Leading Global Financial Institute
Interruption-less IT Move for New Corporate Headquarters
Business Challenge
A global financial services institution constructed a new 44-floor Worldwide Corporate Headquarters and needed to accomplish the move of all staff, including critical trading-floor operations into the new building without any interruptions to business, particularly trading operations. At the same time they wanted to carry out a technology refresh for desktops and because business requirements were so dynamic, they wanted to avoid having to have a “freeze” period before the move. No accurate inventory existed of the current environment, which included workstations for 1,300 traders and 4,500 other users. The client engaged Acumen Solutions to manage all IT aspects of the move.
The Solution
Acumen Solutions started the project by conducting a complete inventory of the pre-move environment and applications. We created a detailed step-by-step plan for the entire move, spanning 11 weekends, with phasing coordinated with construction and departmental move schedules. We built and thoroughly tested the various versions of the new workstation platform, including those for standard users, traders, and trading-support staff, remediating all applications to the end-state operating system version. This thorough preparation, which was critical to achieving zero downtime, was carried out over a preparation period of seven months.
Return on Investment
There was not one service or application interruption throughout the entire 11-weekend relocation process. The cost to the client of any interruption to business, particularly to trading operations, would have been enormous. Not only did we achieve this critical goal but we also completed the entire project on time and under budget.
