Nationwide improves business agility with future-proofed cabling infrastructure

Customer challenge

To operate a successful modern building society and offer its members competitive financial services, Nationwide must be able to respond to change. With a cabling backbone that was nearly 15 years old at its main administrative offices, Nationwide needed to migrate to a future-proofed infrastructure that would enable it to take advantage of new applications to help improve cost control and the customer experience.

Computacenter solution

To minimise the risk of deploying more than 1,000 kilometres of cabling to offices housing 6,000 staff, Nationwide turned to Computacenter. By creating a temporary overlay network, the joint project team was able to replace the legacy Category 4 infrastructure with a faster and more resilient Category six solution, without causing disruption to staff or customer services. The project team also deployed a SMARTPatch intelligent patching solution to improve cable management and simplify moves and changes.

Results

Desktop connectivity has increased from 20 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps, which will enable Nationwide to adopt new technologies that boost competitive advantage. The new cabling infrastructure and SMARTPatch solution have also helped to improve efficiency, business agility and cost control, and enabled the adoption of VoIP, which Nationwide is deploying for all employees based at its administrative offices and call centres.

Download case study

Customer profile

A modern, mutual building society
Nationwide is the largest building society in the world, with around 13 million members. The result of well over 100 mergers, Nationwide has come a long way since its inception over 160 years ago and is now the UK's second largest mortgage lender and savings provider.

The organisation has maintained its mutual status, and continues to focus on looking after the interests of its members. To ensure it can offer competitive and first-rate financial services, Nationwide must maintain the organisation's efficiency and profitability. This often involves embracing new technologies that can help the building society optimise resources and streamline processes.

Last year, efficiency gains contributed to an impressive 24 per cent rise in Nationwide's underlying profit before tax. This increased profitability not only helps the building society strengthen its capital position but also ensures that members have ongoing access to attractive and innovative financial services.

Business challenge

The ability to cope with change
Technology is very important to the organisation's vision for the future, with initiatives such as Internet banking critical to Nationwide's success.

All technology projects, however, are dependent upon the cabling network connecting the 6,000 staff and systems in Nationwide's two main administrative centres. Although the centres' legacy cabling infrastructure was still adequate for the organisation's needs, Nationwide recognised that an upgrade needed to be initiated before this became a constraint, and that this involved a considerable lead time.

"Business agility is essential in the financial services sector, as we constantly have to cope with change – whether it be new legislation, technology or customer demand," comments Peter Stafford, Head of IT Infrastructure at Nationwide. "Our ability to respond to these changes is partly dependent on how well our underlying cabling infrastructure can cope with increased traffic, systems and users."

Although future-proofing the centres' operational capabilities was key, Nationwide also needed to ensure that current business activities were not affected by the cabling upgrade. As Peter explains: "It was critical that we prevented the project from impacting staff and customer service levels. Temporarily relocating so many people had significant cost implications, so we were eager to carry out the cabling refresh around the users."

To ensure its IT staff were free to continue their day-to-day duties and to work on other key projects, Nationwide opted to partner with an external services provider.

Computacenter solution

Future-proofed and flexible cabling infrastructure
After running a competitive tender, Nationwide selected Computacenter on the strength of its track record in major cabling implementations. Computacenter's cabling experts were involved in every aspect of the migration – from planning and design to installation – and a joint team was created to ensure cabling best practice and internal knowledge was shared.

The project impacted every function based at Nationwide's central offices, including the CEO, security desk, administration and treasury. To ensure the upgrade did not disrupt the critical services provided by these staff, the project team implemented a temporary overlay network while the legacy cabling was removed and the new infrastructure installed.

Due to the scale of the undertaking, the three-year project was divided in to four phases, each covering a different section of the building. Peter comments: "Some areas of the building required a more bespoke approach. For example, the funds clearing function works in the evenings, which impacted the implementation schedule, and some areas had core communications equipment that feeds the whole building, which needed to be protected."

To minimise risk, the more complicated upgrades were scheduled in phase four, once an efficient repeatable process had been established. "Due to careful and thorough planning, we were able to avoid any major issues, and despite the vast scale of the project, each phase was completed on time and to budget," adds Peter.

A total of 1,000 kilometres of Category 6 cables were installed as part of the project, which also included the deployment of a new intelligent patching tool, SMARTPatch.

As well as providing comprehensive visibility of Nationwide's cabling network, SMARTPatch automates network trouble-shooting, maintenance and documentation procedures. This helps to simplify moves and changes and enables Nationwide to manage its cabling infrastructure in real-time.

Results

Improved business agility and competitive advantage
Thanks to the methodical approach taken by the joint project team, Nationwide was able to refresh the entire cabling infrastructure at its two largest offices with minimal disruption. "It was very important that we were able to continue business as usual throughout the project. It is a tribute to the expertise and commitment of the project team that we were able to achieve this," comments Peter.

Working with Computacenter also meant that Nationwide was able to minimise the financial risks associated with the project. As Peter explains: "When the price of copper pipes rose, there could have been significant budgetary implications for the project, but thanks to Computacenter's thorough approach and forward-planning, we were able to mitigate any cost increases."

By equipping its main administrative sites with a high-quality and future-proofed cabling infrastructure, Nationwide has been able to:

Increase flexibility: The new infrastructure and SMARTPatch system will simplify moves and changes at the company's two main administrative centres, thereby improving the efficiency of the IT team and cost control.

Improve competitive advantage: Nationwide can now optimise the potential of new technology for business development. Desktop connectivity has increased from 20 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps, which will enable Nationwide to support new data-rich applications.

Reduce operational costs: The cabling now supports IP telephony throughout Nationwide's network of offices. The new communications infrastructure will not only improve the efficiency of Nationwide's call centres, but also provides a platform for the exploitation of new services.

"Although cabling is barely noticed on a day-to-day basis, it forms the backbone of our business operations and future initiatives," comments Peter. "With Computacenter's help, we now have a cabling infrastructure that will support Nationwide for years to come and enable us to deploy new technologies to enhance the user and customer experience."