September 2005
Since 1964, Network Ten has entertained Australian viewers of all ages as one of Australia’s leading commercial television networks. With stations and offices all around Australia, the management of digital assets and data is an enormous task.
Network Ten’s key business systems are all housed in Sydney, with interstate stations accessing these systems via Network Ten’s wide area network (WAN). As interstate stations rely on these systems for their daily operations, provisioning, redundancy and management of the WAN are critical tasks for the Information Systems Group at Network Ten.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2001, Network Ten decided to move the management of their WAN from their telecommunications supplier to a third party company.
“Efficiency was high on our list of requirements for the WAN, and we were after a company who had the skills and knowledge, combined with an unbiased opinion on the best way for us to achieve this efficiency. Although the previous supplier was doing a good job, we could see the benefits of contracting a third party company to ensure the system was running at its absolute peak,” said Bruce Nicholas, Network Manager Information Systems at Network Ten.
“We have over 950 computers accessing our WAN at any given time, along with handling all the electronic mail, e-bookings and internet access of the company. To ensure this network was maintained to the best of its ability we required a company that understood our systems,” he added.
THE SOLUTION
After researching the best company for Network Ten’s needs, IMC Communications was contracted to take over the management of the network and to help Network Ten make the most from their telecommunications investment.
“We had previously worked with IMC Communications, and we knew they understood our business requirements and we also knew their capabilities,” said Bruce.
“Network Ten required a company that could help them design and maintain an efficient, flexible and fault tolerant WAN, to ensure they could squeeze the best performance out of their telecommunications investment with the highest possible up-time. IMC chose a Cisco WAN solution that would deliver on all these benefits. IMC had the skills and service offerings to make this happen with minimal interruption to Network Ten,” said Matt Dixon, Sales Director, IMC Communications.
He added: “Having the telecommunications company that carries the network also manage devices which influence network performance can be a conflict of interest. Such a scenario often only works in the favour of the telecommunications company. The customers lose the flexibility to fine tune the network and WAN performance can suffer.”
IMC designed and implemented a new WAN for Network Ten, which supported critical business applications such as programming, news room, finance, sales and content management systems.
“IMC provided us with a WAN solution that improved performance and fault tolerance while containing costs,” summed up Bruce Nicholas from Network Ten.
THE RESULT
Since 2001, Network Ten have outsourced the ongoing design and management of their WAN to IMC. In this time the two organisations have developed a complex Quality of Service regime that provides higher levels of service, whilst being efficient with bandwidth.
“IMC has acted as a strategic partner providing expert levels of advice in the management, optimisation and on-going design of our WAN. They have played a key role in assisting us to establish a very robust WAN with high levels of redundancy. It is now much more efficient and effective than it was previously,” said Bruce Nicholas.
BENEFITS
IMC’s WAN design and implementation and management resulted in:
• A tailored WAN that supports Network Ten’s high volume traffic
• Improved network efficiency and fault tolerance
• Carrier independent management providing performance and cost benefits
• Ongoing design and management by a trusted partner with in-depth knowledge of Network Ten’s environment
