Royal & SunAlliance case study

Solution

Having identified the issues, Royal & SunAlliance met with REM Probe Ltd to discuss the options. The vision was a scaleable solution that would provide a single view of the whole communications environmenti and be capable of adapting to a changing estate. It needed to be a standardised solution, which could be implemented at any R&SA site to allow a phased roll-out across the business.

As Kelvin Ager, Managing Director at REM Probe Ltd, confirms, “Royal & SunAlliance has many offices in the UK, each connected by a wide area network, and the solution we provided had to be able to traverse this network. During the survey phase we worked with Royal & SunAlliance to design a monitoring topologyi that included sites across UK.”

Planning began with the analysis of environmental statistics taken over time from each Royal & SunAlliance communications room. The results were used to set the local alert thresholdi values within which the equipment in each room could operate efficiently. The objective was to establish levels of alert that would give sufficient warning to allow operators to identify and resolve issues before failure occurred.

For Steve Allen, predicting problems was an essential requirement, “A key component for us was the ability to trend. We wanted a solution that could analyse sensor metrics over days and weeks to identify stability, deterioration or improvement in the environmenti. This would allow us to concentrate our resources and efforts in responding to and extinguishing threats.”

Alerts are only effective if delivered quickly to those able to deal with them; their rapid and accurate communication was another essential requirement for Royal & SunAlliance. “We need to know immediately when an alert had been generated,” Steve Allen confirms. “The REM Enterprise solution automatically notifies key personnel, and our service provider and systems integration partners.”

At the heart of the Royal & Sun Alliance solution is a sensor estate carefully tailored to monitor the unique environmenti of each area of the communications network. Steve Allen explains, “Data from sensors is sent every two minutes to the REM server within our datacentre. The REM server analyses thresholds and issues alerts to the Web interface, through SMS and email notifications, and as SNMPi data to our partners, including BT in the UK and IBM in Bangalore.”

Steve Allen is impressed by the level of service delivered by the REM team. “From the moment we started working with REM Probe Ltd we realised the company is completely customer focused. The team listened intently to our needs and reflected our specific requirements in the solution they delivered. We could not have asked for anything more from REM, they have been very responsive.”

For Kelvin Ager, working closely with customers means adapting to all their business needs, “The REM team worked directly with Royal & SunAlliance facilities management teams to fulfil all their formal processes and documentation requirements, including risk assessments and method statements for each installation at each site. We provide such support to help our customers’ project managers keep implementations to schedule and risk free.”

Steve Allen confirms the REM team’s success, “From an end-customer perspective, REM ticked all the boxes for Royal & SunAlliance. They provided an excellent design phase and the installation was fast with no disruption to our business. They met all our requirements and delivered on time and in budget.”