Hanjin: a new Dutch site, arranged from Korea
The situation. Hanjin was opening a location in the Netherlands. The
decisions were being made in Korea, by people who had never seen the building and did not know
the Dutch market, the suppliers or the rules. They needed one company that could arrange all of
it and keep them informed.
Starting from an empty building
There was no internet connection, no cabling and no cabinet. Everything that a working
office needs below the desk level had to be designed, ordered and installed, and it had to be
finished before the staff arrived.
The first thing we did was not technical. We applied for the internet connection, because
that is the item with the longest lead time and everything else can be scheduled around it.
Getting that wrong is the single most common reason a move date slips: the cabling can be
pulled in a week, a fibre connection cannot.
What we installed
- Structured cabling to every workstation, terminated on a patch panel and
tested link by link. - Fibre where the distances or the routes needed it.
- The cabinet, built and labelled so that every outlet number on the floor
matches a number on the patch panel. - The network itself: gateway, firewall and switching, with separate
networks for staff, guests and the equipment that is not a person. - WiFi, with the access points positioned for the floor rather than for the
ceiling grid. - Power to the workstations and to the cabinet, and the alarm, cameras and
door access on the same infrastructure.
Arranging is half of it. Reporting is the other half.
When your client is eight time zones away and cannot walk in, what they buy is not only the
installation. It is knowing where it stands. So they got progress updates with photographs
rather than a status colour in a spreadsheet, and a clear answer whenever a decision was needed
from their side.
That is also where the local knowledge pays for itself. We knew which questions the landlord
would have, what could and could not be done to the building, and where the Dutch specification
would differ from what had been drawn up abroad — and we raised those things early, not
when the material was already on site.
Ready a week before the move
Everything was working a week before the staff arrived, which is deliberate. A network that
is finished on the morning of the move is a network nobody has tested with real users on it.
The extra week is when you find the outlet that was mislabelled and the access point that is
one room too far.
Could this be your project?
If you are setting something up in the Netherlands from another country, the first step
costs you nothing: we come and look, and tell you what we would do and what it depends on.
Call 036 52 98 447 or send us a message in English.
