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EXPO.e Networks & Somerset House
An end-to-end solution, providing world-class connectivity to more than 2,600 business tenants through a single supplier
About Somerset House
Based on the south side of the Strand in Central London, Somerset House stands on the site of a Tudor palace that originally belonged to the Duke of Somerset in 1547 The current neo-classical buildings were founded in 1776. It is now home to a diverse group of leaders and innovators from the world of the arts and culture.
The Challenge
Somerset House's IT team initially depended on a number of different vendors to supply its network and internet connectivity for the building's different wings. This required them to manage a wide range of contractors, service levels, and cable runs, in order to ensure that as many as 2,600 tenants would always enjoy highly available, resilient connectivity at all times.
The inherent complexity of this approach, and the resulting variations in the quality of connectivity tenants enjoyed, meant that the decision was made to consolidate the site's entire internet connectivity under a single, trusted technology partner, who would not only supply the required connections, but provide the IT team with backend support and ongoing consultation, the goal being a truly end-to-end solution that would support Somerset House's ongoing development.
"I like the offering, I like the flexibility, and I like that I never have to worry about who I can pick up the phone and talk to. I can honestly say EXPO.e have been one of my best providers for many years, particularly for the fact I rarely ever have to talk to the support team, just our account managers! The team is really responsive to our preferred ways of working, which is great. It was especially valuable when we were upgrading the services, as they were on-hand throughout to make sure it all went perfectly."
Stuart Winter - Director of Operations and Infrastructure, Somerset House Trust
The Solution
EXPO.e Networks was selected as Somerset House's new technology partner, based on the quality of their self-owned, homogenous network, their deep experience fulfilling the most rigorous connectivity requirements around uptime and availability, and their willingness to work closely with the IT team to ensure the resulting solution would be fully fit for purpose.
Straight away, EXPO.e Networks were able to reduce Somerset House's annual networking costs by thousands of pounds by looking closely at their requirements, and designing an offering that would fulfil them without any unnecessary expenditures, while still retaining ample room to scale up or down in the future.
Building on this initial success, the EXPO.e Networks account team have provided proactive monitoring for Somerset House's connectivity, ensuring a number of potential outages have been identified and resolved before an alert was even necessary.
The partnership between Somerset House's IT team and their EXPO.e Networks account team continues to go from strength to strength, with the account managers providing ongoing consultancy and support whenever and wherever necessary - particularly throughout system upgrades, ensuring the underlying network continues to support the vibrant community of artists and creatives that call this historic building home.
Solution Benefits
- Highly resilient, high-performance connectivity for as many as 2,600 tenants, covering every wing of Somerset House
- An end-to-end solution, with Somerset House's full range of internet connectivity requirements fulfilled by EXPO.e Networks
- Optimal response times, with any potential outages proactively dealt with, in order to maximise uptime
- Reduced management time on the critical links feeding the entire network, with proactive support from an EXPO.e Networks account team
- Ongoing network costs reduced by thousands of pounds
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