About Abercorn School 

Established in 1987, Abercorn School aims to offer its pupils the best start in education by providing a friendly and inspiring academic atmosphere where a true love of learning is nurtured.

The school has gained an enviable record of excellence and achievement for boys and girls from 2½ to 13 years of age. They guide both pupils and parents through the education process to ensure their pupils attain the highest standards and meet their potential.

Abercorn are firm believers in traditional values and standards. However, they are committed to embracing the best of what the 21st century will offer to aid in preparing pupils to face the challenges of the modern world with confidence and competence.

Solution 

Implementing connectivity into the new premises for Abercorn School was a priority, and a September 2015 deadline had Exponential-e working fast. From beginning to end, implementation and testing of a super-fast, low latency Internet line was installed in to the new building in just 6 weeks. This allowed the school to ensure they were up and running in time for the arrival of pupils for the new school year.

A key requirement was for the Internet to be robust and reliable, ensuring that lessons were productive for pupils and that staff were able to access resources as and when they needed to.

The next solution that Exponential-e worked to implement was a refreshed telephony system that would allow Abercorn to reduce costs and increase call quality. A Hosted Voice solution offered Abercorn "fantastic call quality" and was "very easy to use" - that alongside the cost savings it delivered meant that Abercorn implemented this solution in to their second site too.

With communication between the two sites ever increasing, it made sense for Abercorn to look in to a Smart WAN, which provides connectivity between the two sites as if they were using a single LAN. This enables faster communication and file transfer between sites, as well as allowing staff to better communicate with each other.

With space at a premium within the schools, VDCs looked like an ideal method for the school to store data and infrastructure without having to find the space for physical servers within their building. With this sitting within the Cloud, managed by Exponential-e, Abercorn could also be reassured that their servers were being proactively monitored by our 24 / 7 x 365 service desk to ensure resilient uptime.

Another benefit of the VDC solution was the fact that the school could better manage its IT budget, with the requirement to only pay for what they required - and with scalability being incredibly easy they could increase or decrease server space when necessary.

Built on trust the relationship between Exponential-e and Abercorn School has grown and grown and they continue to look to other solutions which weren't part of their initial request for services. Exponential-e was able to reassure Abercorn that the service would work by allowing them to test Internet and telephony services prior to the services officially going live. This provided the school with the confidence they needed to embark upon the relationship and implement its services.

 Challenges

When Abercorn originally approached Exponential-e their school in new premises was not yet open and they had poor connectivity within their existing building. This was therefore a priority for Abercorn, and Exponential-e were selected to provide the service.

Abercorn also had a second site which they needed to communicate with frequently. They were keen to implement increased connectivity between these sites. At the time they were using an existing phone line and spending around £500 a month on calling their other sites. This was a challenge that was resolved by a Hosted Voice solution, which Exponential-e further provided to Abercorn to enable increase communication and collaboration - whilst enabling cost savings.

Solution benefits

• Internet Connectivity - enabled school to open on time and provide both pupils and staff with a reliable, fast Internet connection.
• Hosted voice solution - means that the school are saving around £500 a month on calls between sites, with the quality of the calls also being greatly improved.
• Wide Area Network (WAN) - between sites enables more resilient connectivity, as well as allowing users faster communication with those at other locations.
• VPN Access - allowing staff to work remotely enabled access to documents and data.
  

We recognize that educational organisations need to demonstrate the highest possible standards in technology, as well as focusing on cost efficiencies to deliver ROI. Read our education booklet to discover our solutions to specific eduactional IT challenges.

About ABPI

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) represents innovative research-based biopharmaceutical companies, large, medium and small, leading an exciting new era of biosciences in the UK.

The ABPI is recognised by government as the industry body negotiating on behalf of the branded pharmaceutical industry for statutory consultation requirements, including the pricing scheme for medicines in the UK.

Solution 

Throughout the whole tender process it was felt that Exponential-e had a quality that couldn't be matched and as Exponential-e were already an existing supplier of a Private VPN between ABPI's 3 site, this gave ABPI the confidence that Exponential-e could handle their IT transformation requirements. Their previous experience with Exponential-e and the quality of the services that were provided meant that they were happy to engage Exponential-e for their future IT needs.

Requiring a large review of their services, ABPI instructed Exponential-e to provide them with Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), 24 / 7 x 365 service desk support, an on-site engineer at their Head Office, managed service support of their applications, virtual firewalls and ongoing Network support.

During the migration to Exponential-e, ABPI were able to address a good proportion of the improvements that they were not able to facilitate with their previous supplier.

Despite a vast amount of modernisation, change in existing services and the opportunity to address all existing problems the implementation of the service was professionally handled by Exponential-e's project managers - with a smooth implementation of all services.

The end result meant that ABPI were able to simplify their IT estate, and in particular their Network, whilst selecting one supplier for all their requirements - protected by a single end-to-end SLA.

 Challenges

With 3 sites, The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) required resilient and reliable services that would enable them to carry out the important work that they do for companies across the UK.

Their relationship with their legacy provider had been tarnished due to long periods of underwhelming service, slow engagement on service improvements and the lack of a diverse product range.

This meant that ABPI were using and maintaining an aging IT environment that was no longer suitable for their needs or requirements. Their ability to adapt or improve upon this further constrained by the restrictions of their existing supplier.

Naturally the ABPI therefore had to look at other avenues, and began their research in to suppliers that could provide them with what they wanted and required. A full-scale refresh was the obvious resolution to their existing archaic infrastructure to ensure that all systems were modern and future-proofed.

Solution benefits

• With previous experience of using Exponential-e as a supplier of a Private VPN between ABPI's numerous sites, ABPI knew that they could trust Exponential-e with their business transformation.
• Throughout the tender process Exponential-e "oozed a quality that others failed to match - despite some very strong competition" and this further supported ABPI's choice to select Exponential-e for this project.
• Exponential-e's exceptionally strong technical team and professional, skilled project management team also aided in ensuring that the transformation for ABPI was fluid and confirmed that their trust in Exponential-e was well placed.
  

About Allport Cargo Services

Founded in 1963 Allport Cargo Services operate in 30 countries, with representation in another 100.

Their Network extends to 450 offices, with more than 21,000 colleagues and a worldwide turnover exceeding £600 million.

Headquartered in Cowley, Middlesex, their 800 UK based colleagues operate out of 20 hi-tech logistics hubs, freight centres and packaging factories: picking, packing and transporting cargo globally every day for customers across a range of sectors.

Solution 

To increase the flexibility and scalability of its Network, Exponential-e worked with channel partner Ideal Networks to migrate Allport's existing Network to its VPLS Network. This solution emulates a Layer 2 VLAN allowing the nine geographically diverse sites to connect as if they were on the same LAN.

The flatter Network structure is easier for Allport to manage, and the solution has built-in resilience by incorporating dual, carrier agnostic routers at each site. As a result, Allport is able to ensure optimum Network performance at all times.

As well as receiving 24 / 7 support and technical maintenance from Ideal Networks and Exponential-e, Allport has also been able to increase the visibility of its Network via a tailored web portal, allowing them to better plan Network resources according to business demands.

 Challenges

Allport Cargo Services, a global freight, supply chain and added value logistics company, was looking to update its existing WAN infrastructure to increase resilience and responsiveness across its Network.

Allport wished to transition to a responsive service provider who could proactively support the migration and management of an upgraded Network. This move would help Allport improve the development of its critical business systems ultimately enabling the business to increase efficiency and drive productivity.

Allport was looking for a flexible and scalable WAN infrastructure to connect multiple sites across the UK. Key to Allport's business proposition is the availability and speed of data transfer across its Network. The Network underpins every process within the business and therefore the provision of a resilient and scalable Network is essential in day-to-day operations.

Allport sought a service provider that could offer not only a more scalable Network but also a management, analysis and monitoring platform. These value added services would allow Allport's IT managers to focus on internal processes and demands.

Solution benefits

• Allport has ensured its business continuity by migrating to a Network that will be able to accommodate future business expansion. By increasing its available bandwidth, Allport has seen immediate improvement and has been able to begin work upgrading its critical business processes, a task which had previously been on hold due to the previous limited bandwidth. These upgrades allow staff to respond to customers more quickly and ultimately have improved customer satisfaction.
• Through working with Ideal Networks and Exponential-e, Allport has benefited from a responsive team of engineers who can offer true 24 / 7 technical support and management across all its sites. Exponential-e is able to provide proactive monitoring and analysis of Network activity to enable Allport to respond more quickly to Network issues.

About Havas

Solution 

Exponential-e worked closely with Havas to design a solution that would remove the complexity and duplication from the existing infrastructure and consolidate all 16 sites into a central Network, while ensuring each business unit remained secure from each other. Exponential-e engineers were able to overcome this challenge with a relatively simple Network design.

Single access points - To accommodate Havas' requirements, we deployed a multi-site Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) WAN solution using single, converged connections from each of the Havas offices. Each Havas business unit is now supported by our resilient Next Generation Network.

VPLS communities - To consolidate Havas' disparate WANs we needed to discover which agencies needed to be able to talk to each other. Once we had this information, we were able to group agencies into different VPLS pools to create mini-WANs. The fact that we were able to maintain LAN and WAN separacy means the solution is operationally simplistic and it gives Havas maximum control.

Centrally hosted hardware and services - We co-located the firewalls across two separate data centres using VLANs into the firewall. This means Havas can now benefit from centrally hosted firewalls which it has complete control over. Havas are able to change security policies and routing itself from one central point. The company also has centrally hosted Internet connectivity removing considerable complexity, duplication and cost from its wide area Networking.

Resiliency - Our pioneering NGN design in this instance was based on providing resilient and automated failover to secondary circuits at each site, whereby the local router will switch traffic automatically into the secondary circuit in the event of a failure on the primary circuit. In addition, we provided resilient connections to the centralised firewall to achieve automatic failover on the Internet service.

Convergence and separation - We created one unified Network but managed to maintain 100% security and separation for its individual business units. Most importantly Havas is in control and unnecessary cost and duplication have been eliminated.

 Challenges

There were a number of issues Havas had with its old Network. Firstly, the IP VPN solutions it was using required highly complex access-control lists on each site's CPE router to keep different business unit traffic secure from each other. This was proving very inflexible, time consuming and an administrative headache.

Havas' Network had also grown to include multiple Internet services which were operated by many of the individual business units. As a result of this, the company was having to manage multiple firewalls and Internet service suppliers which was proving to be an area of concern.

The business wanted to consolidate its Network of disparate Wide Area Networks (WANs) into one unified platform, whilst maintaining security between business unit communities. At the same time it wanted to centralise its Internet provision and security services so the company could eliminate a complex array of providers, bandwidths and underlying technologies.

About Morningstar

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The organisation offers an extensive line of products and services for individuals, financial advisers, and institutions.

Morningstar U.K. opened in London in 2000 and launched its investing website in 2001. The website offers access to objective information on more than 9,000 funds available to individual investors in the U.K

About Price Bailey

Founded in 1938, Price Bailey is a leading firm of chartered accountants and business advisers operating throughout the UK, with global connections. Their clients range from high net worth individuals to publicly listed businesses.

Price Bailey has 26 partners and over 300 professional and support staff. It has eight offices situated in East Anglia, London, the Channel Islands and the Caribbean - serving local SMEs.

Solution 

A key requirement for Price Bailey was the need to review their existing WAN. Exponential-e took on the project of implementing a new WAN which enabled Price Bailey to benefit from improved connection speeds of up to 25 times faster than their previous Network. Plus, by utilising Exponential-e's Network they were able to increase the control over their bandwidth and access services privately and securely.

Their in-house Data Centre was no longer suitable and so Price Bailey agreed to move in to one of Exponential-e's Data Centres. Not only did this mean that they now receive a managed service which flags up any issues pro-actively and is within a state of the art secure facility, but it also provides enhanced disaster recovery facilities – enabling Price Bailey to have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place should they need to use it.

Their aging phone system, which had been in place over 20 years, was no longer fit for purpose and so the process of moving their existing telephone system on to a hosted system began. This process continued across the business's estate of offices and has enhanced communication functionality for employees. The new phone system also provided the firm with additional reporting metrics and enhanced security.

As their existing Citrix server farm could no longer handle the speed of growth and requirements for use, Price Bailey instead implemented a Desktop-as-a-Service solution. This allowed them to increase the number of seats that they could provide whilst lessening the strain on their existing legacy infrastructure. In future it will also allow them to increase provisioning of virtual desktops as required - meaning that they can easily match the growth of the firm, and adjust spend aligned to this.

 Challenges

Price Bailey had an existing Wide Area Network (WAN) that had been in place since 2008 and, despite upgrades, it couldn't cope with the growth in their business – both in terms of staff and office locations. As the firm continued to grow they were faced with issues of slow speed and poor connectivity, which led to frustration for users and also a decrease in productivity.

Their IT services were primarily based in-house, but with their fast paced growth this was no longer the ideal solution. Instead Price Bailey decided that they needed to outsource some of this and instead rely on managed services that would be able to support their business growth.

In 2014 Price Bailey were looking to relocate one of their offices, and merge it with another, to create their largest site yet. This involved a great amount of work and was not something that could be managed internally.

As part of this move and merger Price Bailey needed to review their existing WAN, relocate their in-house Data Centre, review their Disaster Recovery plan, upgrade their telephone system (which had been in place since the 1990's) and review their struggling Citrix server farm.

Not only was there a requirement for all this to be done, but it had to happen within just 3 to 4 months, a timeframe that was too tight for the Price Bailey team to handle themselves - and why they instead looked to Exponential-e for assistance.

Features

• Network is up to 25 times faster.
• Managed Data Centre services replace an in-house Data Centre, enabling the IT department to do more whilst the company's key assets are protected.
• Migration to the Exponential-e telephony system has allowed employees to embrace the benefits of more advanced features and functionality.
• VDI has enhanced the opportunities for employees to work in remote locations, and also reduced the strain on their legacy systems.
  

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 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.