London Business School – Wired and Wireless Infrastructure Including a support contract

Background 

London Business School (LBS) is one of the world’s elite business schools operating in a global environment, with a campus in Dubai and academic partnerships in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and alumni in 130 countries. The services they provide require a first- class network infrastructure and they rely on European Electronique (EE) and Aruba, an HPE company, to provide their network services.  

Requirement 

European Electronique started working with London Business School in 2016 to meet the requirement of extending their existing wired and wireless infrastructure to incorporate the new refurbished Sammy Ofer Centre; a state-of-the-art teaching hub housed within the iconic Old Marylebone Town Hall.   

It was vital that LBS found a partner with the experience and capability to implement the Aruba wired and wireless solution within the timescales provided and to the technical and professional level required. EE provided all hardware and software, engineering, and project management and have since gone on to win the support contract for their new and existing wired and wireless infrastructure across the entire Business School’s estate as of September 2017.   

The Solution 

Much of the design, installation, configuration and testing at LBS was completed in conjunction with the School’s IT Staff. Following the award EE and LBS worked to a schedule of deployment that set outcomes to align with the final UAT testing parameters. A detailed design plan was compiled in collaboration with the School’s IT team which outlined the roles and responsibilities and the tasks to be completed by both parties at each stage of the roll out. This plan also included the day to day operations of the University, building works, access, personnel and a host of additional factors to ensure minimal disruption to staff. EE’s support provision was based on the requirements of the IT staff at LBS and is therefore a bespoke model; it has full redundancy, on-site spares and a test lab environment to avoid any downtime.   

EE is an Aruba Platinum Partner, the hardware and software provider at LBS and work as the conduit for escalations and bug fixes as well as advanced hardware replacement. On top of this Aruba has a strong portfolio and encourages the use of open standards and integration. The management tools will proactively assist with the connectivity of new devices and software updates and our engineers and support teams providing assistance as required.  

Currently EE is working with LBS to refresh their existing wireless system to bring it up to date with the latest WiFi 6 standards using the new Aruba AX range of access points. This will help LBS continue to deliver the range of services which their students and users demand.