At a glance:
The client
An independent, global real estate consultancy providing an integrated commercial and residential offering. Headquartered in London with 330 offices worldwide.
The issue
Lack of mobility strategy to help workers stay connected and productive at all times.
The project
Design and deployment of a global mobility strategy through Aerohive WLAN.
The outcome
Secure connectivity across branches, facilitation of hotdesking and the ability for workers to pick up any company device and work seamlessly.
What we did:
Maintel worked with Knight Frank to roll out a secure WLAN solution across its European branches to ensure staff are always connected, regardless of location or device.
“Maintel consistently delivers innovative, high quality IT solutions that meet our business objectives and exceed our expectations"
Hardesh Degun, Partner Infrastructure Manager, Knight Frank
The challenge
As a premier real estate consultancy, service quality and professionalism are core values at Knight Frank. Providing the tools and working practices that enable staff to convey these values day-to-day is a top priority for Knight Frank’s IT team.
When staff started implementing DIY Wi-Fi in branch offices and using their own tablets for work purposes, Knight Frank quickly saw the business value and sought to design and deploy a global mobility strategy.
By standardising the company’s approach to mobility, the IT team would have more visibility of the network, could better manage and improve network quality of service, and help mobilise real estate applications to increase sales.
From the customer’s perspective, a mobile workforce would demonstrate efficiency, professionalism and a slick back-office operation.
The solution and the benefits
The solution
Knight Frank evaluated a number of WLAN vendors before choosing an Aerohive solution from Maintel, a trusted partner of 14 years. Aerohive’s technology demonstrated the resilience, scalability and simplicity that would allow Knight Frank to deploy and manage a WLAN in excess of 200 offices worldwide.
In particular, Aerohive’s controllerless architecture enables a zero-touch deployment model, allowing for fast, easy and cost-effective service roll out.
The choice of Aerohive by Maintel reflects its form in delivering resilient networks: for 12 years, Maintel has designed and maintained an Avaya converged IP network and failover solution at Knight Frank’s London HQ, as well as LAN services at its UK branch offices.
The benefits
Within four months, the Aerohive WLAN was fully operational in Knight Frank’s UK and European offices, and the solution is currently being deployed in APAC.
Aerohive’s zero-touch deployment model enables Maintel to create the specification for each access point via the cloud-based management system HiveManager Online. The AP is then shipped directly from the factory and installed locally to the relevant office.
This feature allows Knight Frank to quickly bring new offices onto the network, as well as ensuring the same consistent, high quality of service to staff and customers worldwide.
Softer benefits to the business include hotdesking capabilities – staff can walk into any office and use their company-issued iPad or iPhone without needing to reconfigure settings. For customers, the ability to easily view multimedia presentations of real estate options is a real win.
In short, the Aerohive WLAN from Maintel is helping facilitate Knight Frank’s business values.
