CONTACT SALES
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
CONTACT SALES
TECHNICAL SUPPORT

BARCLAYS GLOBAL COMMAND CENTRE

A productive, collaborative working environment for keeping Barclays’ global systems running 24x7.

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INTRODUCTION

Banking is a 24-hour business. Millions of customers now live their financial lives online and, with billions of transactions flowing, keeping connections open is critical — visibility and control really matter 24/7.

Barclays, a global leader in banking and financial services, wanted to ensure service stability to its customers and partners through control of its systems and services. However, support teams were previously dispersed — communication was challenging and teams experienced difficulties tracking faults and managing fault resolution.

Barclays decided to bring disparate service teams together in a single, purpose-built location at its Technology Hub in the North of England to enhance collaboration and speed up resolution of incidents. The Global Command Centre features audiovisual systems designed, built and supported by Electrosonic.

OVERVIEW

Barclays wanted to create an improved working environment for teams working long hours under stressful conditions. Service Recovery teams and Control Managers provide 24-hour event management, monitoring and alerting across various systems and services.

Group-wide collaboration, proactiveness and world-class service recovery management would be essential for consistent rapid response to customer issues. The team also wanted to utilize real-time service data to improve planning, forecasting and incident response as a basis for continuously improving service availability.

The Command Centre is designed for ease of use and 24/7 operation and has been described as ‘a large NASA-like room’. Service teams monitor operations on large video walls and 50 individual screens.

Cutting-edge audiovisual and collaboration technology have proved essential for making and sharing critical decisions based on real-time data.

Teams can communicate easily regardless of location, collaboration is improved, incident resolution is faster and the team can provide customers around the world with an enhanced experience. The installation has proved flexible enough to adapt to changing customer needs and has the scalability to simplify expansion or other operational changes.

CHALLENGE

The aim was to make better collaborative decisions to improve response times and the quality of customer experience. Scalability and flexibility were also essential so that the space had the agility to adapt to changing customer needs.

The audiovisual systems had to be easy to use so teams can make critical decisions quickly and easily. Barclays wanted to incorporate three large video walls so teams could collaborate easily, with the ability to view, share and control all essential operational information in a single place. However, the team also wanted complete flexibility so that any data source could be sent to any screen across the array. And, the solution had to be easy to maintain for 24x7 availability.

SOLUTION

The Command Centre was designed as a holistic, integrated solution with human factors a priority. Video walls were designed for operational flexibility and the highest levels of functionality. Audiovisual systems were designed for ease of use and reliable 24x7 operation. The UK team can collaborate with global colleagues to create a single virtualised team operating standard processes. Support is integral to the solution so teams can concentrate on serving customers with minimal risk of downtime.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Bringing all technology partners into one Command Centre space not only solved the logistical problems Barclays faced but improved the resolution time for major incidents enormously.

The Centre also has the flexibility to expand or adapt as Barclays rolls out new services to customers. The enhanced environment enables team members to improve customer experience – a key factor in the highly competitive financial services market.

Project Details

Client
Barclays
Location
Radbroke Hall, Cheshire, England
Size
64 Acre Campus
Services
Audiovisual Design
Engineering Design
Facility Integration
Control Systems
Commissioning
Testing & Programming
Managed Services
Project Management
Selecting Electrosonic as part of the design team brought enormous benefit to all disciplines. Their experience in delivering projects of this nature meant that they not only achieved a high level of technological audio visual ‘finish’ but also a measure of finesse to the project overall. The Electrosonic team identified design improvements architecturally, in lighting, acoustic performance, power and environmental considerations. Particularly impressive is their expertise in workspace ergonomics.
Chris Catlow
Head of Solutions Delivery, Collaboration Services, Barclays

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