Overview
In 2016, Rentokil Initial’s local subsidiary migrated to the cloud, with its key production applications hosted in the UK and a move to Google Cloud Services across its 13 sites nationwide. The architecture, and MPLS network no longer met the needs of the business, and the high cost of an upgrade to match the bandwidth requirements was cost prohibitive.
“We followed our global counterparts with a migration to SD-WAN with VeloCloud, and bolstered our connectivity requirements with the installation of three Seacom links at our large branches, in Claremont, Linbro Park and Pinetown,” says Tashwill Carelse, IT Director for sub-Saharan Africa, at Rentokil Initial.
The migration to a more cloud-based infrastructure was a real shift for Rentokil Initial, in terms of traditional technologies, and what it knew was old aging risky technology.
“I think today about the PABX we had in place, and how much pain and cost we had to actually endure just because of being on that traditional voice platform,” adds Carelse.
The business was clear in its RFP that it was ideally looking for a single service provider to deliver on its connectivity, cloud-based voice and mobile data APN services. Saicom met this requirement, coupled with deep technical expertise; customer centric approach to service delivery, a willingness to develop custom solutions (including an APN offering that was tailor-made for Rentokil Initial) and a partnership with VeloCloud.
Adds Carelse, “There is no doubt, that the business was looking to find ways to reduce costs with the move away from traditional MPLS, and yes, we have seen significant savings, but for me, what stands out is our ability to work with Saicom to solve business problems.
We were not faced with an unwillingness to consider and/ or develop solutions that other telecoms vendors might have thought of as not in their catalogue of services. Saicom really listened to understand our business challenges, and worked with us to co-create the solution.”
Carelse cites agility as a key outcome of the partnership with Saicom, and states that since deploying SD-WAN and the APN, that their business is able to try things quickly, fail quickly and where necessary, restart. It is a capability that he believes is as important as saving costs.
“We can move a lot faster – something the business has come to expect, because the wheel spins a lot faster,” says Carelse.
Since the implementation of Velocloud SD-WAN,what would take at least a three month lead time to get links and telephone lines in, today happens in a matter of days, with a smoother transition for new branches or newly acquired entities to get onto, and benefit from Rentokil Initial’s network and platform.
Concludes Carelse, “we can get businesses up and running far quicker because through VeloCloud SD-WAN, are able to use more mobile connectivity while we wait for fibre or terrestrial services to be rolled out.
We have choice, agility and renewed confidence in our network and IT services. It is a compelling combination for any business.”