-isolation when employees worked remotely. The project manager and the Client's HR department analyzed the employee database to find information on their whereabouts.
Workers received information about the porting of the corporate phone number, as well as instructions on solving common problems. Two weeks later, the employees received new letters requesting the delivery address of the new SIM card. Not only the location of employees but also the delivery time had to be taken into account.
In some cases, the ICL Services team had reached out to the employees to help solve the issues.
In 4 months, all 2,500 employees from 70 regions of the country switched to the new carrier.
Results
- The large-scale renovation of the office was completed on time, despite the delay in construction and installation work. The Client, as a result, could provide modern workspaces for 700 employees and reduce the number of workstation cables.
- Renovation of the server room improved its fault tolerance without disrupting the Client's business processes.
- Phone numbers of all 2,500 employees of the Client were ported to a new mobile carrier. As a result, the company got a more stable and faster mobile service, taking control of the mobile carrier situation.
- The Client did not have to attract new contractors for business transformation projects — ICL Services, being a trusted service provider, took over all the tasks