British Waterways is the national organisation that manages the canals and inland waterways of the UK. It supports over 2,200 miles of canals and rivers and a diverse range of leisure, sporting, commercial, industrial and residential activities. The organisation has 15 main offices across the UK from Inverness to Devizes, plus a large number of remote sites along the canal network. The sites depend on the reliability and availability of the communications network for both voice and data services in order to stay connected and to work effectively at all times.
NextiraOne supports British Waterways’ communications infrastructure with a comprehensive Managed Services agreement and support contract that delivers end-to-end service. NextiraOne’s Managed Services provides remote performance monitoring of the communications infrastructure through NextiraOne’s Network Operating Centre (NOC) to provide a clear picture of its performance and any major faults and issues within the infrastructure. A dedicated NextiraOne Service Account Manager (SAM) oversees the smooth running of the system and provides pro-active support. Regular monthly service reviews are held to assess, discuss and review the network and its long-term health and stability.
An Operational Support Agreement covers the day-to-day maintenance and repair of the multi-site, multi-vendor voice and data network and also the long-term monitoring and review of its performance.
The contract, renewed for a further three years, covers the nationwide infrastructure, Local Area Networks and the Wide Area Network and including Alcatel-Lucent voice and Cisco data networking equipment via NextiraOne’s Welcome Centre. The Welcome Centre provides a single point of contact which manages the lifecycle of faults, from initial fault logging to resolution.
“We chose NextiraOne because of its nationwide footprint that meant we could expect timely and speedy support for all our locations, even the most remote ones. NextiraOne has become – and continues to be – a close business partner who understands our aims and responds to them. Working with NextiraOne has given us a smoothly running, robust network infrastructure that delivers voice and data communications to support our wide-ranging activities,” said Richard Walsh, Head of ICT at British Waterways.
Steven Skakel, General Manager,NextiraOne UK said: “Our service–led approach and dedicated team is the ideal solution for British Waterways. The combination of day-to-day support for the operational stability of the system, plus our long-term performance monitoring and review through our Managed Services gives British Waterways a comprehensive solution to ensure the health and stability of their voice and data communications.”