The Background
Electrical Testing Limited is an independent Norfolk-based company specialising in the electrical and structural inspection and testing of street furniture. Founded in 1990 and with more than 100 staff working on site around the country, the team of chartered engineers and specialists work with many key local authorities and major contractors across the UK offering complete electrical and structural inspection and testing services.
With on-site engineers taking in excess of 500 photos per week, substantial data requirements and heavy bandwidth usage meant the business needed to explore new avenues to improve, update and simplify its connectivity process to achieve increased productivity and efficiency.
The Challenge
As the business’ existing ADSL broadband provider, the team at Electrical Testing Ltd approached their Daisy account manager concerned that staff were relying on a slow and rapidly declining data connection that was impacting on overall operations and hindering their growing requirements.
Francis Lille, Chief Technology Officer at Electrical Testing Ltd, explained why their current connection was no longer fit for purpose, stating: “We actually got a phone call from Dropbox advising that we were among some of the heaviest data users they’d ever seen due to the volume of photos that we store. Because of the amount of data we deal with, our internet connection was not coping at all.”
The company also struggled due to being situated in a rural location where its connectivity options were limited. In order to meet its requirements, it was vital it invested in a faster and more reliable solution that would enable staff to work more efficiently.
The Solution
Taking into consideration the business’ requirements for improved internet reliability whilst bearing in mind the challenges that its rural location presented, it was clear that Electrical Testing Ltd would benefit from upgrading its existing microwave broadband to an Ethernet first mile (EFM) circuit. The solution would enable staff to benefit from up to 100 Mbps upload and download speeds as well as an unlimited download limit without any contention.
Francis explained: “When we started the process of searching for a new provider, we realised we had never experienced any problems with our ADSL connection with Daisy. We knew from experience that they were reasonably priced so for us, it was the natural choice when it came to simplifying our processes.”
Because of the business’ location, the install of the circuit involved a more complicated setup than normal, so Daisy made sure the charges were absorbed into the monthly rental costs for the term of the contract, helping avoid large upfront charges for the business.
The Result
Since upgrading to the high-performance EFM circuit, the business has observed much better internet reliability and increased speeds, consequently boosting staff productivity.
The business has also noticed much less downtime on site, and a data transfer that would have taken up to eight hours prior to the EFM upgrade now takes just five minutes meaning the business is much more productive.
With engineers taking more than 500 photos per week, the quick and seamless uploading of such a high volume of images not only benefits staff, but has a much more positive outcome for clients also.
Francis explained: “In emergencies where a client calls us for something that is needed urgently on site, uploads sometimes used to take a whole day, but thanks to this revised solution, it takes five minutes – you cannot put a price on something like that.
“It has significantly increased staff productivity. I get fewer complaints that things aren’t working in the office and it has made things a lot smoother throughout the entire company.”