Case Studies

Infrastructure

Excel brings EAF on-line

EAF (UK) Ltd specialises in supplying spare parts and used inventory to the IT trade. The majority of its customers are service organisations for which it provides anything from microprocessors to complete systems. To run a successful business EAF focuses on having products available as and when the customer needs them. This often means tracking purchase levels and calculating in advance what customers may need so that products are always in stock.

The success of EAF’s services has been reflected by the growth of the company. In the last five years, EAF has outgrown its premises three times, requiring an increase in the size of premises by 60 per cent with each move. Its most recent relocation, to a purpose built office, warehousing and testing facility in Wokingham, has been carefully managed and sized to allow for both present needs and foreseeable future growth.

Cabling for the future...

While specifying the fit-out for the new building, EAF realised that the company’s continued growth and smooth operations would be seriously constrained without a quality cabling infrastructure that incorporated plenty of headroom for future growth.

Gary Burley, Operations Manager for EAF explains. “On previous moves, our objective had been to install whatever we needed to meet our immediate requirements, but we have learnt that without a good cabling infrastructure your ability to be dynamic is stifled. Without question, the change involved in new cabling installations once the building was completed means huge upheaval of departments, users and systems. It made a lot of sense to us to be able to head off that sort of problem.”

The prime consideration...

Although strategically EAF had learned from experience that it was better to install the complete cabling infrastructure before the premises were occupied, the prime consideration however was the budget.

EAF had set strict financial limits for this project, but this did not mean the company was prepared to accept a lower-quality solution, as Gary explains. “We were looking for an analogue and digital infrastructure that would cater for all our voice and data needs. With the premises having to be wired for all the different departments, technical and administrative, it was quite a challenge to get a cabling infrastructure that would be comprehensive throughout the building, but would come at a price to fit within our budget without compromising on the number of outlets, or on the quality of the cabling.”

EAF used Computacenter, a specialist IT reseller, to help design and implement the solution, and was pleasantly surprised when the option to install cabling from the Excel range appeared to answer both its needs for ‘flood wiring’ and do so within the financial constraints. “Computacenter introduced us to Excel cabling, and gave their reassurance that it is a quality product at a budget price. We are absolutely delighted that we could get such a good quality CAT5E infrastructure that met all our requirements, yet keep within the budget,” comments Gary. “It gave us a lot of advantages - complete coverage of the building with reliability and performance, and every component is supplied and supported by one company. It also comes with a clear and comprehensive 25 year product and application warranty. This is further backed by £500,000 liability insurance cover so we were really in a very safe position.

Close relations bring success

Excel works closely with the companies that install its products. Its Excel Cabling Partners are assessed and thoroughly trained as installers of the Excel range to ensure that they have the desired technical knowledge and can service the customers to a high standard.

“We set very high standards of our partners to ensure that they can support our customers properly. It ensures that the partners have detailed knowledge of the products available, so that the customer gets the right information and the best advice for any given project,” explains Tracey Calcutt, Marketing Manager at Excel. “As an Excel Cabling Partner, Computacenter was able to advise EAF on the best cabling to use for the new building, taking into account the cost, flexibility and performance requirements of the company.”

Computacenter also project managed the installation of the cabling and liased with all of the contractors involved in wiring the site, ensuring that the resources were available as needed and that there was a continuous installation process. Gary Burley is delighted with both the performance of the cabling, and the successful implementation of the project. “The whole installation went through smoothly. Computacenter buffered us from the daily management of the contractors, and ensured that everything arrived and was installed when it was meant to be. Now that the network is in and running it is very comfortably exceeding our requirements and we can feel the satisfaction of knowing we have a high quality network that will service our immediate communication needs and support our business for a considerable time to come.”

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