In the late nineties, the Home Office identified the need to consolidate their London estates into a single office space to encourage greater integration of departments, to reduce the cost of management and to provide a working environment optimised to their requirements which is fit for the 21st century. Following several years of PFI negotiation, the Home Office finally began work on the construction of the new HQ at 2 Marsham Street in March 2002.
After a rigorous tender and interview process the Secretary of State for the Home Department awarded Pendragon Global Consulting the remit to provide security cleared project management consultancy, logistics management, technical and specialist personnel to deliver the Home Office 2MS ICT equipment re-location project
It quickly became apparent that in order to achieve the objectives for the organisation it would be necessary to implement an IT infrastructure that was integrated with the building design which would allow maximum flexibility for the working environment and which would enable the building to be occupied by multiple tenants with potentially differing IT requirements and service providers. At the same time the infrastructure had to be easily manageable to minimise the cost of ownership. In addition, the infrastructure would need to have the maximum possible lifespan and would therefore have to utilise the newest technology.
Pendragon appointed consultant advisors to represent itself in management meetings and to interface with other parties to ensure that the best interests of the Home Office and the highest levels of efficiency were achieved. Representations were made with regularity to the Home Office moves management team and the facilities management teams for planning and review purposes.
Key to the Pendragon award was the logistics management and relocation scheduling which ensured the minimum of disruption to users and stringent contingency planning to guarantee successful recommissioning by Monday mornings.
Pendragon planned and manage the physical relocation of the ICT equipment including auditing of de-commission sites, identification, registration, asset tagging, upgrades for re-commission into new infrastructure, ordering and purchasing to upgrade specifications and re-commission. Pendragon created a detailed relocation schedule in line with established transition plan.
Pendragon’s management of re-commissioning and upgrades included specifications consultancy, technical design, selection and liaison with suppliers, management of provision of hardware, management of timescales for de-commission/re-commission and related technology upgrades and guaranteed delivery of service to users during core working hours.
Pendragon designed and developed a bespoke asset tracking system, e.g. bar coding in order to verify that all ICT equipment had been correctly identified, registered and then accounted for once delivered to the final destination. This register included PAT testing records and was handed over to the Customer on completion of each move. Pat testing was carried out before re-commissioning to ensure compliance with safety regulations and failed equipment re-spec’d and replaced at short notice to meet new infrastructure and upgrade requirements.
In line with Home Office requests Pendragon provided consultancy services related to current and emerging environmental best practices.
All personnel were supplied with a minimum of SC level clearance to handle Top Secret classified equipment and data. Multiple teams each of up to 30 personnel were scheduled on a flexible and concurrent basis to meet delivery against the relocation schedule.
Specialist equipment was deployed for the relocation of delicate equipment, servers, plasma screens and secure items.
Up to 2000 items were relocated and recommissioned on each of twelve move phases scheduled out of working hours over weekends in order to minimise disruption to users and working downtime.
Plans for maintenance of business continuity and communications were formulated to address the secure nature of the equipment and services to be delivered. Risk assessments were carried out for each move phase and contingency put in place to address data loss or damage to equipment to ensure recovery and working order delivery within the out of hours period of each move phase to complete and successful restoration and upgrade of systems.
One of Pendragon’s major successes was in exceeding the expectations of the Home Office at all levels. Consequentially the remit of the contract award was extended to include the design and implementation of new initiatives. Included in this was the complete design and implementation of Wireless LAN infrastructure and the rollout of Tandberg mobile videoconferencing systems. Pendragon’s work with the Home Office is still ongoing and the success of this project has contributed in Pendragon’s management of a number of further relocation, design and upgrade awards.
The integration of the Home Office’s existing systems from many different sites required a complete redesign of their infrastructure and network.
Many systems were requiring secure network subnets, distributed over OM3 fibre across the building. Pendragon Global Consulting were given the task of designing and commissioning these networks and then completing all tasks to get all classified systems back into a live production state.
Other systems that were planned, designed and commissioned by Pendragon Global Consulting into the Home Office include:
We invest time to learn what our clients need; about their customers, business and people.
We work with them to create a precision project scope and detail how we are going to achieve it. Then we get on with it. In a business which is notorious for over- runs, poor implementation and missed objectives, Pendragon Global Consulting consistently delivers.
Selecting and installing the right technology is only part of the solution. Making it an effective catalyst which improves business operations and processes is what delivers the return on investment.
Pendragon Global Consulting has project managed many successful data-network implementations. We are well-placed to evaluate the correct path for you.
Pendragon Global Consulting is an independent IT and management consultancy offering multi- disciplined, impartial advice to create business oriented solutions.
Our aim is to add value to your business by:
We know that IT issues can make or break commercial and service initiatives. Organisations are under relentless pressure to improve from government, regulators, shareholders and customers. PGC bridges the gaps between management and technology issues to create practical, effective solutions. We focus on the effective management of technological issues, operating in three key areas:
We pride ourselves on being one of the top consultancies in the world, Pendragon has a blue-chip client base across a wide range of market sectors. Our consultants are business strategists who have held senior management positions in leading multinational firms and technical experts who apply their commercial experience, and technical expertise to a wide range of management and IT issues.
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