Mainstream Renewable Power: Strategic ICT Partnership Case Study

Case Study

Mainstream Renewable Energy Strategic ICT Partnership

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“everyone in Mainstream has video-conferencing enabled laptops, and all of our offices have highend video conferencing facilities, so our business travel has been diminished” John Shaw CIO, Mainstream Renewable Power

eircom supports Mainstream Renewable Power’s global vision with a strategic ICT partnership Mainstream Renewable Power is a rapidly expanding renewable energy company, with an ambitious global agenda. Since establishment in 2008, the wind-and solar-power provider has opened 11 offices in 8 countries around the world. A robust, global communications network is essential to underpin strategic requirements; that’s why Mainstream has chosen eircom as an IT partner that can deliver world-class infrastructure and support.

Experiencing a rapid growth phase soon after launch, the Sandyford-based company realised it needed a strategic IT partner to help deliver on its global vision. With 150 employees based in operational outposts around Europe, South Africa, Chile, the US and Canada, Mainstream faced the challenge of maintaining consistent, high-quality communications between all of its offices. Mainstream CIO John Shaw invited eircom to review his company’s operational requirements and suggest an appropriate communications solution.

Mainstream set eircom an ambitious threemonth timeframe for the rollout of a global communications solution, with a high-quality connection at each site and consistency of user experience in each location. “We knew we could open offices in major cities but our challenge was to rapidly and reliably supply our services to those locations. We couldn’t make that strategy a reality unless eircom was able to deliver the network connection on time and reliably,” says Shaw.

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eircom recommended an MPLS network at four sites (Toronto, Chicago, Santiago and Dublin) and at Mainstream’s two data centres in Dublin, and ISP connectivity for the remainder. eircom also pre-configured an ‘office-in-a-box’ in Dublin -- a rack containing the complete voice and data package for each office -- and then shipped it out to each site for installation by a local partner, ensuring that each office would have exactly the same technical footprint and end-user experience. eircom also configured Mainstream’s disaster recovery environment, and recommended ICT equipment at the local level for telecoms and videoconferencing solutions.

Shaw says Mainstream’s global vision is supported by a strong partner who can deliver a complex set of solutions. “Strategic partnerships in IT are the way of the future, and eircom understand that. We saw that they had the expertise, and we saw that we needed a strategic partner. When we looked at the market we couldn’t see anyone else who could do it.”

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John Shaw, CIO, Mainstream Renewable Power

In conversation with John Shaw, CIO, Mainstream Renewable Power Renewable energy is a global industry.

Where does Mainstream fit in?

Why did you choose eircom as your IT partner?

Mainstream focuses on developing, building and operating large-scale wind and solar powered plants. Since the company was formed in 2008, we’ve expanded into eight countries.

Outside of Europe, we are in South Africa, Chile, the US and Canada. This industry has a very entrepreneurial culture, where innovation is prized above everything else. While we operate globally, all business is local, so we work very closely with local farmers, local businesses, the local supply chain, to ensure that we get our global vision implemented.

In a nutshell, eircom was a one-stop shop. We get a vast range of services from them. We saw that eircom had the expertise, and we saw that we needed a strategic partner. When we looked at the market we couldn’t see anyone else who could do it; eircom were peerless in their ability to execute.

There was very much a sense that eircom could provide us with a service that we couldn’t match internally, not in terms of quality nor in terms of price.

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As we’ve grown, our demands have grown. We found that eircom were receptive to the reality of where Mainstream would be by 2012, by 2015... eircom could see the strength of the strategic argument. That was refreshing; we hadn’t seen eircom’s competitors behave like that.

At eircom headquarters we also saw a strong focus on teamwork, collaboration and innovation with the way they use technology themselves. We wanted that same ease of communication, that same rapid decisionmaking, as we built our own business.

What are the benefits of your strategic partnership with eircom?

We’ve achieved faster, better, simpler and indeed cheaper deployment of IT services.

Strategic partnerships in IT are the way of the future, and eircom understand that. eircom can provide an integrated set of services that’s very difficult to beat.

As a practical example, everyone in Mainstream has video-conferencing enabled laptops, and all of our offices have high-end Polycom-based video conferencing facilities, so our business travel has been diminished. We also have our key business systems hosted by eircom, our security, our firewall management and disaster recovery.

In fact, our approach to disaster recovery shows the benefit of dealing with a company like eircom. We have all of our key business systems in a single enterprise data centre, hosted by eircom, and we have those services replicated in a different eircom data centre. So in the event of a crisis, we’re dealing with one team, not two teams, one organisation, not two organisations.

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Solution at a glance:

eircom delivers for Mainstream Renewable Power Challenge: Provide a complete global communications solution at multiple sites across the world within a three-month timeframe, with a high-quality connection at each site and consistency of user experience in each location.

eircom response: • MPLS backbone between Mainstream’s four global sites and two data centres supports key

applications and business systems across the globe while delivering guaranteed quality of service.

• Full management of the global network by eircom from its network operations centre in Dublin ensures that any problems are spotted early and optimum performance achieved.

• Pre-configured office-in-a-box solution allows common voice and data set-up to be shipped to each remote office, ensuring network rollout and user experience objectives can be met.

• Advanced computer security tools including web and email content filtering, remote access and intrusion prevention ensure total protection for the network.

• eircom Security Operations Service provides continuous monitoring and maintenance of security devices on the network.

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“Strategic partnerships in IT are the way of the future, and eircom understand that. When we looked at the market we couldn’t see anyone else who could do it.”

John Shaw

Get in touch To find out how eircom’s ICT solutions can benefit your business, please contact your eircom account manager.

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