The remarkable speed and efficiency with which Virgin Mobile rolled out in South Africa earlier this year could be ascribed to the involvement of leading local information and communication technology solution providers.
The multimillion-rand contract to supply the communication infrastructure and network solution that now makes it possible for a new customer to walk into a Virgin Mobile outlet and out with an activated phone/SIM card in minutes, was awarded to the Bromide Technologies Group in the face of fierce competition.
Its experience in similar large projects for some of South Africa's leading corporations, combined with a solution that cost-effectively encompasses the entire communications and information technology spectrum, secured the Midrand-based business this time-sensitive project. Its streamlined business model also meant that Bromide Technologies could mobilise very quickly in the face of a tight project schedule.
"High availability, the reliability of redundancy measures and cost-effective operation were the primary objectives that our proposed wide area network and connections had to achieve," reports Bromide Technologies Sales and Marketing Director, Louis Steyn.
"It is, of course, critical for the Virgin Mobile call centre to always be operational and accessible by their customers, thus the solution has to be 100% reliable. Our proposal involved Cisco network management and networking equipment, a Microsoft Exchange solution and Active Directory roll-out and the deployment of Citrix Remote Access enabling remote clients."
With a very short timeframe within which to implement the solution, Bromide Technologies enforced strict adherence to its proposed project plan from the first day of work in October 2005. The involvement of many suppliers and contractors contributed to the complexity of the project, and the speed at which work could be carried out. This was, however, very capably managed by consulting firm EOH Technology Consulting.
"As consultants to Virgin Mobile, EOH Technology Consulting fully understood what was required and managed all role-players to arrive at those objectives within the specified timeframe," says Bromide Technologies MD, Delfim Alves. "We have formed a good relationship with EOH, which will stand us in good stead on future projects of this nature."
"The way we approach and manage a project like this makes our clients believe they can ask us for the impossible - and get it," says Steyn. "While this may put us under considerable pressure, we would not have it any other way. In this case, the main challenge was to build enough redundancy into the solution without compromising its affordability. Flexibility was another main concern, as their call centre will continue to expand at a rapid rate from the original 68 workstations for which we catered."
Following the successful completion of the initial infrastructure implementation, Bromide Technologies was tasked with various other initiatives not covered by the original project scope.
"From the WAN to the LAN, the individual infrastructure components down to the printers and connectivity, which was engineered by Bromide group company Ensync, Virgin Mobile now has one service and billing port of call," enthuses Alves. "I believe this will greatly contribute to the expansion of our business relationship going forward."
As a preferred technology partner of the Virgin Mobile Group, Bromide Technologies will provide the company with maintenance and support for the next three years.
"Our ability to be successful on projects of this nature can in part be ascribed to the very large emphasis that we place on the continuous training of our staff, with the support of technology partners like Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft," says Steyn. "This further enables us to provide good skills transfer to the end-user, as well as seamless maintenance support."
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