Professional Services for the IT World
When it comes to IT infrastructure, our team roll our sleeves up and get stuff done
International
International Experience and Expertise
Savante is an organisation focused on IT infrastructure and related services to deliver results to customers. With a small team of IT consultants, Contract Negotiators, Project Managers and a hands on delivery team, we are able to take projects from concept to completion.
An important part of what we do is to assist in identifying core issues and risks prior to kicking off projects, allowing customers to prioritise those things that are core to success.
Working offshore brings with it unique problems that are often poorly anticipated. Developing countries are by far the most challenging, with the most fundamental of services often unreliable. Local customs and culture also need to be carefully managed. While it is imperative to respect local customs and norms, a focus on the outcome must be maintained and innovative approaches developed that get projects to the desired end game.
Our team members have broad experience in a number of challenging environments. Currently much of the team is focused on the delivery of a number of key initiatives for a financial institution in Papua New Guinea. We are also implementing an IT refresh in the Solomon Islands. After identifying key risks in their IT infrastructure, particularly communications and data centres, Savante was contracted to deliver a number of key projects. These include;
Network Operations Centre
The design, construction and commissioning of a Network Operations Centre. The customer had very little visibility of their local and remote environment. With transport logistics being a huge issue in PNG, we needed to find a way to monitor and predict issues to improve service delivery and improve uptime in remote locations as well as core facilities in the capital city.
Data Centre
The design and construction of a Data Centre to overcome a significant exposure in their disaster recovery capability. Despite significant investment, there was no effective business continuity capability which was determined to be the number 1 customer risk. A 2N+1 power and 2N cooling design was deployed to ensure the facility could operate in the event of a failure and an extended repair time which is a very real possibility.
Dark Fibre
Within the CDB there was a need to significantly upgrade capability to provide adequate capacity between the data centres and the primary city building. As is the case with many carriers in developing locations, their infrastructure is less than state of the art. However we identified two key opportunities. After significant effort we were able to negotiate a dark fibre agreement with the incumbent carrier. We also established a contract with an alternative carrier to custom build a gigabit microwave network as a secondary network. This effectively increased existing capacity by over 12x. However this was achieved at a cost below existing OPEX.
Remote Network Upgrade
Much of the remote network was on narrowband links with upgrade cost so prohibitive that it could not be economically justified. We worked with the major mobile operator [second carrier] to identify and design a solution, and negotiate a contract for a high speed remote network to all remote locations with the exception of the satellite only locations. This effectively increased capacity by 16 fold in remote locations. This was a key enabler to the deployment of new business services. In addition we were able to provide a significantly better fall back position the event of failure.
Remote Branch Technology Refresh
The number 2 issue was identified as the resilience of the branch technology infrastructure. Our team is in the process of upgrading every remote location covered by the customer, amounting to approximately 40 sites. All core technology is being refreshed, from racks, cabling, servers, routers, switches, storage and backup and associated software. In addition remote monitoring is being deployed that will monitor power, temperature and humidity as well all IT components. We are also upgrading the desktop environment to current Microsoft versions as well as branch banking applications.
Service Improvements
Our team identified that the travel and logistics issue in PNG required a new strategy in remote device deployment. A product was identified and a solution designed. While an existing vendor was engaged to deploy the new technology, Savante was tasked with specifying the requirements and managing the project to the desired outcome.
The Team
The Savante team has in addition to the current PNG experience, significant international experience. Recent projects include the project management of a technology in Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong. Our principle consultant has also spent 3 years in Fiji as Group GM of Sales, Marketing & Product Management for the incumbent carrier in Fiji. This experience provides a rare combination of technical expertise and business experience which very strongly underpins technology based business projects. Other experience includes Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. That includes 4 years in Europe and a contract based in Saudi Arabia focusing on Aramco.