DANTE guarantees first class network service with Magdalene.

As in any industry, competitiveness is key to remaining ahead of the game. This is also true for research and education where it’s vital for researchers and academics to have access to the most high-speed communications network. Research networking activity plays a big part in maintaining competitiveness and supporting economic development and for DANTE, a not-for-profit organisation owned by European NRENs (National Research and Education Networks) and working in cooperation with the European Commission, it’s even more important to demonstrate cost savings while being, at the same time, as efficient as possible.

DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe) plans, builds and operates advanced networks for research and education. Its aim is to provide reliable and efficient data communications infrastructures to help enable global virtual research communities. Established in 1993 in Cambridge, at the heart of academic excellence, DANTE was tasked with building a pan-European backbone network to interconnect European NRENs. Since then the organisation has grown from 10 employees to over 50.

In-house versus outsourcing

When DANTE was first tasked with finding a network provider to build the backbone network they put out a tender to find a company which could provide a full turnkey solution. Over time DANTE has brought more of the technology in-house to be managed by the network operations managers, helping to reduce costs significantly and ensuring they have full visibility and control of the network. Recently, DANTE has also required more specialist functions – and by having your technology in-house changes can be applied more easily.

“We brought our network operations centre (NOC) in-house in May this year,” said Toby Rodwell, network operations centre manager at DANTE. “It was previously outsourced but this wasn’t as cost-effective nor as flexible for updates or changes. At the same time, although the old NOC provided a 24/7 service it just wasn’t cost-efficient to staff the centre for that time for the volume of work. So we needed a solution which let us have our NOC in-house but with an outsourced service desk.”

Tendering for a service desk DANTE needed a streamlined service desk and decided to put out a tender for a service provider. The winning provider would be the first point of contact for anything to do with the backbone network and the services it provides – and also respond to incoming requests via email, phone and a ticketing system. This includes planned maintenance, handling any requests and detecting faults.

“Magdalene won the tender based on their delivery capability and the competitive price they offered,” continued Rodwell. “They were also able to provide a custom-built ticket system which would handle all requests. Ultimately, given our status and ownership by European NRENs and partnership with the EU, Magdalene also had to meet strict criteria and guidelines imposed by the EU – this they did.”

Having signed the contract in 2008 and customised a ticket system for DANTE, Magdalene’s service offering has been operational since April 2009.

Service improvements

“Since signing with Magdalene we’ve really begun to see a difference in our NOC’s service desk that they manage,” said Rodwell. “Our NOC engineers are able to focus on managing the network and ensuring optimum network performance, rather than having to deal with service desk enquiries.”

Magdalene’s employees have taken full control of the service desk with 24/7 monitoring and phone, email and ticket responses. Any notifications are sent within 15 minutes for a NOC or on-call engineer to diagnose the issue and deal with it accordingly. This means that the health of the network is constantly being monitored and any issues flagged before they become a problem.

“We’re continually working with Magdalene to improve the services,” continued Rodwell. “It’s an ongoing project but our engineers and the NRENs themselves have been very satisfied with our joint efforts so far. Magdalene was judged against very strict criteria, demonstrated a very professional set-up and, most importantly, a desire to work as a partner both with us and our customers. They’re happy to implement changes smoothly and quickly on a daily basis if necessary.”

“Our project so far has been kept on budget and to time with much positive feedback from the individual NRENs on the service delivered,” concluded Rodwell. “We’ve achieved the costs savings we were targeting and increased our service efficiency at the same time. We look forward to seeing the project progress and to working with Magdalene on a continued basis for a first class communications network infrastructure.”

About Magdalene

Magdalene provides comprehensive independent solutions which address the individual needs of its customers throughout the telecommunications industry. Its capabilities encompass all phases – from needs capture, network design, procurement, project delivery to complete maintenance services and full network operations capabilities.

Headquartered in St. Ives, Cambridge, UK, with offices in Paris and Belfast, the company employs approximately 200 people. Established in 1996, it has dedicated marshalling and logistics, network operations and test bed facilities specifically designed to support its managed service offerings. Along with offering integration, implementation and network support tools Magdalene helps its customers, which include some of the main mobile and fixed operators in the UK, improve their delivery performance and network availability and reduce costs. For more information please visit www.magdalene.co.uk

For more information, images or interviews please contact:
Fiona Goldsworthy or Rachael Thomas
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

tel +44 (0) 20 7403 8878
fionag@rlyl.co.uk
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