Upgrade of bank’s mission-critical IT cabling infrastructure

A large Swiss merchant bank and global wealth-management company relocated its Australian head office into Chifley Tower in the Sydney CBD as part of an expansion program of its Australian financial and investment services and to meet the growing demand for their expertise in the region. Incorporated in the move was a significant upgrade to its IT infrastructure.

As part of the infrastructure upgrade, the Swiss-based cabling manufacturer, R&M, in cooperation with one of its local certified installation contractors, Stowe Australia, was appointed by the bank to undertake the supply and installation of an extensive copper and optical-fibre communications cabling system.

Upon recommendation from the bank’s IT Global Centre in Europe and following an evaluation of the local presence and support structure of R&M, the bank selected the R&M FreeNet Real10 shielded cabling system, which provides a robust, long-term infrastructure that yields considerable resistance to unwanted electrical interference.

The collective team of R&M and Stowe Australia delivered a high-quality copper and optical-fibre communications cabling installation that comprised some 3000 optical fibre connections and 12,000 copper cabling connections.

The innovative design of the FreeNet cabling system enabled the deployment of some pre-assembled cabling components and wiring looms that reduced a considerable amount of on-site assembly time. This allowed the installation of the entire cabling system to be completed faster than a traditional installation, where all terminations would ordinarily be carried out on site.

Stowe Australia’s installation team was pleased with the relative ease of termination for high-speed shielded cabling systems, along with the elimination of some special installation practices and limitations where shielding is not applied for high-speed networks up to 10 Gbps.

A key task for R&M and its local distributor was to ensure that the system that was recommended to the bank fully met its needs for maximum stability and minimum interference, while ensuring that the products would be available on time for the scheduled installation.

Timing was a critical factor for the bank, because the IT infrastructure upgrade could have potentially led to the business going offline for a period of time, which was a highly undesirable position for a transactional-based financial institution.

The challenge for Stowe Australia, as the installer, was to complete the project with minimal disruption to the bank’s daily operations. For R&M, this meant providing adequate product-specific and overall system training to the installers, which resulted in a more efficient installation process, characterised by minimal error corrections throughout the entire project.

Supplementing the training was an equally important delivery program that involved regular dialogue between installer, distributor and manufacturer, to ensure constantly punctual deliveries to site.

The project was deployed successfully, with the client making a point of thanking the team of R&M and Stowe Australia for the professional manner in which this major project was managed and completed in such a short time frame.

With the support of Stowe Australia’s professionalism and their commitment to a quality installation, R&M and its local distributor were able to excel in the management of logistics, local technical support, training and on-site assistance.

The client was particularly impressed with the testing and certification process. The 100% product testing verified that the overall system performance significantly exceeded the client’s requirements, with headroom of between 11 and 16 dB above the performance specifications.

Following completion of the installation, Stowe Australia’s project management team complimented R&M on making the product readily available to them, which allowed the contractor to deliver the project on time and on budget.

It is noteworthy that, following its successful deployment in Australia, this global financial institution has installed the R&M FreeNet Real10 10 Gbps solution in more of its international offices.