Keepmoat, which is responsible for more than 43,000 properties for social rent, has chosen Star’s on-demand business service for WAN connectivity, email, data and internet communications across its operating companies – Bramall Construction, Frank Haslam Milan and Keepmoat Homes.
The company has just completed the latest phase of its communications network renewal and chose Star’s NetStarIP service for converged voice and data connectivity across all of its 250 sites and offices. With offices spread across the North and Midlands, Keepmoat needed to allow each of its construction site offices to communicate with their administrative offices. At the same time, a key issue was the temporary nature of site offices and the need for secure IP network connections to be set up and disconnected speedily without requiring specialist technical resources.
Andrew Newton, head of IT, Keepmoat, said, “We need to allow construction staff, suppliers and administrative staff to communicate from anywhere to anywhere, and for deployment to run like a sausage machine process.”
Star worked with Keepmoat to develop an automated process to centrally order and ship pre-configured routers for each new office site and connect them seamlessly into the company’s NetStarIP network. Keepmoat also chose to minimise network administration by co-locating its web servers in one of Star’s three UK-based based data centres.
The result of these changes has been the creation of a durable network with built-in resilience. This supports business continuity and is designed to cope with large documents, such as engineering drawings or tenders being circulated to different offices fast and securely. To facilitate the sharing of information between employees and clients, Keepmoat hosts its own SharePoint extranets within its co-located servers.
Newton explained, “It’s easy to underestimate the importance of having a 24×7 NOC for round the clock peace of mind. We couldn’t have grown as we have without the NetStarIP service and we can now deliver any business application to any of our sites or remote workers at any time, easily, quickly and securely.”
