CASE STUDY UNDER LOCK AND KEY
assisting them to develop their strategy to
have the maximum e ect on what matters
most, the o icers on the street.
“Consequently, over the past couple of
years we have delivered many varied services
from decommissioning to cleaning, to health
and safety audits and remediation. We have
sat with them in commercial negotiations
so that they do not fall into the same traps
as previously, we have looked at their total
building strategy and worked with the
properties department regularly. This means
we are adding value across a large spectrum
of their business.”
The major city police force outsources to
a number of key suppliers for its IT services,
and as its datacentre managed service
supplier, Scott and his team regularly sit
down with all the suppliers in a ‘one team’
initiative to work collaboratively.
Says Scott: “Pre-COVID , we’d sit in amongst
the customer and key IT people within the
organisation and what we found was we
could add a lot of value in helping to fill gaps
between the di erent contracts they had
with these suppliers. Where they weren’t
covered for a particular service within the
existing contract, we could help and more
importantly, with our varied reach and agile
nature, we could quickly resolve problems
and provide resource and knowhow to
reduce others pain.
“We are a small but very significant team
who work using a lean methodology so can
start adding value by quickly plugging gaps
to help move their projects forward. We have
built credibility with our can-do attitude and
will-do culture and demonstrated our value
to the wider departments.”
All the key external IT suppliers are subject
to an incentive programme, and every
quarter, are scored by the customer and
26 MARCH 2021
the other suppliers on their performance.
Keysource has regularly and consistently
scored highly which is no mean feat.
According to Scott, he is delighted to receive
regular, informal feedback, on his teams and
company culture, and was proud to say that,
for every member of his team, “it’s as if we
work for the customer, as part of their team”.
SAFE AND SECURE
Since lockdown, Keysource’s people have
remained available, working across the sites
to monitor and manage the IT services within
datacentres and other IT environments. Most
are working in bubbles, or on their own to
help ensure social distancing, and there is a
range of COVID provisions in place, including
the use of PPE and regular temperature
checks.
Says Scott: “My people are aware that their
safety is paramount and if they don’t feel
safe we won’t send them, but as their work
is mission critical we’ve sourced a couple
more vans so they don’t need to use public
transport. We are also trialling ‘man-down’
digital products because they are lone
working. These work like smart watches, so
if someone falls over, we’ll know, and we can
track where they are.”
As a globally experienced data centre
consultant, Scott predicts that the impact of
the pandemic on data management could
be far reaching. For instance, pre-COVID ,
when customers wanted to make changes to
remote sites, they would traditionally send a
team out to carry out a survey, then another
to install the power etc.
He says: “For some time we’ve been trying
to gather and utilise the data to ensure that
people don’t need to keep going back and
forth, but instead use the existing data to
The major city police force
outsources to a number of key
suppliers for its IT services, and as its
datacentre managed service supplier,
Scott and his team regularly sit down
with all the suppliers in a ‘one team’
initiative to work collaboratively.”
prep at their
desk and then go
and do the job once.
COVID -19 has forced people
to learn to trust in the data.
“We know what’s going on in those data
rooms, and we can convince our clients of
that now. It also means we’re able to start
looking at the wider aspect of gathering data.
For instance, in police stations you can start
to use digital control measures to insure
against overcrowding and make sure social
distancing is in place by using technology
such as remote sensors on doors, locks over
IP and the latest camera technology.
“This way we can monitor how many
people are in what areas to stay safe and
e icient; especially for the general public
who may just turn up at a police station.”
He concludes: “Data is already the most
important component for us to do our work
in ensuring that the o icers on the street are
technically enabled and safe. We use it to
reduce service risk, remove health and safety
issues and save much needed money for our
customer, so now when the data we provide
is aligned to all those things it’s a winning
combination.”