City: Mississauga
Province: Ontario
Provide a brief description of the Solution, Service Provided, or Initiative.
The client (a division of The the client Group, “the client”) is a leading provider of marine dry bulk cargo handling and delivery services, and the world’s largest owner and operator of self-unloading vessels. Headquartered in Montreal, the client is a privately-owned Canadian-based shipping companies with offices in Halifax, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Beverly (USA), Windsor (UK), Bergen (Norway), Singapore and Sydney (Australia). With over 2,000 people world-wide, the client is one of the world’s larger shipping companies that keeps the world economy flowing. the client employees that are shipboard live in some of the harshest of conditions known to humankind. Away from their families 6-9 months of the year, the client staff has always desired a way to remain connected to their loved ones in a heavy work-unbalanced lifestyle. the client has tried to address the matter on several times over the years, but could never find a way to enhance the employee work-life balance without affecting the business operations. the client engaged with Infinite IT to see if there was a cost-effective way to provide enhanced data services to their staff. They had tried to provide internet services over satellite connectivity, but the most staff were able to do over that was sit in the common “mess-hall” area and text-email with their loved ones.
Describe what makes this Solution, Service Provided, or Initiative original or innovative.
The benefits to the client have been absolutely astonishing. By far, the biggest impact is to the people that work at the client. As can be imagined, there are a lot of human resource issues that a company like the client would have, from staff claiming disability, to lodging complaints against the company for working in such a harsh environment and so forth. Ultimately, the client staff were (for the most part) unhappy. This solution has connected the client staff to the real world again, having created a much better work environment, a 20% reduction in employee complaints so far and staff that actually seem happier at work. Financially speaking, Infinite IT has helped reduce lifecycle management costs by over 50%, and enabled each ship to decrease delivery timelines by approximately 4%, and decrease satellite communications by 50% while increasing throughput infinitely (from 64/64 kbps on satellite to a 50/10 mbps LTE connection – the difference has been earth-shattering). The business benefits to the client have been drastic. Most staff are saying they don’t know how they worked there Pre-Wi-Fi. By far, the biggest impact to the client has been the overall Employee Work-Life Balance to encourage better Employee Well Being.
Describe the improvement this Solution, Service Provided, or Initiative made to the customer’s sales or revenues. What changed?
Provide evidence of measurable improvements in sales, revenues, cost reduction, etc.
So far the benefits to the client have been absolutely astonishing. By far, the biggest impact is to the people that work at the client. As can be imagined, there are a lot of human resource issues that a company like the client would have, from staff claiming disability, to lodging complaints against the company for working in such a harsh environment and so forth. Ultimately, the client staff were (for the most part) unhappy. This solution has connected the client staff to the real world again, having created a much better work environment, a 20% reduction in employee complaints so far and staff that actually seem happier at work. Financially speaking, Infinite IT has helped reduce lifecycle management costs by over 50%, and enabled each ship to decrease delivery timelines by approximately 4%, and decrease satellite communications by 50% while increasing throughput infinitely (from 64/64 kbps on satellite to a 50/10 mbps LTE connection – the difference has been earth-shattering). The business benefits to the client have been drastic. Most staff are saying they don’t know how they worked there Pre-Wi-Fi. By far, the biggest impact to the client has been the overall Employee Work-Life Balance to encourage better Employee Well Being.
Describe the improvement this Solution, Service Provided, or Initiative made to the customer’s efficiency. What changed?
Provide evidence of how customer efficiency was increased.
So far the benefits to the client have been absolutely astonishing. By far, the biggest impact is to the people that work at the client. As can be imagined, there are a lot of human resource issues that a company like the client would have, from staff claiming disability, to lodging complaints against the company for working in such a harsh environment and so forth. Ultimately, the client staff were (for the most part) unhappy. This solution has connected the client staff to the real world again, having created a much better work environment, a 20% reduction in employee complaints so far and staff that actually seem happier at work. Financially speaking, Infinite IT has helped reduce lifecycle management costs by over 50%, and enabled each ship to decrease delivery timelines by approximately 4%, and decrease satellite communications by 50% while increasing throughput infinitely (from 64/64 kbps on satellite to a 50/10 mbps LTE connection – the difference has been earth-shattering). The business benefits to the client have been drastic. Most staff are saying they don’t know how they worked there Pre-Wi-Fi. By far, the biggest impact to the client has been the overall Employee Work-Life Balance to encourage better Employee Well Being.
How did this Solution, Service provided, or Initiative improve the customer’s ability to serve its internal and/or external clients?
Provide evidence of the improvement.
Every ship had to have a comprehensive wireless survey to ensure we had 100% coverage in all areas of the ships, which meant many hours per ship was spent on advanced antenna theory to maximize antenna coverage and minimize access point requirements. Of the 20+ ships completed to date, no two ships have been exactly the same, and Infinite IT’s staff have had to react quickly to the need. Imagine being in the middle of Thunder Bay when it is negative 25 degrees Celsius, and the ship is frozen solid in the ice and the only way to get access to the ship is via a frozen port in the middle of nowhere. Or having to get on a ship at a canal-lock when the ship has only stopped moving for less than a couple of minutes going up or down a lock, tossing all the gear and equipment aboard so that you do not impact the ship’s time, only to get done 12 hours later and be brought back to shore on an inflatable dingy while the ship is in the middle of a Lake. This project truly pushed our engineers to the most extreme physical tolerance along with the high-pressure of having to instinctively know what to do next without the ability to quickly “same-day drop ship replacement equipment” when in a pinch. Quality Control and the Highest Skills available were the only things that Infinite IT’s staff could do to ensure that nothing went wrong. The solution also had to accommodate any device the staff wish to use, securely, efficiently, and without any complicated steps. Infinite IT had to ensure that all Wi-Fi devices were able to connect regardless of brand, operating system, Wi-Fi type or distance from an access point. “Everything and anything has to work from anywhere seamlessly and at all times” was the requirement. Extensive testing had to occur with every imaginable device to make sure that the devices all worked extremely easy for the least tech-savvy individuals imaginable. Infinite IT tested Apple devices (iPad, iPod, iTouch and iPhone from iOS 3 to 5), Windows Devices (Dell Latitude 10 Windows 8 Pro tablet and Lenovo ThinkPad W series with Windows 7), Android Devices (Samsung Galaxy S2 and Lenovo ThinkPad tablet) and even Blackberry devices (Torch, Bold, Playbook and the new Z10/Q10 BBOS10 series) to ensure everything worked everywhere. Testing was extensive yet proved to be successful every single time.
In what ways does this Solution or Service Provided go above and beyond industry norms and expectations?
As the first ever start up to win the Solution Provider of the Year, Infinite IT has once again risen to the occasion and challenged the most extreme environmental and technological limits of what we do in the technology industry. Delivering world class solutions in the most unique ways is what Infinite IT strives to bring to the market – not following status quo yet setting the bar in which the rest follow. Once again this year, Infinite IT has sought out the most unique of solutions and succeeded in delivering what will become the new global standard for employees that work on ships most of their lives. The staff at Infinite IT literally worked in the most extreme and harshest conditions, and did so for months on end. Some evenings the staff were unable to return to a hotel room, so they would just sleep on the ships. For IT technicians, enduring this project was truly a test of skill and personality. Infinite IT continues to challenge its own capabilities, and looks forward to being at the Channel Elite Award ceremony in September 2013, hopefully as the Solution Provider of the year once again. Thank you for all you have done over the years for us CDN. We are true followers, and respect what you do for our industry and for the channel.
How does this solution further your customer’s green or environmentally friendly plans?
the client would routinely dock ships on a regular basis to allow for staff to have some personal time. Typically, the ships would dock once a month to let the staff off for 12-24 hours to connect with the outside world. Since project completion, this has been reduced to once per quarter. This means that ships do not have to sit idling in a port for 12-24 hours at a time, going out of their way to dock, which means less fuel is being wasted. This will have a huge impact on the environment over the long-run as it means less greenhouse gases are being burned and ships can do more with less. There are several other ways in which the solution is improving the client’s green efforts such as increasing their IT uptime, which means less wasted time ashore and greater time shipping product. (One of the largest inefficiencies is when a ship is taken off-line due to issues – it could take 12-36 hours to transfer cargo from one ship to another, at which point both ships are burning fuel. The results of the repair and extra efforts to accommodate the breakdown can also cost the client a lot of time and money as well. With the new Proactive approach, the client will be able to mitigate 2/3 of all downtime while enjoying a much more efficient and positive online experience.
