HP ProCurve Networking - Customer stories

	Würth switches to HP ProCurve Networking to satisfy its Group’s global strategy
	“The migration to HP ProCurve technology at our head office ran very smoothly and over the last year we have had no performance issues whatsoever. ProCurve reliability is excellent and our IT personnel find ProCurve technology easy to maintain. But most importantly, TCO of our LAN has fallen by approximately €10,000 per annum.” Urs Frehner, head of sales and marketing, Würth ITensis AG

The Würth Group, Switzerland comprises ten organisations dedicated to the provision of trade, finance, IT, and transport services. The organisation is a major supplier of fixings and installation materials to industrial and trade establishments and operates 370 companies in 84 countries globally. Its name is synonymous throughout Europe partly thanks to its sponsorship of cultural and sporting events.

Würth ITensis AG is its international IT services division specialising in infrastructure solutions and outsourcing primarily for the worldwide Würth Group, the German parent company. Based at Chur, 80 kilometres south-east of Zürich in the scenic Eastern Alps, Würth ITensis provides IT outsourcing, IT consultancy, security, systems integration, migration, maintenance and operation services.

Objective
Designed to the highest security criteria to safeguard its clients’ information, Würth ITensis provides outsourced IT services from two data centres located at Chur and Küsnacht, near Zürich and a third smaller office in Davos. Würth ITensis operates an additional data centre in New Jersey to serve its US clients.

IT outsourcing and system integration services are an important part of Würth ITensis’s core capabilities and this includes providing customers with server, storage and networking solutions. Traditionally, Würth ITensis had deployed Cisco switching technology for its Local Area Network (LAN) in order to satisfy the IT requirements of the international Würth Group.

“About two years ago we became seriously concerned about the price/ performance ratio of our Cisco switches because of increasing maintenance and service costs,” explains Urs Frehner, head of sales and marketing, Würth ITensis AG. “The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was escalating significantly due to large annual maintenance fees. This not only affected the costs associated with running our LAN, it had profound implications for the Group when we provided it with IT service solutions.”

The solution comprises high performance ProCurve 5400zl, 5300xl and 3500yl series intelligent LAN switches as well as numerous ProCurve 2800 series and ProCurve 2600 series managed edge switches. All of these switches are backed as standard by ProCurve’s Lifetime Warrantyu, which provides next-business-day advance replacement, in the unlikely event of network failure.

Approach
Würth ITensis therefore decided to seek a new partner for its networking solutions and opened negotiations with a number of networking vendors including HP ProCurve Networking.

“We needed to establish a solid partnership with a networking vendor that fully understood our concerns and one which could eventually fulfil our service requirements worldwide,” adds Frehner. “The first stage of our strategy was to replace the network switches at our head office before introducing our preferred choice throughout the worldwide Group. After that we would incorporate the new switches into our IT solutions and offer these to external customers such as government organisations.

After selecting HP ProCurve as its new networking partner, Würth ITensis implemented a ProCurve Adaptive Network solution at its Chur headquarters.

IT Improvements
To ensure Würth ITensis can manage its network efficiently, the ProCurve solution incorporates ProCurve Manager Plus (PCM+). This software package allows the company’s administrators to configure, update, monitor and troubleshoot the switches centrally and remotely with easy-to-use, information-rich screens. In addition, flexible software licensing and free software upgrades provide scalability for the future.

ProCurve’s Adaptive Network approach is ideal for ensuring that companies like Würth can evolve and respond to the changing business and technological needs of their own organisation and of their customers. Based on open-standards technology, ProCurve solutions are more versatile, less complex, more adaptive to users and their applications, and offer customers more choice and a better price/ performance ratio than comparable proprietary products.

“We were very impressed with the professional approach adopted by HP ProCurve and the commitment made by its key personnel,” continues Frehner. “But the overriding factors were the switches’ extremely appealing price/performance ratio, reliability and the ProCurve Lifetime Warranty. Unlike alternative vendors, ProCurve does not charge yearly maintenance fees.”

Business benefits
Würth ITensis has already successfully implemented its ProCurve Adaptive Network solution at its head office and is currently reaping the performance and cost benefits offered by the solution. Several overseas offices of the Würth Group and the Würth ITensis office in Zürich have also started to introduce ProCurve networking solutions.

“The migration to HP ProCurve technology at our head office ran very smoothly and over the last year we have had no performance issues whatsoever. ProCurve reliability is excellent and our IT personnel find ProCurve technology easy to maintain,” comments Frehner. “But most importantly, TCO of our LAN has fallen by approximately €10,000 per annum.”