Thomson Scientific Full Networking Solution

Thomson Scientific (Thomson) has chosen IT Consultants ICS Ltd to consult on the full networking solution for their New European HQ in London.

Thomson Scientific develops information-based solutions, which keep academic, government, corporate and pharma R&D professionals at the forefront of their markets. With two sites currently in London, Thomson Scientific needed to expand its City office space by opening a brand new corporate European Headquarters to house its London based staff. Thomson looked to ICS for advice and recommendations for their Equipment Rooms, Structured Cabling, Network Equipment, Telephony and Audio Visual solutions for the new premises.

ICS were appointed as the IT consultants on the professional team headed by Cushman & Wakefield and the fit out contractors Kingly Ltd. The main aim of the project was to deliver a solution offering suitable IT performance with sufficient capacity for nearly 500 Thomson Scientific employees. As this project was to deliver a ‘state of the art’ IT platform, ICS played a key role in promoting the technology to be used throughout the premises.

Equipment Space

ICS worked with the M&E Consultants and Architects in the early stages of the project to design the Main Equipment Room and the on-floor LAN rooms. Special consideration was given to HVAC and Power requirements which are crucial to any equipment room space; Thomson Scientific needed to ensure that the rooms not only met day-one requirements but also offered the flexibility for any future requirements.

Structured Cabling

ICS recommended that the HellermannTyton Pre-Terminated RapidNet ™ Category 6 cabling system be implemented as the solution needed to satisfy the building needs perfectly and the project would be run on a tight timescale. During the building phase ICS installed the entire cabling system of 5,000 points, including horizontal and vertical cabling, in a 7-day period. This then allowed all other trades early access above the raised floor and significantly aided the overall delivery of the program.

Audio Visual

ICS implemented the Audio Visual and Video Conferencing system for the building including the 60″ NEC LCD screens within the meeting rooms and training suites. The Visual Nexus Communications system was chosen to control the video conferencing requirements, at the heart of which is the Visual Nexus Meeting Server; this server controls Access Rights, connects delegates into pre-arranged meetings and also allows executives to request an ad-hoc meeting with other colleagues. Users may make calls using any standards based video endpoint; however, with the powerful Visual Nexus software endpoint on a Windows PC users also have instant access to a full range of sharing and collaboration options, as well as the best audio and video capabilities currently available.

IP Telephony / Network

ICS recommended that a new resilient, converged IT, AV and VoIP solution be implemented; after careful consideration it was agreed that a Cisco CallManager IP Telephony solution be installed. Nearly 500 Cisco 7941 IP handsets were deployed; these were installed on the desktop and tested prior to occupancy.

Testimonial

Andrew Tidmarsh, Thomson Scientific European Director of Procurement & Facilities stated…

I would like to express our profound gratitude to ICS for the invaluable assistance with the Johnson Building project in your role as IT Consultants”

The pro-active approach, depth of knowledge and sense of diplomacy was a major factor in the success of the project and your advice was always welcome and valuable. I would be more than happy to recommend your services to anyone.