Bank of America

The Client provides institutions access to its global institutional equities marketplace. The Client’s headquarters are in New York with offices in London, Toronto, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney.

When the Client approached PTS Consulting (PTS), it was in the process of planning the relocation to a new EMEA HQ in the heart of London’s financial community – a unique environmentally friendly building, designed to emit 40% less CO2 than buildings of the same scale and 20% (by value) of the buildings material contain recycled elements.

Having already established a team to support this move including Project Managers, Architects and M&E Consultants, the Client recognised that the IT workstream was critical to the success of project and that additional resource was required to work with the in house IT team. While the internal IT department had a technical understanding of the existing IT infrastructure and applications, it was largely focused on Business As Usual activities. It, therefore, required additional resource to take responsibility for the overall IT Relocation Project Management, as well as providing specialised input into the Audio Visual requirements.

Initially the technical requirements for the new offices needed to be developed and agreed, a budget needed to be defined and an overall project plan detailing critical tasks and ownership produced. In addition, the impact of the IT requirements for the building (equipment rooms, structured cabling, risers/entry points, power/cooling, AV, access control) needed to be clearly defined and articulated to the other members of the design team.

Technical Requirements and Programme: PTS undertook a planning Workshop with the Client’s IT staff in London and
New York where IT aspects of the project were reviewed including:

• Cabling infrastructure and equipment rooms
• Desktop and server platforms, including storage
• Voice systems
• Networks, including WAN and LAN requirements
• AV requirements

The workshop was used to gather the technical requirements for the new office, understand constraints, document the future state and agree any strategic direction or changes proposed or being considered as part of the relocation.
The output from the workshops was used to define the overall IT relocation programme along with ownership of key activities.

IT Design and Procurement: PTS took ownership of the detailed design and procurement of the Audio Visual work streams as well as providing overall project management for the IT work streams being delivered by the in house IT team. The audio visual workstream included the detailed design of the main meeting room to include high definition video conferencing as well as defining the requirements
for other plasma displays, content distribution and data feeds to other parts of the office. PTS liaised with the professional team to ensure all power and fit out requirements were addressed and detailed design drawings for each AV element were produced. Under the guidance of the PTS IT Project Manager, the Client’s IT department managed the relocation of primary servers, many of which moved to a new data centre prior to the relocation, along with the requirements for a new LAN
infrastructure, Telephony Systems, network services (MPLS, Internet and Voice) desktop and printing solutions.

Implementation and Migration Project Management: PTS provided independent project assurance of all IT work streams – reporting back to HQ in New York. In addition, PTS co‐ordinated and assured the delivery of international data circuits.

The detailed planning and pre‐migration testing meant that the final IT migration for all users could be managed over a single weekend. PTS Consulting’s attention to detail brought the project to a successful close, to specification, to timescale and within budget. Key features of the project include:

• A close working relationship with the Client’s IT team both in London and New York
• Providing assurance to the New York IT Team that the IT elements of Broadgate Towers met the global corporate standards of the Client
• Initial IT migration strategy ensured budget, objectives and project deliverables clearly defined up front
• Design and competitive procurement of Audio Visual equipment
• Implementation and end-to-end project management

The Client was delighted that the relocation programme was such a success. The Client relocated to its new showcase EMEA HQ – on time and on budget. The new platforms incorporate advanced technology and adequate resiliency and flexibility as the Client continues to grow in the future.