Leading global reinsurer Swiss Re has selected COLT Telecom as a major communications supplier for 30 St Mary Axe, the prestigious new landmark building which will officially open this year in the City of London.
As principal supplier for voice services in the UK for Swiss Re, COLT is providing telephone extensions to support the telephony requirements of employees, located over 14 floors of the 40 storey building.
COLT is also providing Swiss Re with high-speed data services linking 30 St Mary Axe to Swiss Re's disaster recovery site and its Swiss headquarters. A bespoke solution from COLT allows Swiss Re's telephone systems to remain active should the building and its communications infrastructure suffer damage.
With COLT's Intelligent Network platform and its Route Manager, Swiss Re is able to redirect its incoming calls to another site, or mobile phone. Swiss Re has complete control to turn on this service at a moment's notice, via a web-based application.
By serving the building's telephone extensions using two separate exchanges, COLT has added further protection for Swiss Re's telephone exchanges. If one exchange fails, the telephone systems will function as normal.
Simon Vye, Managing Director, Northern Region, COLT Telecom said, "Telephone systems are absolutely critical to the day-to-day running of financial services organisations - prolonged interruption to these systems would affect their ability to operate effectively. COLT designed a completely bespoke solution to satisfy Swiss Re's requirements and provide them with peace of mind - it's just one example of COLT's flexible service offering."
Andrew Green, Building Services Director at 30 St Mary Axe, explained why COLT was chosen as one of the major communications suppliers for the new UK headquarters, "COLT's willingness and flexibility in providing us with a bespoke solution was a winning factor, along with its ability to deliver a high standard of service and support. With COLT's high performance network in London, we have the infrastructure and support for our London sites, while its pan- European network allows us to add more European sites to the service if we need to in the future."
Swiss Re is the latest financial services customer to choose COLT on the strength of its metropolitan area network presence in London, pan-European network capabilities, financial stability and flexibility of service. This latest win - which saw COLT competing against a range of communications suppliers - further boosts COLT's standing in the financial services sector. COLT has approximately 2,000 financial services customers across its 13 European markets.
Voice Services
· COLT is providing 30 St Mary Axe with 6 voice circuits and 4,000 DDI numbers
Voice Disaster Recovery Solution
· COLT's Intelligent Network platform, a non-geographical platform allows Swiss Re to re-point all numbers to an alternative destination.
· COLT's Route Manager product provides Swiss Re with complete control of its voice systems, allowing Swiss Re to redistribute its incoming calls to another site, or mobile phone, in near real time via a web-based application.
· A dual parenting solution provided by COLT further minimises the threat of disruption to normal voice services. By duplicating all voice circuits in the network, whereby the circuits are served by two separate exchanges with the DDI numbers routed down all circuits, Swiss Re is assured that all its DDI numbers remain active if one exchange fails. COLT provided the dual parenting service as a completely bespoke solution for Swiss Re.
Data Services
COLT is providing 30 St Mary Axe with the following data services:
· 1 Gbps LanLink from 30 St Mary Axe to its disaster recovery site.
· 100Mbps LanLink circuits linking 30 St Mary Axe with its three existing London offices.
· 45 Mbps EuroLink from 30 St Mary Axe to the Switzerland headquarters.