Project specification
Investec is an international banking and wealth management group. It provides a range of financial products and services to a client base in Europe, Southern Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
Already a valued client of Technimove’s, Investec reached out to us to assist with a large ITAD, and critical data centre migration program, centred around the relocation of their London Gresham Street HQ, involving some 3,000 assets.
Having had a history of completing key data centre migration projects for the group, Technimove were selected to assist with this project, due to our past performance, and ability to meet the Investec’s key deadlines. The latter was critical for the Bank, in order for them to hand back their circa 180,000 square foot office space in line with the end of their lease.
Technimove’s Solution
Technimove assigned a dedicated, experienced Project Manager, who immediately engaged with Investec’s Project Team. A series of site meetings were had, which defined the finer details of the project.
Working to a broad timeline, Technimove’s Project Manager presented Investec’s Project Team with an aggressive delivery program. Aggressive because the access to their building had a greatly restricted head height of just 2 meters, which meant that our teams needed to walk the equipment some 40 meters from the lifts, and up an incline. Further, the loading bay was both short and still in use, so careful arrangements were needed, in order to maintain a sense of harmony during the project.
It was agreed that the desktop equipment be cleared a floor at a time, whilst the data centre equipment, which resided within the building, would be removed at the end of the migration project, due to the criticality of the environment it was housed in.
Conclusion
Despite the great amount of planning that went into this project, there were several unexpected changes, that could not have been foreseen. A delay in the fit out of Investec’s new Headquarters, had a knock-on effect on the decommissioning program. Further, two technology build issues meant that some equipment collected had to be recalled and delivered to Investec’s new site.
Technimove’s agility meant that we were able to adjust to the change in program. Having focused in this sector for more than 2 decades, we know that key technology projects will often not go as predetermined, however, the ability to be dynamic, and flexible is often the difference between success and failure. Our 24/7 service and accessibility to our senior management team means that Technimove have never failed to deliver a project – a record that we are very proud of.
At tender stage, Technimove had an agreed buyback sum with Investec. This project was completed on time, to the agreed budget, and rebate. This enabled Investec to focus on the relocation of their headquarters and the hand-back of their old headquarters .