Etex bouwt toekomstbestendig wereldwijd netwerk met GTT

Etex, een wereld­wijde speci­a­list in bouw­ma­te­ri­alen met ongeveer 14.000 mede­wer­kers in kantoren en produc­tie­lo­ca­ties over de hele wereld, vroeg zijn telecom-partner GTT voor hulp bij het aansturen van een initi­a­tief voor digitale trans­for­matie om een meer klant­ge­richte orga­ni­satie te creëren. Het resultaat is een zeer stabiele, beheerde SD-WAN-oplossing die meer uptime, hogere band­breedte, toepas­sings­pri­o­ri­te­ring en lagere totale kosten biedt van eigendom. Hieronder de (Engelse) case study. 

The Etex IT team prides itself on offering an inno­va­tive and customer-centric service expe­rience, which is under­pinned by constant data streams across its network that feed its global customer rela­ti­onship mana­ge­ment, auto­ma­tion and quality assurance tools.

For more than a decade, Etex has worked with GTT as its trusted partner to conti­nuously evolve its global network and meet its needs for robust service uptime, IT security and cloud adoption. GTT has supported Etex in achieving bandwidth increases while reducing the average cost of Mbps across its estate. This includes its most hard-to- reach produc­tion faci­li­ties and locations worldwide, such as in Indi­ge­nous Protected Areas in Australia, as well as remote, rural locations in France, Germany and the Asia-Pacific region.

Richard Pym, Head of Tech­no­logy at Etex, said, “Together with GTT, we have built a strategy to transform and future-proof our global network, which accom­mo­dates our IT security and global telephony needs, as well as deli­ve­ring all the benefits of an agile and resilient managed SD-WAN solution.”

The challenge

Etex is driving a digital trans­for­ma­tion initi­a­tive to become a more customer-centric orga­ni­za­tion. Its goal is to harmonize and improve processes, acti­vi­ties, and colla­bo­ra­tion across its business. Key digital miles­tones have included the intro­duc­tion of Sales­force, the launch of a digital customer platform ensuring product transpa­rency and omni-channel product avai­la­bi­lity, as well as new auto­ma­tion tools and business appli­ca­tions residing primarily in the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Deli­ve­ring digital trans­for­ma­tion at this level has increased the pressure on Etex’s network across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. As it moved to more appli­ca­tion-aware networ­king and greater cloud adoption, bandwidth for many of the company’s locations needed to be increased in a secure and agile way, without incre­a­sing costs. Etex also chose to deploy Microsoft Teams to harmonize and faci­li­tate colla­bo­ra­tion across its business and sought a simple design for its global commu­ni­ca­tion needs.

The solution

• SD-WAN
• Cloud Connect
• SIP Trunking
• Profes­si­onal Services

GTT has worked with Etex to evolve its legacy appli­ca­tion-aware WAN to a next level of resi­lience, reli­a­bi­lity and security for its data and voice, enabling improved colla­bo­ra­tion globally. Etex now uses a standar­dized networ­king platform to operate its centra­lized and cloud-first IT strategy with speed and agility. This standar­di­za­tion not only simpli­fies its setup but enables it to act as a global secure platform that brings appli­ca­tions to users in an optimal way and stream­lines business expansion so it can happen quickly and easily.

GTT provides Etex with Managed SD-WAN across more than 91 sites around the world. The solution is inte­grated with GTT’s global Tier 1 internet backbone for an enhanced user expe­rience. Together with GTT Cloud Connect – providing private and direct cloud connec­ti­vity – and combined with WAN opti­mi­za­tion, the solution acce­le­rates the perfor­mance of Etex’s business-critical appli­ca­tions, such as those residing in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Many of the company’s locations also benefit from increased bandwidth avai­la­bi­lity by combining primary and backup connec­tions into a single, always-on and high- avai­la­bi­lity setup. The fully redundant connec­tion types share the ongoing traffic load, while ensuring a fail-over line remains available in the event of a fault.

GTT also delivers SIP Trunking services to Etex, enabling inbound and outbound global calling that comple­ment the manufacturer’s cloud-based Microsoft Teams deploy­ment. GTT connects its global, fully redundant and robust network of session border control­lers embedded in its own Tier 1 IP backbone, enabling it to offer a single platform with dedicated SIP trunks to Microsoft Teams. This ensures Etex’s users benefit from optimized voice traffic perfor­mance and an improved calling expe­rience. The service, supported by GTT’s voice experts, includes hundreds of telephone numbers in all the countries where Etex maintains operations.

A desig­nated GTT Profes­si­onal Services team colla­bo­rates with Etex on its ongoing digital trans­for­ma­tion, offering tailored design, project, technical and assurance support. A project manager, service manager and technical managers act as advocates and work hand-in-hand with the Etex team to ensure an optimal services operation, overseen by a robust strategic gover­nance model and steering committee.

Cyber­se­cu­rity has never been more business-critical. Etex and its GTT team are aligning their cyber­se­cu­rity approach with the manufacturer’s current and futu­ren­eeds. They are jointly exploring a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework for the next evolution of its networ­king and threat protec­tion in order to conti­nuously mitigate potential risks in the changing security landscape.

The benefits

• Increased available bandwidth by 50%
• Decreased cost per MB by 30%
• Decreased number of network incidents by 60%

Improved effi­ci­ency

Erik Arconada, Product Manager, External Connec­ti­vity at Etex, said, “GTT has given us a stable network based on SD-WAN, with even higher uptimes than before, higher bandwidth and appli­ca­tion prio­ri­ti­za­tion. Our imple­men­ta­tion process has benefited from GTT’s extensive expe­rience in deploying a variety of managed SD-WAN tech­no­lo­gies all around the world. Our solution from GTT has helped us signi­fi­cantly increase bandwidth avai­la­bi­lity in hard-to-reach locations but at the same time decreased the total cost of running our network.”

Lower TCO

By imple­men­ting GTT-managed SD-WAN, Cloud Connect and SIP Trunking services in place of its legacy services, Etex has reduced the total cost of ownership (TCO) for its overall IT spend by 15%.

Improved visi­bi­lity

The SD-WAN network mana­ge­ment tools provided by GTT through its Ether­Vi­sion customer portal have improved Etex’ visi­bi­lity across its entire enter­prise network. Ether­Vi­sion provides data and reporting to help Etex and GTT under­stand and evolve the network and make continual impro­ve­ments. Ether­Vi­sion also provides access to SD-WAN and SIP Trunking-related service compo­nents such as inventory, call details, order status and invoicing in one easily acces­sible dashboard.

Greater end user satisfaction

“Thanks to the long-term colla­bo­ra­tion with
GTT and their reliable global SD-WAN, secure Cloud Connect and enter­prise-wide SIP Trunking solutions, Etex has been able to implement its IT strategy to benefit end users and optimize overall TCO,” said Dirk Altgassen, group CIO at Etex.

Achieving digital transformation

Etex has accom­plished its goal of becoming a more customer-centric orga­ni­za­tion by improving its processes and acti­vi­ties, while encou­ra­ging colla­bo­ra­tion across the business. The company has posi­ti­oned itself to leverage its new digital customer platform as well as new auto­ma­tion tools and appli­ca­tions residing in the cloud. As Dirk Altgassen, group CIO at Etex noted, “With GTT’s expe­rienced profes­si­o­nals, our IT gover­nance remains in constant alignment with our ambitions for the future.”