case study
Government of Western Australia Cuts
Operational Costs, Improves Staff Productivity
Government of Western Australia
industry:
Executive Summary
Public sector
Dimension Data worked with the
Government of Western Australia to
deploy a new common metropolitan
area network – the Government
Building Campus Network (GBCN)
– supporting multi-tenant networks
and common IP telephony systems,
all of which are shared by over 3,000
staff working at ten agencies in two
locations. The new infrastructure
helped the WA Government cut
costs, reduce ICT security risks,
and increase staff productivity.
country:
Australia
business challenge:
Deploy a standard network across
multiple agencies to improve
productivity and cut costs.
solution:
A high-speed network and IP
telephony system for over 3,000
staff working at two government
buildings in Perth.
services:
Network design and implementation
and regular security audits.
results:
• Achieved voice and data speeds
of up to 10Gb/s between
multiple offices, which increased
productivity by removing lag times
for calls and document delivery
• Deployed a robust wireless
network that allows staff to move
between offices with secure
mobile devices
• Enabled staff at all agencies to
call each other for free, which will
result in a significant reduction in
future call costs
• Provided staff with the flexibility to
move freely between offices and
retain their extension and phone
settings, which made it easier to
manage staff relocations
• Saved time by enabling staff to
make calls and listen to voicemails
from their desktop PC or laptop
Client Overview
The Government of Western Australia
serves more than 2.3 million citizens. Its
agencies are responsible for implementing
government policy in areas such as
transport; regional development and lands;
finance and treasury; culture and arts;
workforce and training; health; and small
business development.
Business Challenge
In 2009, the WA Government initiated a
works reform program aimed at reducing
the rising costs of managing tenancies, and
advocated the need to deploy standard,
secure ICT infrastructure for its agencies
at buildings identified in the government’s
master accommodation plan.
Under the first phase of the program, the
WA Government moved 10 agencies from
15 buildings to two purpose-built offices
in the Perth CBD and Osborne Park, just
outside of Perth. These new buildings
house over 3,000 staff.
The following agencies moved to the
new Gordon Stephenson House building
in William Street, Perth: Small Business
Development Corporation, Department
of Treasury, Department of Planning,
Department of Transport, Department of
Local Government, Department of Finance,
Department of Regional Development and
Lands, Department for Communities, and
Department of Culture and the Arts.
The Department of Finance and the
Department of Training and Workforce
Development moved to the Herdsman
Business Park building in Osborne Park.
As part of this program, the WA
Government needed to deploy new
telephony and network services that
could be shared among the agencies to
reduce operating costs and provide a
standard platform for future sites, while
still preserving logical separation of each
agency’s networks to maintain security.
The WA Government has consolidated
separate voice and data networks into a
single data network for all tenants inside
the GBCN. This has significantly reduced
operational costs because telephony is
simply another application running across a
local area network (LAN).
Solution Delivered
In late 2010, the WA Government
commenced its ICT Government Building
Campus Network program to provide
agencies with a standard network and
telephony service.
The WA Government engaged Dimension
Data to deploy a Gigabit Ethernet
network based on Cisco core network
switches, which offer speeds of up to
10Gb/s between both offices. The WA
Government rolled out an IP telephony
network based on a virtualised Cisco
case study | Government of Western Australia
“Dimension Data will complete regular audits of our environment
to ensure we are protecting our data with the best physical and
logical security policies across the entire network.”
Jack Hondros, ICT Program Director, Government Office Accommodation, Department of Finance – Building Management and Works
Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)
platform, over 3,000 Cisco Unified IP
phones, and Cisco Unified Contact Centre
Express (UCCX). The infrastructure is used
by nine call centres with 121 seats at the
two new buildings located in Herdsman
Business Park and William Street.
The WA Government also deployed
a security architecture based on best
practices using network access control;
port security; virtual firewalls; wireless and
network intrusion prevention systems; and
Web security gateways.
The WA Government used Cisco’s Unified
Computing System (UCS) – which unites
compute, network, storage access and
virtualisation – and VMware software
to virtualise its Cisco telephony and
supporting Microsoft server applications,
significantly reducing the number of
physical servers required to run these
applications. Dimension Data’s design
incorporated a common Microsoft Active
Directory forest and domain to provide
secure user searching and authentication.
The WA Government also implemented
Dimension Data’s proprietary IPAD
Connector – software that simplifies
deployment and management of the
IP telephony system by automatically
provisioning users and related information
across a common Microsoft Active
Directory for all agencies.
Finally, the WA Government deployed a
wireless network based on the latest Cisco
Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) wireless local
area network devices. The infrastructure is
housed in a data centre outside the Perth
CBD and mirrored at a disaster recovery
centre at another location. Over 850
staff were moved to the new building in
Herdsman Business Park and approximately
2,150 staff moved to the new Gordon
Stephenson House building in the CBD.
How We Delivered
Dimension Data and the WA Government
designed a multi-tenant, highly secure
12/11 © Copyright Dimension Data 2011
wired and wireless network and IP
telephony infrastructure.
The WA Government worked with
Dimension Data engineers to deploy
equipment at the two data centres.
Engineers developed a standard directory
service for staff in each agency and
conducted user acceptance testing.
“Dimension Data’s staff helped set up
endpoints for between 100 and 300 staff
over several weekends so telephones
and workstations would be ready for
these staff when they arrived for work on
Monday morning,” said Jack Hondros,
ICT Program Director, Government Office
Accommodation, Department of Finance –
Building Management and Works.
“This would not have been possible if we
didn’t have access to Dimension Data’s
networking and IP telephony specialists,
who worked as part of our team.”
Dimension Data is continuing to develop
the Government Building Campus
Network and will help deploy the shared
infrastructure at various new buildings
in Perth’s CBD. Staff working at other
agencies will soon be able to take
advantage of the new ICT services when
they move into the new buildings, which
are currently being fitted out.
Dimension Data will roll out the
infrastructure at Dumas House in West
Perth, which will hold over 800 staff from
the Department of Premier and Cabinet,
and the Public Sector Commission.
“Dimension Data will complete regular
audits of our environment to ensure we are
protecting our data with the best physical
and logical security policies across the
entire network,” said Hondros.
Value Derived
The WA Government will reduce
operational costs in the future by providing
agencies with common network and
telephony infrastructure. Each department
will take advantage of a new high-speed
network and telephony support service
and common network security systems,
which enable staff to be more productive
and provide better service to Western
Australians.
The Cisco-based network, which is
connected using unlit fibre optic cable,
provides agencies with voice and data
speeds of between 1Gb/s and 10Gb/s
between the CBD and other offices.
“Our wide area network is a lot faster than
our previous LANs and a few agencies
have noticed a significant improvement in
performance,” said Hondros.
Each agency also has the option of using a
secure wireless network to roam between
offices and communicate with colleagues
using their mobile devices. They can take
advantage of Cisco PoE wireless devices
and intrusion detection software that scans
the network for threats.
“Staff can download a security certificate
to their mobile devices, which provides
them with the highest level of security
when they are working wirelessly,” said
Hondros.
The IP telephony system enables staff at
all agencies to call each other for free,
which will result in a significant reduction
in call costs for the WA Government in
the future. Telephone number roaming
also allows staff to move freely between
offices and retain their extension and
phone settings, which has made it easier to
manage staff relocations.
The Department of Planning is one of
the first agencies to use Cisco’s presence
software, which enables staff to determine
if the person they are trying to contact is
available on their desktop or mobile, or
can’t be reached.
This ensures they don’t spend too much
time trying to contact another staff
member who may be out of the office or
unavailable. The software is integrated with
Microsoft Exchange Server, which enables
staff to make calls and listen to voicemails
from their PC or laptop.
For further information visit: www.dimensiondata.com/solutions