Subject Matter

Outsourcing & Offshoring, Information Technology

Faversham data centre

Chaucer Group’s new data centre in Faversham is complete, and is now open for use by the firm’s clients and consultants. “We are now able to offer the same abilities as the big companies such as IBM, KPMG and Accenture, but with the small company swiftness clients expect from Chaucer. It allows us to punch above our weight,” notes Chaucer director Rupert Laslett.

“The primary purpose of constructing and operating our own centralised data centre here in Faversham is to give our company a technological advantage in support of our operations model, which uses a virtual office staff base – otherwise known as remote working,” he points out.

The new centre is very useful for this type of work, Laslett says. “The company’s consultants spend more time at the client’s site than at the home office, and this technology allows us to make core company systems accessible over the internet for them¬ and our clients - including knowledge management (KM), customer relationship management (CRM), Outlook, file sharing, email, collaborative working and teleconferencing.”

The Chaucer Group consists of three brands. Chaucer Consulting is the consultant-led specialising in providing expertise and support for operational change, major programmes and performance improvements for companies. Chaucer Commercial offers professional services for contract advice and dispute management across engineering and construction sectors. Chaucer Digital is involved with heavily technology-led projects, such as writing code, hands-on IT and servers. “All three branches will benefit from the new data centre,” Laslett observes. “We can bring functionality to our global client base and go wherever we’re needed. It cuts dependency on our consultants being in the office even further, and they can access information for clients anywhere in the world.”

Formerly, the company outsourced its ISP hosting to external providers, at more than one site. Over time, the need for systems and equipment outgrew the ability for third parties to provide the type of quality technology Chaucer clients demanded. The facility has been purpose-built, with construction taking about a year, opening just before Christmas 2007. “We did everything – we went to the local council planning authority, and worked with the local electricity board to install a new three phase feed for power supply,” Laslett says. “We’ve even dug up roads in the area!”

Why we build

The data centre is largely a result of a need to centralise IT functions and a way to address Chaucer’s growing workload.  IT manager Ken Deacon explains, “The new data centre will replace what we’re using at the moment, which has been third party-hosted data centres. Over time, we realised that the use of third party data centres was slowing us down.  For example, the problem we used to face with using external ISPs was that if there was an IT issue, IT staff would have to go out and visit the site. Managing upgrades of our system was similarly problematic, with IT staff going to upgrade at the site and being unavailable for clients and consultants in the meantime.

“As a result, we developed a plan to centralise it here, in order to gain more control and more flexibility, and add to our own abilities to host client systems and customers that we couldn’t previously offer. This new capability is also being used as a complementary feature to our consultancy.”

The primary physical features of this new centre are fibre-optic connectivity with full redundancy, generator backup, as well as full physical security - including cameras, key code entry, fire prevention methods, fire suppressor for servers and climate control. There are also improvements in digital security and protection against hackers, for both internal systems and the customers’ systems. As for consultants, they can access Chaucer’s archives, files and management systems, and are able to use an electronic timesheet to record expenses.  The IT staff can also run almost any application remotely.

Now that the centre is operational, it offers Chaucer IT staff support 24/7 for the clients and consultants throughout the world – Russia, the Middle East, North America, Australasia, along with the UK market.

Deacon notes new specific items are available with the data centre, including deep inspection security, where the firewall inspects the content for spam and viruses. “It goes well beyond basic firewalling,” he says.

Another new feature is that Chaucer is registered with RIPE, Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE, French for “European IP Networks") and has its own allocation of ISP addresses as a host environment. “Small companies may be able to use us as an ISP host as part of the total Chaucer consulting package,” Laslett observes.

Finally, the advent of the new data centre has meant that Chaucer can expand still further, with increased bandwidth and capabilities. “Before, expansion meant we had to negotiate with our external providers, and this took time,” Laslett says. “Now the new data centre makes it much faster, and as business never stands still, we can provide the swiftness customers expect from Chaucer.“

Primary features:

  • Fibre optic connectivity with full redundancy
  • Physical and electronic security
  • Backup power and generator
  • Full data backup, both internal and client
  • Increased bandwidth
Company systems supported include:
  • Knowledge management
  • CRM
  • Outlook
  • File sharing
  • Collaborative working
  • Teleconferencing
  • Remote devices for consultants
Client systems supported:
  • Downloading new programmes remotely
  • Hosting for smaller companies
  • All major operating systems, including Linux, Unix, Windows, and Solaris
Remote yachting
Chaucer does not just extol the virtues of remote working for its consultants and its clients. Chaucer Group’s CEO, Bob Laslett, lives and works by virtual office. Most of the time he resides in Monaco, or on his yacht in the Mediterranean. However, he gains access to all of Chaucer’s systems via remote working – whether it is his laptop, a PDA or via mobile telephone. “The new data center is making the ability to work remotely even easier,” Bob Laslett says. “Improved IT technology is the future of consulting, and Chaucer will respond to clients’ needs by keeping up with the rapid changes in this exciting field.”