Expertise, commitment and talent to understand the customer’s business were the deciding factors when Kemira chose a partner for constructing its global network.
Kemira is a global business focused on the development and sales of chemical products. Its competitive edge is based on the products and tailored services that support the customers’ process and resource efficiency and quality.
Kemira employs some 5,000 people in 40 countries, making the company dependant on a reliable IT infrastructure. The company’s annual turnover is over 2.7 billion euros. Having a reliable and safe network is crucial for business. Each time the network is down somewhere in the world for even a minute, it will take a toll on both business and the company’s reputation.
Kemira and Elisa Santa Monica have cooperated since 2011. Back then, Kemira was looking for an agile, customer-based and network-focused partner so that they could flexibly use the competence of the company’s own IT team as well.
Over the years, Elisa has shown that it has the necessary skills to construct, develop, and implement a network that answers Kemira’s needs.
Human factor
Before the cooperation began, Kemira made sure that Elisa is able to fulfil all of its requirements. Kemira wanted to ensure that the new service provider could take care of the global company’s network management and security without any problems. Kemira also wanted to be certain that Elisa Santa Monica’s services are of a high quality all round, even in documentation.
“The negotiations took a while, but we felt acknowledged with professional seriousness. The strong commitment of Elisa Santa Monica’s management team was one of the convincing factors, as well as their active participation in the final negotiations,” says Rob Wesselius, the director of global IT services and infrastructure at Kemira.
On Kemira’s side, the matter was solved by the critical human factor. All network-related operations, such as planning, implementation, daily use and optimisation, are under the cooperation of Kemira’s own development team and Elisa’s experts.
“From the start, Elisa Santa Monica has shown that they understand our network, needs, and operation,” says Hannu Strang, IT infrastructure development manager at Kemira.
Silence is good news
Companies often take the 100% usability of their networks for granted, failing to acknowledge how downtime might influence their productivity.
“A functional network is like electricity. You don’t notice it before its down,” emphasises Rob Wesselius.
“Thanks to the continuous development work, Kemira’s network keeps improving, and Elisa Santa Monica has adhered to the service level agreement constantly. Renewing the agreement with Elisa Santa Monica was an easy decision,” states Rob Wesselius.
Stable foundation for business growth
According to Wesselius, Elisa Santa Monica is a relatively small yet committed company that is able to answer to Kemira’s needs.
“Larger operators often come with red tape and higher usage fees. Avoiding these is only one of the perks of cooperation with Elisa Santa Monica. It’s good to see that Elisa Santa Monica continues its work. The company can now offer larger-scale services as part of Elisa Corporation,” says Rob Wesselius.
Rob Wesselius describes Elisa Santa Monica as a cost-effective and flexible operator. The cooperation of nearly ten years has provided ways to harmonise standards and procedures in all areas. With the increasing standardisation and automation, you can focus on developing new business benefits through IT.
“Having a reliable and safe network is crucial for business,” says Rob Wesselius.
The network is monitored always and everywhere
Operation is maintained from the Network Operations Center, NOC.
It provides the customer with a centralised connection point, remote support, continuous monitoring, and remote trouble shooting. With the monitoring system, the customer also receives a real-time view of the whole network.
Thanks to the smart colour-coded alarms, the customer’s IT personnel can track the source of the alarm immediately. This way, any problems can be communicated effectively, and Elisa Santa Monica can resolve them quickly.
An easy access to the problem’s location data saves time: once the customer’s personnel know that the problem is being investigated, and they have an estimated time for when it is resolved, they can manage their use of time productively even during possible downtime.
Article in Finnish: Turvaa ja vakautta globaalille verkolle
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