Financial institution completes IT upgrade across three North American sites

The Company’s Challenge

Our client, a multinational financial institution, required shipping and installation of upgraded IT equipment for hundreds of workstations across three remote offices – in Chicago, Boston, and Toronto – where they had limited internal support. This needed to happen in a short window of time, outside of business hours.

Starting early is key

Fortunately, the facilities manager contacted Crown Workspace as soon as he was aware of the project. In late 2022, consultation with Crown helped the client to understand the required services. After detailed reviews, the client learned that – beyond equipment installation – his firm also required shipping from New York to each site, plus secure removal and certified disposal of old equipment.

Crown also ensured their proposal covered union or non-union labor, as required by each locality.

Success without prior experience

The client contacts also had no prior experience with an IT upgrade. In the planning process, Crown Workspace provided both education and options. To ensure alignment, Crown hosted video calls before each move to orient the facilities manager and his local contacts. This was done well in advance so the work could be started as soon as the equipment became available.

Since work had to be completed after hours to avoid business interruption, experienced supervisors from Crown’s vetted global supply chain scoped each location in advance. Based on these site visits, the work was planned in phases so IT equipment would be available for each employee on every business day.

Close collaboration enabled cost savings.

In spring 2023, when services were activated at short notice, the work at three sites happened quickly.

 The upgrade took place over multiple days, all outside of business hours. After initial work in the evenings from 5:30 until midnight, the final days of the installation took place on the weekend when the client requested additional resources be added to ensure ‘on time’ completion. Crown’s onsite team project lead was confident this was not needed, and thanks to trust built up during planning, counselled the client to proceed as planned. In doing so, Crown helped the client avoid added cost and, at every site, finished on time or early.

Key Takeaways

1. Don’t wait; begin project scoping and planning with Crown as soon as you know.
2. No need for prior experience; Crown will work with you to define timeline and options.
3. Collaborative planning builds trust to ensure smooth execution and avoid cost.

Download our whitepaper: Tomorrow’s Workspaces Today – Building a Flexible Future Together to understand what you need to consider, the impact your decision can have and expert driven predictions for the future.