Countrywide plc is the UK’s largest provider of property related finance and professional services. The company has offices throughout the country, as well as agents and surveyors working on the move seven days a week. So, it’s safe to say that Countrywide has a big operation in place.
Countrywide did not want to rest on its laurels; it saw huge growth in the lettings market and expected this to continue. The company needed to ensure that it had a rock solid platform to facilitate this growth. In addition it wanted to consolidate the separate businesses across the group, onto a single, faster, more resilient network. Including remote working technology was also essential, as agents and surveyors needed fast access to the network outside the office walls.
By working with Virgin Media Business to put this network in place, Countrywide has not only improved its customer service, helping it to carve out a competitive advantage, but has also saved a significant amount of money in the long run.
Getting connected
We worked with Countrywide to find out exactly what it needed and then set about developing a single resilient network that was able to connect over 5000 employees across 350 sites. An IP Virtual Private Network (IPVPN) service was installed, complimented by Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS).
Bringing benefits
Countrywide’s bandwidth has tripled since the installation, giving it the flexibility to create new applications such as the centralised financial lettings application, which gives customers a faster and more personalised service. Staff also benefit as the application makes reporting and property tracking a lot easier.
The new remote working capability has allowed surveyors to do 'same day surveys' using tablet PCs. Survey reports are now sent straight to the office, ready to be reviewed, which saves time on admin and speeds up the house buying process.
The new network has already saved Countrywide approximately £1 million and a further £3 million savings will be made as Countrywide looks to add to the network with other applications and services.
How did we do?
Well we will leave it to Ian Streeter, Head of Infrastructure at Countrywide plc to sum up the results:
“Having witnessed the benefits the new network brought to one business area, we’ve started rolling it out across the wider group. We’re also looking at the benefits of running voice over the network and how the remaining business areas could benefit from adopting the IPVPN”.
