The Profile: The Cobra Management Group Ltd. (www.cobragroup.com) Founded in 1986, The Cobra Group is one of the largest and most successful direct sales and marketing firms with offices in 20 countries along with hundreds of partner companies. Headquartered in London, the Cobra Group has a portfolio of services including sales and marketing, auditing, merchandising, mystery shopping, processing, data capture, customer service and media design. The Situation: Cobra’s world headquarters was split between 2 buildings in west London and required a different location, scalable for staff expansion and to provide a more integrated work environment. A warehouse style space was acquired, but required complete build out. They required a project manager to oversee every facet of the move and creation of the new site. The Plan: Practical delivery of these solutions and services could only be effective through sound design and project management. Since CRASH was already maintaining the day-to-day working’s of Cobra’s offices, we were in excellent position to determine the requirements of the situation. Through N-Act’s wide range of expertise and resources, CRASH was able to design and integrate its various technology partners into a cohesive and cost-effective plan for Cobra’s office environment including base electrics, telecoms and IT cabling infrastructure, computer room construction and services, pabx and associated peripherals. CRASH and its partners were involved at every step of the way, from initial office selection, design, planning, telecoms infrastructure, liaising with ISPs, overseeing the installation telco lines and purchasing of everything from network equipment to arm chairs. With the complexities of the move already coming, Cobra wished to combine a number of other projects into the same venture, expanding it dramatically. The final project scope included: • The original plan for the office build-out including architectural design, telecoms, cabling and IT • Network based upgrade of 100 workstations from Windows98 to Windows2000 • Network domain planning and implementation • Configuration of Windows2000 Domain Controllers • Upgrade of Windows NT4 Domain Controllers to Windows2000 • Active Directory design and implementation • Group Policy design and implementation • Installation and configuration of Sonic Wall firewall • Disaster recovery planning and implementation • Installation of Faxination, fax to email services • Implementation of HP’s Unified Messaging for voicemail to email services The Result: Through efficient planning and delegation of responsibility, CRASH was able to manage the various resources to complete the project, on time and on budget. Cobra now works in a high availability, secure environment where IT fires are not a daily concern. This provides the stable work environment where employees can focus on the task at hand. Due to the stability of the network, they were able to reduce IT headcount, thus reducing IT expenditures. CRASH provides on-going IT tier-2 support, provides remote maintenance and monitoring as required and provides 8-hour response times for any emergency issues. In addition CRASH continues to work with Cobra on a project by project basis.