Modernising networks and mobility for Burbank Group
Composed of the award-winning Burbank Homes, Burbank Group’s subsidiary companies cover the full spectrum of building industry services, aimed at revolutionising home and property services. Supported by over 700 employees located in 77 offices and display sites around Australia, the Burbank Group needed a robust yet scalable IT infrastructure and support model to help enable their next chapter of growth. Working with JB Hi-Fi Business, the Burbank Group IT Team redesigned their network infrastructure and upgraded the Group’s approach to mobility to enable the business with a solid foundation for growth for years to come. The result is improved connectivity and employee experience across both office and remote work sites, while IT have greater visibility and control, and are delivering cost savings to the business.
Making the complex simple
The Cisco Meraki unified cloud platform removes the need for managing and maintaining complex, expensive on premises controllers. It can be used to manage complex corporate networks including wireless, switching, security, Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) and CCTV cameras. With 6 office sites and more than 70 display homes, simplifying and improving connectivity has been a gamechanger for Burbank Group. Security, connectivity, analytics and management have all improved, as well as everyday function and efficiency.
“The solution means we can plug in and go. Our salespeople are now automatically connected to Wi-Fi when they enter a house. There is adequate bandwidth to provide services and information for customers and offer reliable guest Wi-Fi. If there is an NBN outage we can rely on 4G redundancy. And we no longer need to send people to remote homes to fix connection faults; everything is visible and can be managed centrally. Our salespeople are very happy.”
Amir Rohani, ICT Infrastructure Manager, Burbank Group
Redesigning the network
The architectural team at JB Hi-Fi Business worked closely with Burbank to redesign the network. The new SD-WAN architecture provides application-layer visibility and dynamic orchestration to more than 64 branch sites and two data centres. JB Hi-Fi Business also upgraded Burbank’s Cisco Call Manager environment which included a move to version 12.5, an uplift in firmware on voice gateways and IP Handsets and management of the associated IP address changes for all collaboration applications.
The new network uses Cisco Meraki solutions, including:
- Meraki MX-250s as an High Availability (HA) pair for redundancy in the dual data centre. This enables SD-WAN controller functions using auto VPN feature in the Meraki network overlay.
- Meraki MX68CW in the display homes provides connectivity and wireless for corporate users and guests.
Burbank moves to a hybrid, redundant network design with a range of different features and advantages, such as:
- Significant reduction in cost by replacing expensive private links with internet over NBN, made possible through the SD-WAN architecture.
- Layer 7 visibility and control with group policy
anywhere in the network.
- Built-in wireless at all branch office locations provides corporate users and guests with secure and controlled access to the network.
- Automatic failover at all branch locations
using 4G backup.
- Zero Touch deployment from the cloud enabled the deployment of the solution seamlessly, even during tough COVID-19 restrictions.
“Our account manager kept us informed. Bringing the team in helped build trust. We could see that they knew what they were talking about and they were focused on what our business needed, not on what they wanted to sell.”
Amir Rohani, ICT Infrastructure Manager, Burbank Group
Managing mobility
The JB Hi-Fi Business team also provided an industry-leading managed mobility solution for Burbank’s mobile fleet.
Following discovery sessions to understand Burbank’s business and identify issues and needs, JB Hi-Fi Business designed a solution that includes:
- Provisioning
- Transition and deployment
- Device lifecycle management
- Project management, and
- Mobile solution architect consulting.
JB Hi-Fi Business leveraged its partnership with Telstra to give Burbank the best of both worlds: all the benefits of the Telstra mobile network, plans and options, with personal care and support that makes the solution a success for the Burbank team. Armed with new and improved reporting and analytics, Burbank can now create cost centre reports and manage users in real-time. The Mobile Management portal aggregates data from multiple sources to give a full lifecycle view of every device and provides an easy-to-use interface to request services, log faults and manage repairs. JB Hi-Fi Business high-touch managed device service goes the extra step by arranging pick-up of faulty devices and express repair and return. Additionally, the strong relationship with Telstra means that JB Hi-Fi Business can advocate for Burbank and help them manage their Telstra services.
“They kept their eyes on our desired outcomes and helped us achieve our commercial criteria.”
Amir Rohani, ICT Infrastructure Manager, Burbank Group
A brighter, more connected, future for Burbank
The team at Burbank now has better access to data, such as how many people visit a display home and how long they stay. This informs business decisions around opening, extending and closing homes. With increased network bandwidth, Burbank can offer a richer experience to employees and customers, such as guest Wi-Fi at display homes. The graphics-based system allows great visibility at the device level, which enables remote troubleshooting. And costs and management have been simplified by moving to a single contact and monthly payment arrangement. JB Hi-Fi Business has addressed Burbank’s communications needs with a tailored and simplified solution that is delivering an excellent experience for their business, staff and customers.