Huge praise for a router refresh in Bristol, from LBG

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:19:08 GMT

"This week saw us complete the final router refresh site in Bristol. During the past 18 months we’ve upgraded 1720 devices across 1587 Tier 3 and 4 sites.

This is a fantastic achievement, not only the volume but the way we’ve worked as a team and executed the delivery during a global pandemic. I’m genuinely very proud and grateful of what we’ve all achieved.

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your support during this period. Whenever we’ve had challenges you’ve always responded with a fix, whether it was providing an engineer at short notice or coming up with the cabinet door solution. The way in which you were able to flexibly respond to issues ensured that the delivery plan remained on track.

I can count on one hand where we had issues, which is very impressive given the number of visits carried out by your engineers. LBG are very happy with how the project was delivered, and asked that we pass their thanks onto the Coview team."

—Lloyds Banking Group

Fighting the tide to deliver for RBS

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 08:19:08 GMT

Isle of Barra

No hurdle is too high for our engineers; even the Scottish weather.

An upgrade of the RBS Castlebay branch, on the isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides, was scheduled for deployment in late November 2021. This was part of the Branch Transformation Programme that BT & Coview have been delivering for the Royal Bank of Scotland group.

The missing router

Each transformation requires three Cisco routers and switches for the branch to be migrated onto the new platform. In the case of Castlebay things did not go quite to plan. Although two of the parcels were successfully delivered to site, the third accidentally ended up at the Inverness depot.

The Project Team were informed of this wayward delivery only 24 hours prior to the upgrade. At this point the parcel was 170 miles away from the port of Glasgow, with a 10-hour ferry trip to the Isle of Barra.

The BT/Coview Project Team, BT Supply Chain and Parcel Force swung into action and the rogue parcel was transported overnight, from Inverness to Glasgow, ready for the single, daily ferry sailing the following morning.

Unfortunately, there was more bad luck. The parcel arrived at the port on time but in an unexpected turn of events, the ferry was cancelled due to storms.

At this point, ‘Right First Time’ milestones and commercial agreements are mitigated by extenuating circumstances so BT/Coview was ‘off the hook’ contractually.

A daring plan

However, our team didn’t want to disappoint the RBS employees and local community in Barra who were eagerly waiting for this upgrade, so they swiftly looked for an alternate plan. They found a small commercial flight to the Isle of Barra and seized the opportunity to fly out late Tuesday morning from Glasgow.

Barra Airport is famous for its scenic setting: it’s actually a beach, with flights timed to coincide with the tides. Despite the bad weather threatening to cancel the flight, the package, along with a Parcel Force courier, arrived safely in Barra. The router was handed straight over to a Coview engineer waiting on the beach.

With the router safely on site, the team were able to successfully complete the migration of the RBS branch, with enhanced network services and Wi-Fi coverage now available to both customers and staff.

It was almost a happy end to the story, but our Engineer was stranded on the island for an additional day because the ferry back was also cancelled. Luckily, the local hotel was very hospitable and could put him up for the night.

A fantastic effort by everyone involved and a great example of how we always go the extra mile for our customers.

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