How experience, flexibility, and ingenuity allowed R3 to seamlessly move 3Step Sports to a new office location without them missing a beat.
On budget and on-time. Over 300 end users were seamlessly moved from our old location to our new HQ and in the process we were able to upgrade our network and hardware. A complete success.
Summary
When the nation’s largest youth sport event and club operator required a fast turnaround on an office relocation for over 300 corporate employees, they turned to R3 for a fast and efficient office relocation solution.
In the process, they used the office relocation as a catalyst for updating their network as
well as the antiquated hardware and software solutions that had been in use for too long.
The Situation
- Transitioning 300 corporate employees into a modern office space without disrupting
the daily operations of the business. - Equipment issues – Many of the networking devices were outdated with unmanaged
devices and capabilities. - The existing number of ports were far less that what was required with the expansion of office space. Additional switches were required to support the overall port demand increase.
The Client
3STEP Sports is the largest youth sport event and club operator in the nation,
providing brands with the ability to impact more athletes than ever in a unique and
authentic way. The 3STEP reach spans 40+ states and currently serves more than
2.5 million athletes. They deliver a premier, inspiring and authentic experience –
dedicated to perfecting every aspect of the athlete funnel. Encompassing industry leading tournaments, nationally spanning club programs, premier media content
and more, 3STEP is the standard of the youth sports experience.
The Challenge
3Step Sports is a large national brand who was quickly outgrowing their small HQ, located about 25 minutes south of Boston. When they received word that their building owner was experiencing turnover on other floors and was seeking to rent the entire building to one organization, 3Step Sports used this as a catalyst to modernize its HQ, which was home to over 300 corporate employees. A typical HQ move can be straightforward enough for the R3 team but in this instance several variables arose throughout the process that required ingenuity, flexibility and improvisation. We worked exclusively with Cisco to ensure we could not only meet the tight timeline but have the equipment staged, configured and ready to deploy prior to the move in date. Cisco was able to help ensure delivery of the equipment prior to the move in date and give us enough room to setup, configure and test the equipment.
The next challenge came when the 3Step Sports team discovered that the number
of ports needed was greater than expected in the original project plan. During the install it was discovered that the drawings and planning phase missed a significant amount of port locations throughout the new office space.
We had to pull in Cisco to send additional equipment with zero lead time to ensure we had proper port capacity prior to the move in which was 1 week from uncovering the error. We were able to get the necessary equipment delivered and installed prior to the move in date.
R3 was fast and flexible to in finding temporary equipment for our team to use to get us through this unforeseen challenge. They went above and beyond the scope of a traditional office move to help us stay running.
R3SOLUTION
R3 was not only able to assist with the move but in the process our team helped to modernize the 3Step network infrastructure by upgrading security systems and access points. The HQ move was designed to be in two stages so as to not interrupt the daily operations of the 3Step Sports team. Half of the corporate team was moved in each stage. This was done across two separate floors with every deadline met with zero incidents. 3Step Sports was utilizing aged equipment that was at or approaching the end of its lifespan. Upon completion of a enterprise-wise technology audit it was determined that a complete replacement of every piece of gear in the 3 Step Sports headquarters was necessary. R3 worked with our partner vendors to find a right size solution with current technology and products to support their network and infrastructure needs. We worked with third party vendors to ensure the new design met capacity requirements. This process increased throughput on the network to a 10GB core network and 1GB throughout the entirety of the network. This change exponentially increased network capacity and throughput to the tune of a 1000x overall improvement.The flexibility of the R3 team was integral to the success of this move. As unforeseen challenges popped up throughout the project our business faced no interruptions to daily operations thanks to the ingenuity and experience of the R3 team
