Technology Solutions
COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL PROJECT SERVICES
Colliers International’s Technology Solutions team is a specialist group of technology consultants and project managers, focused on premises and workplace projects.
Since 1979, we have provided high quality project management, design and technology consulting services to major Australian and international corporations.
We specialise in projects involving strategy, design, construction, commissioning and occupation of mission critical facilities and technology-intensive workplaces, including financial trading rooms, data centres and large corporate offices.
Our Technology Solutions team has successfully delivered hundreds of projects in Australia, providing a variety of different services including Risk Analysis, Strategic Consultancy and Solution Design, Technical Project Management, Construction Management Supervision, Project
Management of premises upgrades (electrical and mechanical), Cost Consulting, Scheduling, Start up, Transition, Relocation and Commissioning.
The key benefits that we deliver include:
Specialists – we specialise in projects involving the selection, procurement and
development of mission critical environments for IT, finance & banking, media and other technology intensive spaces. We form a bridge between our clients’ facilities and technology teams.
Integrated Services – our technology project management service includes data centre layout and design, IT project management, migration planning and IT consultancy.
Experience – our team comprises highly experienced professionals, with a long pedigree
of delivering data centre and computer room construction projects from the ground up.
Proven Methodology – over many years specialising in project management of
mission-critical infrastructure development, we have created and refined standard processes, document templates, checklists, responsibility matrices, work methods and report packs.
Quality – our project management style is practical and pragmatic, and is built around our
phased approach that we refer to as “Define > Design > Deliver”. We are quality endorsed to AS/NZS – ISO 9001:2008
Global Experience – many of our clients are global, with projects spanning multiple
locations simultaneously. We have a strong track record of connecting effective local project management with global and regional client directives.
Contractual Expertise – we are experienced in delivering projects using a variety of
contractual structures, reporting and approval processes, including Design & Build, Construction Management, Lump Sum and Guaranteed Maximum Price.
Mission Critical Environments
Our Technology Solutions team has extensive experience of specialist workspace and technology intensive environments within the banking, finance, media, IT and telecommunications industries.
Data Centres and Computer Rooms
Data centres are specialised environments that ensure optimal performance, reduced risk and smooth operation of the information processing capabilities upon which our clients depend. We help you determine the optimal hosting strategy for your data centre operations, considering risk, performance, flexibility and cost. This may include outsourcing to third party co-location providers, and/or developing in-house facilities. Our property specialists consider a variety of financial and ownership structures for the land, building and facility.
We design and manage the construction and commissioning of both “green-field” data centres and computer rooms within offices. Our technology relocations team then plans and manages migrations of data centre infrastructure and applications to new facilities, ensuring business continuity and minimum inconvenience to users.
Dealing Rooms
Dealing room projects originally inspired our unique integration of project management, design and technology expertise and they remain a core competency today, with over 200 trading environments completed for leading financial markets institutions. We deliver dealing rooms, associated settlements, communications rooms and support areas that:
Improve communication between traders
Deliver ergonomic benefits and environmental control
Are flexible and have capacity to meet changing business needs
Ensure 24/7 reliability of critical dealer telephony, networks, market data, trading systems,
settlement and clearing, power and air conditioning Broadcast Facilities
Studio, post production and broadcast facilities must cater for the high pressure deadline-driven world of news and entertainment providers, while simultaneously balancing the creative needs of the people who work in them.
We bring our experience and understanding of mission critical, time sensitive, technically complex environments to build broadcast facilities that meet the workflow, ergonomic, performance and reliability needs of their users. Our clients range from major news and market data providers to production houses and television broadcasters.
Disaster Recovery Planning
Organisations that rely heavily upon mission critical infrastructure need to consider the impact on their operations and infrastructure of potential catastrophic events, and to develop contingency plans. We help our clients by:
Designing resilience and recoverability into infrastructure, systems and processes
Designing and implementing recovery sites and infrastructure
Data Centre Migration
Corporate data centres are undergoing substantial growth and radical technological change. Key drivers include an increasing awareness of the importance of sustainability, exponential storage growth and total dependency on high availability of systems, coupled with delivery paradigm shifts in cloud computing and server virtualisation. These changes are impacting every data centre manager and corporate CIO.
At Colliers Technology Solutions, we offer a comprehensive range of consulting and project management services to assist our clients to respond to these demands in an efficient,
knowledgeable and low risk manner. We provide strategic consulting advice, site selection and sourcing, design and implementation of purpose built facilities, technology fitout, infrastructure setup and data centre migration services.
Our clients include some of the world’s largest financial institutions, national critical infrastructure operators and major corporations. Our experience, coupled with a detailed practical knowledge of local capabilities and a “can-do” approach make us the ideal partner to assist you with your data centre transformation project.
In May 2011 we were appointed to the Australian Government’s whole of government panel for the provision of data centre migration services. Agencies will use the panel when they need assistance to move from existing data centres into new facilities.
Strategic Consulting
We often find that a useful starting point in developing a data centre strategy is to undertake a risk and capacity assessment of our clients’ existing facilities – we benchmark against agreed corporate and international standards, and develop a costed gap analysis. Our expertise covers both the physical and technical attributes, uniquely empowering us to report on the overall risk profile, which then forms the basis for development of a staged upgrade plan, or managed outsource strategy.
We can introduce leading data centre operators and undertake a formal market assessment, developing a specific RFP from our library of templates and database of available space. We then evaluate responses prior to formalising our recommendation.
With hands-on knowledge of the major data centre operators and their service offerings, we can advise clients on sourcing and contractual agreements to meet their requirements.
Technology Fit-out
We are experts in co-location data centre fit-out design and construction. Components within our scope typically include data cabling vendor selection and design, cages and pods, rack and aisle containment design and selection, security and CCTV, environmental monitoring and data centre information management tools.
When the fit-out is complete, we are able to deploy the technology infrastructure in preparation for the data centre migration. This phase typically involves design, procurement and implementation management of key elements including inter-data centre fibre links and other carrier services, networking, storage and server infrastructure.
Migration Consultancy & Project Management
We have developed a comprehensive and well proven methodology for data centre migration. Each project is undertaken in discrete stages, with a formal project management approach to ensure that the key objectives are met. Typical stages include:
Audit and discovery – software discovery tools, physical equipment audits, structured
workshops with business and IT application owners
Strategy and scoping – we work with our clients to develop pragmatic migration
strategies that balance risk, cost and downtime with the opportunity to refresh or transform ageing or inadequate infrastructures. We recommend a high level system based migration approach –ranging from a controlled “lift and shift with seed” strategy through to a complete systems transformation onto a new infrastructure. The strategy document provides
timelines and cost estimates, and confirms the agreed approach.
Detailed design – for each move event, including seed implementation and
commissioning, provides a detailed technical plan covering downtime approvals, change control, fall-back and contingency planning and detailed resource estimates.
Implementation – per each move event, we can provide project management and
technical resources to supplement the client and vendor IT teams. We provide end-to-end management and a single point of contact and escalation to the client stakeholders. Our approach is supported by our broad practical experience and a flexible engagement model. We recognise that our clients are experts in their own systems – we supplement their skills with migration expertise, and lead the project team to a successful conclusion.
Our wide range of industry expertise, acquired through performing major projects in Finance, Government, Utilities and Corporations, enables our team to work closely, knowledgably and collaboratively with our clients.
Workplace Technology
The success of the modern workplace increasingly depends on the quality of underlying workplace technology. Many corporations are focused on providing a modern, flexible and collaborative workplace to attract and retain talented staff necessary for their business growth.
Colliers Technology Solutions delivers Workplace Technology consultancy services on products, work methods and technologies that underpin the modern workplace and provides our clients’ technology teams with suitable expertise and experience when designing and delivering major new corporate workplace projects.
Our knowledge of industry best practice ensures that we meet our clients’ cost, time and design objectives. Our Workplace Technology service combines consulting, project management, product knowledge and experience to ensure that corporate workplace projects are delivered efficiently. We deliver state of the art Workplace Technology solutions for the corporate office that underpin a range of workspace strategies including Activity Based Working (ABW).
IT Infrastructure Design, Selection & Implementation We provide specialist consulting advice on:
• Technology infrastructure – resilience and efficiency of the physical built environment –
computer rooms, wiring closets, risers
• Telecommunications networks – WAN, MAN, LAN and wireless technologies
• Voice and messaging solutions including IP Telephony, Unified Messaging, office
communication; conferencing and collaboration tools
• Virtual infrastructure for servers, VDI for desktops, and enabling BYO devices
• Network security strategies – managing corporate data security in the modern world of
mobility, tablets, smart phones and BYO devices
• Collaboration tools for advanced audio-visual solutions; meeting room collaboration and
presentation systems
• Resource management tools for the mobile workplace – booking and billing systems,
way-finding and office management tools
• Sustainable technology to support office “green star” objectives
• Project management of the design, procurement and implementation of new solutions –
costed options, strategies and efficient sourcing processes
• IT relocation project management from strategy through to implementation
Our team of infrastructure specialists range from engineering level technicians to former CIOs and strategists. We manage a wide variety of complex, interdisciplinary technology projects:
• Data centre and business relocations
• Technology integration as a result of mergers or acquisitions
• Outsource transitions
Audio Visual Design and Consultancy
The integration of audio visual communications with interior design, voice/data networking expertise and desktop technologies ensures optimal results for our clients.
We design and deliver solutions that:
• Enhance client presentations
• Reduce travel costs
• Utilise existing voice and network bandwidth to reduce carrier costs
• Significantly increase the performance of multi-site teams
• Reinforce corporate image and branding
• Deliver ergonomic environments for control centres and call centres
Our solutions are user-friendly and seamlessly integrate presentation, conferencing, display and control systems. We provide a comprehensive range of design, procurement and implementation services to help our clients leverage their networking infrastructure.
We begin with an in-depth analysis of your business requirements, corporate and systems strategies, as well as your support and operations profile, to ensure your project delivers the most effective, client focused results.
When selecting technologies, we consider vendor relationships as much as product and price, ensuring that clients understand the particular capabilities of their suppliers and vice versa. Corporate Office Relocations
We take the risk out of relocations for our clients by managing complex transitions of IT equipment within integrated workplace improvement projects. Our Technology Solutions team has successfully managed numerous relocations and has a wealth of experience in:
• Change management
• Audit and documentation of IT systems and facilities
• Dependency analysis and phasing of system moves
• Data centre, building infrastructure and services requirements
• Carrier services relocations and line forwarding
• Vendor coordination
• Reconnection and configuration
• Structured cabling and patching, equipment backup, shut down and disconnection
• Acceptance testing and cut-over support
Technology Projects
While many of our projects involve property, we also manage a wide variety of complex inter-disciplinary technology projects on our clients’ behalf.
Our open team approach and attention to schedule, budget, scope and risk management ensures that your project is completed effectively with a minimum of risk.
Technology projects that we have managed include:
• Data centre and business IT relocations
• Outsource transitions
• Operating system upgrades and SOE deployments
Methodology
Our Technology Solutions are delivered in three phases:
DEFINE > DESIGN > DELIVER
DEFINE
Project strategy, scope and objectives Project management plan
Program
Resource plan and responsibilities matrix Project budget
Communications plan Procurement approach Quality process Risk analysis
Risk management plan Project governance
Key control documents
DESIGN
Concept design Detailed design
RFP and tender development
DELIVER Risk management Contract administration Variation management Commissioning Operational transition Defects rectification Make good
Budget & project close
Project Budget
We prepare and maintain a detailed estimate and forecast to complete for all project costs, for reporting to the project steering committee. Once the budget has been agreed, we lock in a baseline against which weekly reporting and analysis are performed.
Schedule
Project tracking can be a full time process in a large-scale project. We appoint a full-time contract administrator who is responsible for creating weekly progress reports and updating the forward program. We produce and track detailed and summary level project schedules. We create an initial baseline program, and report variances, on a weekly basis, at individual task level against the corresponding baseline completion dates.
Procurement & Contracting
We develop detailed tender documents aimed at ensuring like-for-like comparability between competing vendors. The Project Management Plan sets out the procurement process for major items, specifying for example the minimum and maximum number of tenderers and the post-tender evaluation process.
Tendering
We create additional value from the procurement process by maintaining arm’s length control over the selection and appointment of consultants, systems integrators and equipment vendors. The most appropriate procurement method is chosen for each of the services and products required. We follow processes that are auditable, fair and transparent, and maximise value. Governance
We work with our clients and business partners to determine governance issues such as authority levels, decision making processes at different levels of the project, financial management and audit requirements. We adopt an “open book” cost control methodology.
We comply with the AS4360 risk management approach, which consists of:
Threat / opportunity identification
Risk assessment (probability of occurrence, impact on cost, schedule, scope, quality)
Risk evaluation (ranking and identification of appropriate controls)
Implementation of risk controls
Value Engineering
We help our clients to optimise costs during the design, development and construction phases by adopting a Value Engineering approach to decision making. We are experienced in all methods of delivery and are well placed to provide a balanced view on the suitability and flexibility of different contract types. We usually recommend a contractual position where the client has the right to inspect and question aspects of the design (including the right to appoint third party experts as necessary). Our attention to detail during tendering minimises subsequent variations.
CONTACT DETAILS
TEL +61 2 9249 2001 FAX +61 )2 9262 6054
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
Colliers International Project Services Pty Ltd ABN 94 003 734 692
Level 6, 333 George Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
