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8 Jun 2022

From Walkie-Talkie to Street Markets – OryxAlign and Commercial Real Estate

The only constant in Commercial Real Estate is that every IT transformation project is wildly different. Data Centres, Retail and Construction have largely consistent activities, strategies and security imperatives within each category, regardless of scaling.

The design, procurement, build, management and protection of an IT Infrastructure for Real Estate, however, demands expertise in the widest range of technologies and practices; enterprise networking, high-performance wireless, smart technology, resilient connectivity, automated visibility and asset management and of course, unassailable enterprise-wide cyber security to secure what is a substantial attack surface.

The very nature of Commercial Real Estate often means customers must be future-proofed to help promote scaling and flexibility for service expansion and modernisation. They may want a completely new infrastructure installed, their existing systems migrated to the cloud, or anything in between. And the starting point could be a 38-storey landmark building or a 50-year-old street market.

So, we look at each project as a fresh canvas. It’s about who you are, how you work, who you work with, where you are now, and where you would like to be. No preconceptions about technologies, platforms, systems or security. We’re often guided, but never limited, by the experience we have gained working with the widest range of Commercial Real Estate, Data Centre and Retail customers. Customers like 20 Fenchurch Street, Landsec, Devonshire Square, CBRE and Camden Lock Market.

The landlords of the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ at 20 Fenchurch Street, for instance, needed a new IT services partner to bring the critical network infrastructure and associated services up to the standard worthy of this iconic landmark. Our proven track record in the sector helped us submit a successful bid, which resulted in OryxAlign being awarded a partnership for delivering comprehensive IT management, support and services throughout the entirety of the building.

Camden Lock Market, by contrast, wanted to embrace new technologies, such as complete public wireless access PDQs to enable card payments on diverse stalls and improved stall management; requiring an investigation of the market’s obsolete technology infrastructure before a complete refresh and overhaul.

That meant extensive high-performance outdoor wireless access points strategically distributed across the entire market based on the volume of predicted footfall, meshed and fine-tuned to work coherently and across the estate. OryxAlign designed the wireless infrastructure necessary to secure the networks and divided the services between market visitors, the management team, stall operators and the PDQ machine operators. The project was enriched with 24×7 infrastructure support, monitoring and maintenance, as well as monthly performance reporting to senior management on wireless usage statistics and analytics.

Just two examples of how two very different Commercial Real Estate operators’ businesses partnered with OryxAlign, thanks to our unique range of experience, agility and deeply skilled resources.

Take a look at our work or get in touch to see what we could do for your business.

Graham Smith

By Graham Smith